Common types of culminating experiences
There is no single good “design” for capstone courses or experiences. Each of these capstone approaches has strengths and drawbacks. The best design for your program’s capstone is the one that aligns with the purpose of the degree and incorporates as many culminating degree program learning outcomes as possible.
If a program has emphases or different purposes it achieves for its students, offering a capstone for each emphasis or offering students a choice among capstones may be a valuable option. If students have entered your degree program expecting to be prepared for a future career path, the capstone needs to provide an experience that is aligned with that career path.
Be sure to incorporate considerations of resources, faculty teaching and research loads and total students in the major, into the refresh of the capstone experience.
Project-based experiences Accordion Closed
Use in assessment Accordion Closed
Considerations when using group work for assessment Accordion Closed
Variations of the “project” experience
Applying the experience across changing content areas (such as topics courses Accordion Closed
Projects in inter-disciplinary programs Accordion Closed
Independent Studies and Theses Accordion Closed
Simulations Accordion Closed
Academic Unit-wide Engagement in the Capstone Accordion Closed
Teaching Other Students Accordion Closed
Grant Research Proposal Accordion Closed
Portfolio experiences
Students pull together their learning from multiple courses and/or experiences. For example, students gather their best work samples from four courses (can also include internship, practicum, service learning, etc.), choosing samples that directly address the program’s learning outcomes.
Use in assessment Accordion Closed
Using the Portfolio within the Capstone Course Accordion Closed
Example: Development of a portfolio in the capstone Accordion Closed
Example: Combining Reflection into Portfolio Development Accordion Closed
Experiential approaches Accordion Closed
Use in assessment Accordion Closed
Example: Assessment Possibilities in an Internship Capstone Accordion Closed
Example: Internship completion prior to the Capstone Accordion Closed
Multi-course Capstone Experiences Accordion Closed
Examples Accordion Closed
- In the natural sciences, some programs engage students in both a lab or field capstone and a research capstone, developing them as co-requisites and creating important connections across the experiences in the lab or field and the research course. In the research capstone, students propose a topic, conduct a literature review, collect and analyze data, summarize results, develop conclusions and recommendations, and present findings to decision-makers in the form of a thesis or multimedia presentation. The lab or field course focuses can either be the course where students test their hypotheses, or gather data relevant to their research paper, or the lab or field course can provide culminating experiences in that area of the degree program.
- Students complete two capstone experiences: a professional development capstone and a synthesizing co-requisite capstone. In the professional development capstone, students participate in a student teaching internship that is assessed by the supervising teacher. In the co-requisite capstone, students engage in guided discussions of issues faced in their student teaching experience, and discuss and troubleshoot challenges with each other. The graded portion of the co-requisite is the finalized portfolio of teaching materials submitted by the student at the end of their semester.
Reflective Experiences Accordion Closed
Consider incorporating a reflective element. Assignments that assist student to look within themselves to explore the purpose of their undergraduate education and examine their academic and non-academic work in the context of their own values and lives provides the space for students to make connections between their disciplinary and inter-disciplinary experiences, their curricular and co-curricular activities, and their future goals. Ask students questions such as, “What is the purpose of our work here?” “How is it important to you, or to the world around you?”
Although reflective assignments are not required in the capstone, they have been shown to provide a strong framework for making course-to-course and experience-to-experience connections across the students’ undergraduate experience.