the custom capstone project writing service

the custom capstone project writing service

The Importance of Custom Capstone Projects in Higher Education

1. Introduction to Capstone Projects

The capstone project gives students an opportunity to identify an issue or need in the field of study and develop, implement, and evaluate a project that addresses that issue/need. The majority of the capstones that are chosen involve developing a new resource or expanding an existing resource. Throughout the project, students are invited to reflect on their learning journey, linking their actions and outcomes back to the curriculum as a whole. Creating the capstone course to allow flexibility in the project type, choice of community partner, or design of student-initiated projects has been suggested as one of the key components of this model. In a 1959 issue of The Journal of General Education, George Keller referred to culminating projects as the “capstone” of undergraduate programs. While the types and scope of capstone projects may have evolved, the potential benefits have remained potentially consistent. The goals of a capstone project vary by program, level of study, learners’ status (completed, advanced students, or anticipated graduates), and the instructional faculty leading them. For students, capstone projects can facilitate the following: review and retention of key course concepts, research and practice in informational literacies, making the skills, knowledge, and work done throughout a degree program transferable and visible to future employers and/or graduate schools, and orientation as the transition from “student” to “expert”.

Capstone projects, for students and those new to the field of program and curriculum development, are semester-long projects that involve students applying skills and knowledge gained throughout a program to a real-world context. Capstone projects have traditionally been exclusive to applied degrees. However, the importance of experiential learning is increasingly being recognized, and as such, the Honours Baccalaureate of many disciplines is building in an opportunity to bring concepts to practice.

2. Benefits of Custom Capstone Projects

Personal relevance. High-quality capstones are often those with personal significance and varying degrees of relevance to life, career, or future study and professional directions. Whether the degree is terminal or sequential, the motivation for engaging in or earning a specific major goes beyond basic graduation requirements. Thus, there will be program-generated and student-generated reasons for enrolling in particular major subjects. Programs can target a reduction in motivation and enthusiasm for individual coursework through the option or requirement for a customized learning activity. Critical thinking and application of course principles are life skills. Interdisciplinary or team collaborations allow students to appreciate and respect others’ discipline-based knowledge and insight. Many courses nowadays emphasize real-world skills and the practical application of theory. Sometimes, such as in a senior thesis or design capstone project, the project will engage career-related issues and/or skills. In fact, students appreciate the value of a capstone project to potential employers upon graduation. In addition, students want to integrate a new skill or area of learning into their course experience and overall educational profile. In staffed or peer-led capstone sections, student interest areas will vary, but overall attrition from personalized projects is low, paralleling those of traditional projects. In some programs, including our own, students might require or prefer their faculty advisor’s and/or committee’s support and for project success and completion. Similarly, student initiation of a capstone option along with faculty staffing signals that not everyone will need to undertake an intensive project but some student preferences can be accommodated. So, instead of program direction solely influencing curriculum content, learning structure can be designed to accommodate and benefit student choices while still meeting a program-distinctive course goal.

High-quality educational papers go beyond standard documentation to custom capstone projects which, unlike papers, are created to the students’ domain of understanding, current coursework, and can also have personal relevance to student interests, hobbies, and future careers. While convenience and distance from the typical approach may be attractive for students, it may also pose new challenges for faculty concerned with tailored guidance. Custom capstones offer a satisfying route by allowing students to engage their core coursework on topics that meet one or all of their intrinsic project parameters.

3. Designing and Implementing a Custom Capstone Project

Once one has developed perspective on this semester-long endeavor, students will have the opportunity to gather others from the field to embark on their journey to understand the question and hope to resolve, with the year’s work culminating in generating a paper, often the largest academic section most students may have ever written. The group will also create a presentation to share their understanding with their classmates, faculty advisors and audience members who will gather to evaluate in order to grade the students. It is imperative to make a connection between their chosen area of study and their contentually-based capstone project—within the series of questions asked of them by the reviewers is “Why was this project chosen?” or “How does this project cap off four years of study?” A student should have thoughts on these questions as they develop their work. This should not be a question that is difficult for them to answer. If they struggle to connect the project to their studies, likely it is not an appropriate project. It is worth a conversation with their faculty advisor to seek alternative project ideas or to help shape, mold and direct the focus of their work from a “meets the requirements of the project” to one that they can discuss in relation to their academic studies and plans for the future.

The challenge in creating and enacting a custom capstone project for underserved students, of any major, is defining the right problem on which to work. One might argue there are many you could concentrate upon or, in theory, work on them all in one fashion or another over the course of their studies. But there is no doubt you must decide. You cannot effectively direct your students and your mentors unless you have defined the nature of the problem and have stated the outcomes you hope to achieve.

4. Best Practices for Writing a Custom Capstone Project

The best practices of creating custom capstone projects in higher education are grounded in the methodology of qualitative research, and more specifically single-case study. The primary research tool is in-depth interviewing, while documentary analysis will serve as the supporting strategy of data collection. The capstone project is a research and conclude cumulative activity, consisting of a theoretical component (portfolio chapters 1-4) and a professional application of theoretical knowledge to practice (portfolio chapter 5). The theoretical and professional components can be written separately, or in traditional order, where theoretical concepts are presented, followed by the practical application. Information systems, research applied to disciplinary area or domain specialization in Master’s in the use emerging and subdisciplinary sciences and practices will develop complex problem-solving solutions or innovative findings and interpretation; and any organizational systems setting that represents full integration of the graduate’s master expertise.

– Identify research approaches and theoretical frameworks that allowed custom capstone projects. – Distinguish between the theoretical and professional components of capstone projects and uncover the key connections between them. – Develop recommendations for writing and structuring theoretical and practical parts of capstone projects. – Develop recommendations for effective and engaging introduction and conclusion. – Choose best presentation practices and draw up an effective presentation structure. – Provide a set of additional materials to accompany the final presentation.

There are no set parameters for creating and identifying capstone topics. Therefore, my research topic will be concerned with identifying the best practices of creating custom capstone projects in higher education.

5. Conclusion and Future Trends in Capstone Project Development

Area of Disagreement: Whether the number of custom capstone project locations will become institutional and/or accrediting agency concerns is still up in the air. Some are of the belief that the use must be authorized institutionally and those institutions are seen as more mindful of a student’s holistic learning. Other institutions believe that having students build individually tailored custom capstone experiences shows that the institution understands individual learning.

Area of Agreement: Possible trends that may emerge in the area of capstone/culminating experience project development could include more virtual interaction, internship or practicum experiences, community involvement, and community partnerships. Additionally, students may be given more choices about where they perform their projects or on what topics they work. The challenge will be in assuring that outcomes and competencies are built into the student learning experiences. Students may have less directed instruction and more responsibility for their learning.

Future Trends

This paper has identified the complexity of creating custom capstone projects and what an educational institution must consider when deciding whether or not to build a custom capstone project. The information came from the perspectives of academic leadership, administrators, faculty, IT professionals, students, selected staff, and auditors whose areas touched the custom capstone project at UMUC. Findings from five institutions of higher education, such as private, public, community, and for-profits throughout the states, have been used to build the body of the paper, highlighting areas of agreement and disagreement. This paper has gathered information on the work performed with custom capstone projects across institutions, the ease of gaining project support, the expectations for those projects, and possible future trends in custom capstone project development.

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