Capstone Projects

[Page 210]Capstone courses provide college seniors a culminating experience within their area or areas of study and often create opportunities for students to engage in critical thinking and post-college career preparation. They can be an effective tool for students to utilize an array of skills accumulated throughout their postsecondary education and to determine their post-graduation aspirations and endeavors. Capstone courses often incorporate professional development and self-reflection opportunities while connecting various aspects of students’ in- and out-of-classroom experiences to skills sought by potential employers. In this way, capstone courses serve as a bridge from college to post-graduation life and the professional workplace.

Despite a wide array of approaches and designs, these courses, as a high-impact practice, produce a variety of benefits for students who complete them. In addition to helping students prepare for their post-graduation careers, completing a capstone course can provide them with, among others, opportunities to write, engage in creative expression, resolve complex problems, utilize theories, create and organize ideas, and work effectively as part of a team. Capstone classes, generally, incorporate the requirement of a capstone project (i.e., a final project) and/or portfolio; both assignments are often culminating in nature and designed for students’ application of the depth and breadth of knowledge they have accumulated throughout their degree program/s.

Capstone projects allow students to apply information and skills they have accumulated and perfected during their time as undergraduate students and may also produce something beneficial beyond a required class assignment. The type of and topic associated with a capstone project will vary widely across majors, institutions, and instructors. Projects may be individual or group oriented, can be single discipline or multidisciplinary, and could be rooted in original research or review the work of others.

Options for projects include but are not limited to (a) laboratory or fieldwork research, literary analysis, or data gathering; (b) story or poetry collections, documentary films, memoirs, or public exhibitions; (c) creative expression (e.g., acting, directing, dance, playwriting); (d) student teaching, strategic analysis, theory-based research, or internships; (e) websites, branding, and social media campaigns; and (f) film, audio/visual production, client-based research, and application-based outcomes. Projects can be written, creative, or a combination of both (i.e. hybrid project). While often individually based, capstone projects can also be designed as group projects, which may also require collaboration with external partnering or sponsoring organizations, students tend to appreciate flexibility with and control over a project’s topic, scope, and outcome (i.e., what is submitted and completed for assessment). There are a wide range of projects students can complete as a capstone project, such as writing literature reviews, conducting qualitative and/or quantitative research, creating websites, producing press packets, outlining distribution plans for creative works, composing business plans, generating client-based applied research, planning events, producing electronic media, and engaging in service learning.

Consistently among the most desired attributes for recent graduates, as sought by potential employers, is the ability to communicate. Positions of all types and across all industries require individuals to write effectively, engage verbally, present orally, work collectively, and/or interact appropriately. Projects should always have some degree of a written component, even if it is only a self-reflective essay where students critically analyze their project and the process through which they navigated to complete it.

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