Goals for refreshing capstone courses
Northern Arizona University’s capstone requirement is designed to ensure students apply the knowledge and skills they have developed throughout their undergraduate education, specifically from their degree program and Liberal Studies requirements. In these integrative and culminating experiences students should inquire, synthesize, apply, or work in ways that prepare them for a productive future.
The Liberal Studies Committee (LSC) is requiring all capstones be “refreshed” because many capstone courses have “drifted” from the requirement’s original purpose—to intentionally integrate undergraduate students’ disciplinary and Liberal Studies experiences through a culminating experience in the major. These efforts will also assist degree programs and the Liberal Studies Program meet the assessment and continual improvement requirements set forth by NAU’s regional accreditor.
Capstone experiences achieve the following goals at NAU: Accordion Closed
- Capstones require students to bring together the learning in the major and demonstrate that they have met the degree program’s student learning outcomes.
- Capstones afford the opportunity for students to experience how learning in the major integrates with learning in the Liberal Studies Program, including overlap of learning outcomes in the major with learning outcomes of the Liberal Studies Essential Skills and Distribution Blocks.
- Capstones, as a culminating experience, provide a “destination point” for other coursework in the degree program.
- Capstones provide information to degree program faculty about strengths and gaps in their curriculum. Faculty members can then discuss student performance in the aggregate and use assessment findings to improve their program.