The Provost’s Teaching and Learning Symposium is an annual celebration of teaching and learning at UMBC. Begun in 2014 as part of the Hrabowski Innovation Fund initiative, the Symposium brings together UMBC faculty and staff to present and discuss pedagogical innovations on campus and to plan future directions in teaching and learning.
The Symposium typically features a poster session and a keynote presentation by an invited, nationally-known speaker. Other sessions have included Breakfast with the Deans, themed interactive exploration/demonstration spaces, panel presentations, and Speed Geeking sessions.
Resources from past Symposia are available on our archived Symposium Resources 2014-2025 page.
SAVE THE DATE: Tenth Annual Symposium – Friday, October 2, 2026
Please mark your calendars for the 10th annual Symposium on Friday, October 2, 2026, from approximately 9:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. in the University Center. We are excited to partner with the UMBC Re-Envisioning General Education Faculty Core Committee to center this year’s Symposium around Re-envisioning General Education.
We are excited to have Dr. Paul Gaston presenting the keynote. Dr. Gaston is a Distinguished Fellow in the Office of Curricular, Pedagogical, and Digital Innovation at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). His scholarly work around re-envisioning general education includes the books General Education Transformed: How We Can, Why We Must (AAC&U, 2015), General Education and Liberal Learning: Principles of Effective Practice (AAC&U, 2010), and Revising General Education And Avoiding the Potholes (AAC&U, 2009).
This event is a wonderful time to celebrate UMBC’s commitment to student success and to share your work around teaching, learning, and assessment. Please save the date and plan to join us! More information including activities, a call for poster/demo proposals, and a registration link will be provided at a later date.
Ninth Annual Symposium – Friday, September 19, 2025
The ninth annual Symposium centered around the theme Cultivating Critical Hope: Nurturing Transformative Teaching and Learning. It featured Breakfast with the Deans, a poster and teaching tool demonstration session, two rooms featuring demonstrations of reflective, healing, and transformative practices, lunch, and a keynote, Critical Hope as a Catalyst for Transformative Pedagogies, by Dr. Kari Grain.
Eighth Annual Symposium – Friday, September 27, 2024
The eighth annual Symposium featured Breakfast with the Deans, a poster and teaching tool demonstration session, themed interactive exploration spaces, lunch, and a keynote, Effective, Engaging Teaching in a Wired World: Using the Science of Memory to Promote Deep Learning, by Dr. Michelle Miller.
In the video below, Peggy Re (Interim Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Professor in the Department of Visual Arts) details the curriculum mapping session at the Eighth Annual Symposium, where colleagues explored UMBC’s curriculum, discovered common ground across disciplines, and identified “hidden” learning outcomes. Faculty and staff experts guided visitors through this live mapping experience.
Seventh Annual Symposium – Friday, April 21, 2023
On April 21, 2023, after a hiatus due to constraints from the COVID-19 pandemic, the campus came together to celebrate the return from remote instruction and honor Provost Rous in our seventh annual Symposium. It featured lunch, a keynote, Beyond Inclusion – Teaching for Civic Engagement and Social Participation, by Dr. Bryan Dewsbury, and a poster session where UMBC faculty and staff shared their teaching projects.
We have heard many, many positive comments from attendees about Dr. Dewsbury’s powerful keynote and the wonderful posters. You won’t want to miss them!
