High Impact Practices: Capstone Courses

A capstone can be any cumulative assignments that sum up learning for a degree program. The emphasis is on application of knowledge and skills to help develop professional practice or enhance students' understanding of how a discipline ties together.

Some possibilities for capstones include:

• Presentations 
• Research papers
• Annotated bibliographies
• Field tests
• Article analysis or critiques
• Simulations
• Final or midterm exams
• Journal entries
• Portfolios
• Rubric-based assignments
• Case study reports or essays
• Conducting interviews
• Application tasks/ scenarios

To learn more about how capstones can help students achieve, watch this Ted Talk video from Professor Jenn Poggi at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Poggi, Jenn. 2017. "The capstone project". Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWxwwLP2THU 

Several programs at A&M-Central Texas require capstone courses. These courses are listed as Capstones in Banner and include:

• BIOL 4395 Biology Capstone- writing reports, completing field tests, conducting a presentation, and critiquing scientific papers
• BUSI 5359 Business Strategy Seminar- analyzing case studies, taking midterm and final exams, and completing practical simulations  
• CRIJ 4395 Criminal Justice Senior Seminar- writing reflective journal entries and essays, assembling annotated bibliographies, and completing a summative assessment 
• EDUC 4335 Capstone for Educators- creating an e-portfolio, analyzing the T-TESS rubric for student teaching, and discussing key teaching philosophies
• LIBS 4395 Liberal Studies Capstone- creating discussion posts, analyzing articles, writing a research paper, conducting a presentation, and providing peer feedback
• MGMT 5309 Global Leadership for Sustainability- journaling case studies, taking chapter exams, participating in discussion forums, interviewing sustainability leaders, completing simulations, and writing a case analysis paper
• NURS 4410 Leadership and Management- applying different aspects of nursing in written exercises, creating marketing and presentations for healthcare, and researching articles