Can someone explain the Capstone to me?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by LoraJ, Nov 2, 2009.

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  1. LoraJ

    LoraJ New Member

    What exactly is usually involved with this project? I am a ways off from it, and I know I will be required to take one, but I am honestly not sure what it is. Does it just include your core classes?
     
  2. 03310151

    03310151 Active Member

    Its probably different for certain schools and I'm sure it depends a lot on your major as well. Perhaps you can let everyone know which Major and School you are talking about?
     
  3. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    Like 03310151 said: it varies from school to school. Generally, it's a course that culminates a degree program. It might incorporate everything that has previously been learned into a final (capstone) paper. By the time you make it to the capstone course, you'll be squared away and it won't be difficult. Most of the hard stuff will be out of the way.
     
  4. tomball

    tomball New Member

    $$$

    additional time and money
     
  5. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    It depends on the university. Usually, one option for the capstone project would be the traditional thesis, but it can include possibilities like a creative project or something. Which school are we talking about?
     
  6. LoraJ

    LoraJ New Member

    I am currently at City University of Seattle but thinking of transferring to CUNY. My degree will be in communications. I'm a video editor and would love to do something creative.
     
  7. LoraJ

    LoraJ New Member

    I am currently at City University of Seattle. I am considering transferring to CUNY's online degree program for Communications. I am a video editor for a major network, so I would love to do something more on the creative side.
     
  8. soupbone

    soupbone Active Member


    I'm not the OP but how would the TESC capstone work? I've also been very curious about when you are allowed to take it. Is it just simply during your senior year or are there other requirements?

    To the OP:

    My understanding of the capstone (I'm far from an expert) is that it's very similar to a thesis. However, I have found very little information about how TESC handles it. I'm not sure who you are taking it through but I imagine like Mr. Heiks stated each school may handle it differently.

    **EDIT** Let me self correct...here is TESC's description of the HLS capstone.

    This course is designed to provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate the knowledge and skills that they have acquired in their academic program. Students will be guided through a process that includes self-reflection on their studies within the discipline of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness and the selection of a topic that will become the basis of their paper. That paper will demonstrate a critical examination and evaluation of their selected issue/s; students will incorporate key terms, concepts, and issues and historical and current theoretical concepts of their topic area into their final paper. Students will produce a final paper that truly reflects the depth and breadth of the knowledge acquired while completing their Bachelor of Science in Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness degree requirements at Thomas Edison State College.

    Here's a link to the syllabus. Hopefully this may give you an idea of at least how TESC sets one up.

    http://www.tesc.edu/syllabus/current/HLS-498/syllabus_HLS-498.html
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 3, 2009
  9. LoraJ

    LoraJ New Member

    Thank you for that link.

    I am currently at City University of Seattle. I am considering transferring to CUNY's online degree program for Communications. I am a video editor for a major network, so I would love to do something more on the creative side as opposed to writing 10,000 pages, or whatever they require.
     
  10. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    That's the ticket! If you're a video editor, you might get away with shooting a video in lieu of a thesis. Theses would usually be 60-100 pages (not 10,000).
     
  11. LoraJ

    LoraJ New Member

    I know, but it would feel like 10,000. ;)
     
  12. Fortunato

    Fortunato Member

    Both DL programs that I've finished included a capstone course. In both cases, these courses were designed to integrate all of your learning into a single experience, but they were entirely different beasts. In my undergrad program at Wyoming, our capstone consisted of a semester long research project profiling an assigned Fortune 500 corporation (mine was Best Buy, I can't believe I still remember that!). For my MBA, our capstone project was a week-long business simulation, where I was part of a team that pulled 16 hour days as the executive team of an imaginary company competing in a market for widgets. It was like the biggest, longest, most stressful game of Monopoly ever played, but it was also a testament to the fact that after two years of books and theory, we had in fact learned something and were ready and able to apply it.
     
  13. SoldierInGA

    SoldierInGA New Member

    As explained before, it mainly depends on your major and university. For my capstone project for a B.S in Information Systems, we had to do a project involving setting up an online presence for a non-profit organization. One of our team members wanted to do the project for his church. We built their website (incorporating whatever PHP, CSS, HTML and other stuff that we learned in the previous semesters, with a mandatory database), and then design, implement price up and connect a server rack and computers in the church. We could have gotten away with the theoretical side of the project, but we decided to physically do it to assist our team member who wanted to do it as a benevolent financial contribution for his church.
     

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