@inproceedings{zhang-li-etal-2026-simpbl,
    title = "{S}im{PBL}: A Multi-Agent Framework for Project-Based Learning",
    author = "Zhang-Li, Daniel  and
      Lim, Joy Jia Yin  and
      Liu, Binglin  and
      Tu, Shangqing  and
      Yao, Zijun  and
      Peng, Hao  and
      Yu, Jifan  and
      Li, Haoxuan  and
      Hao, Zhanxin  and
      He, Ye  and
      Li, Zekun  and
      Wang, Jiangyi  and
      Hou, Lei  and
      Xu, Bin  and
      Cong, Xin  and
      Liu, Zhiyuan  and
      Liu, Huiqin  and
      Zhang, Yu  and
      Li, Juanzi",
    editor = "Liakata, Maria  and
      Moreira, Viviane P.  and
      Zhang, Jiajun  and
      Jurgens, David",
    booktitle = "Proceedings of the 64th Annual Meeting of the {A}ssociation for {C}omputational {L}inguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers)",
    month = jul,
    year = "2026",
    address = "San Diego, California, United States",
    publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",
    url = "https://preview.aclanthology.org/ingest-acl/2026.acl-long.1512/",
    pages = "32755--32772",
    ISBN = "979-8-89176-390-6",
    abstract = "Project-Based Learning (PBL) is an important learning method that promotes understanding and acquiring practical skills through training learners through a project. However, effective PBL often requires sustained orchestration and collaboration, but existing LLM-based learning tools provide partial assistance without explicitly modeling these roles, and overly comprehensive help provided by LLM can reduce learner autonomy. We propose SimPBL, a multi-agent framework with an orchestrator agent that provides adaptive scaffolding from interaction logs and collaborator agents that support project work through boundary-aware collaboration. We conduct comprehensive evaluation to study the effectiveness of SimPBL, where we observe a 14{\%} improvement in learner examination score. Results from extensive studies further highlights the ability of SimPBL to manage learning behavior and improve learning experience. Code and materials are available at https://anonymous.4open.science/r/SimPBL-D5B8."
}