Why So Many Universities Are Reconsidering the Senior Capstone
Senior capstone projects spread across US universities over the past decade. The outcomes data is now clear enough to distinguish what works from what does not.
More than half of US universities with undergraduate programs now require senior capstones. The projects typically integrate material from a number of different courses and are meant to allow students to put their knowledge to work on a real project of meaningful scope. In research-intensive programs, capstones take the form of senior theses; in other programs, they are group projects that tackle real problems posed by employers, community organizations, or university itself. Some capstones are taught as credit-bearing courses with well-articulated learning objectives and solid faculty supervision; others are independent projects that students complete in addition to their regular academic coursework. The studies, presented at annual meetings of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, highlighted both common features of the strongest programs and a number of pitfalls that less effective capstone projects fall into. I spoke with someone who does capstones for a living, and what he told me was not at all what I had read.
The Variation
There is a lot of variation among programs, and therefore students need to know what to look for. The two most common designs for capstones are for them to be individual research projects (or senior theses) that are completed with the supervision of faculty. The other very common design is for capstones to be group projects which address a variety of real world questions and are completed under the supervision of a single faculty member. They can also be credit-bearing courses which are taken as part of a student’s regular course load. As with any practice, there is a lot of variation, and in order to get the most out of a capstone experience students should know in advance what to expect, and therefore they should plan ahead.
What Worked
Capstone programs are effective to varying degrees. There are practices, however, that enable strong capstone projects and, indeed, more generally, effective implementations of meaningful practices in undergraduate education at research universities. These practices involve three components. First, the work requires and thus involves substantive faculty time throughout the project duration, often most notably near the end of the student’s academic work. Second, as with almost every academic project undertaken by undergraduates, the work involves public presentation of the final project before an audience or audiences larger than the faculty member or members serving as supervisor or supervisors of the undergraduate. Third, the project is given a grade not only for the finished product, but also for how the student did in undertaking the project in the period of time afforded to him/her.
What Did Not Work
Where these projects failed, there were a few common structural issues: a lack of adequate faculty supervision, no requirement for public presentation of the work, a focus on grading the final product and not the process by which it was created, and a lack of adequate scaffolding or support for students at certain points in the process where they typically get stuck. It works.
The Faculty Time Question
Of course, there is the Faculty Time Question. How can institutions expect faculty to invest meaningful time in supervising students through a capstone experience when the institution does not provide a structure for supporting faculty time to this end? Such a structure is typically required, and requires institutional commitment to sustain meaningful capstone experiences over time. When I asked recently a professional from a quality university with a rigorous capstone experience for his views on capstone programs (in a few minutes before he was due to a meeting), he noted that every guide he had read to setting up a quality capstone program contained errors, because the guides did not account for the substantial faculty time involved in effective capstone experiences, which cannot be covered by guides.
The Outcome Differences
Students who completed a strong capstone project gained skills and conferred higher levels of confidence in their ability to apply what they learned in written work, research, and in project management. They spoke frequently of their capstone in graduate school applications, in job interviews, and otherwise gave the impression that their capstone credential had a real value to it.
The Equity Implication
As for the last point above, such programs can either reduce or increase inequalities among students. Those that involve lots of individualized faculty mentorship, and the kind of scaffolding that helps students who lack such preparation do very well (and give them the confidence to apply to graduate school) are the ones that work to decrease inequalities among students. Others, such as those that leave students to their own devices (with minimal encouragement or help along the way), tend to increase inequalities.
The Public Presentation Element
A public presentation of some kind is a core feature of nearly every program that has done a good job of implementing a senior capstone. Whether that presentation is in front of a class of fellow students, faculty from other departments, current or past employers, alumni, or community members, students who complete a capstone gain experience and develop skills in presentation that students who complete only a written capstone do not gain. The presentation is also a way for students to have others hold them accountable for the work that they have done on on and to get feedback on the quality of that work.
What Students Should Look For
To make a responsible decision about whether to attend a school with a capstone requirement, students need to look into several particular details about how the capstone is structured at the school they are considering. First, students should learn about the faculty supervision structure of senior capstone programs at the schools they are considering. In addition, students should ask whether or not students present their capstone work to an audience of people. How are students graded in senior capstone courses? Are they graded on the process that they go through to complete the capstone work, or are they graded on the final product, or is there a combination of both? Finally, students should look into the scaffolding that a school offers to support its senior capstone students.
My friend, who actually does capstone sections for a living, wrote to tell me that what’s really key to making a capstone work, and that most articles don’t write about, is, essentially, scaffolding—support that is progressive and removes obstacles at predictable points, or that supports students at points where capstone projects have been shown to struggle.
The Broader Implication
In undergraduate education, practices (like capstone courses) that appear to be equivalent across institutions can produce vastly different results depending on the extent to which each institution invests in the program’s successful implementation and in creating a meaningful experience for students. In short, when a university decides to require a senior capstone for its undergraduates, the program must go beyond just requiring the course; the university must implement the course in such a way that creates meaningful opportunities for its students to acquire useful skills in a significant body of work that can be added to job applications, graduate school applications, and other credentials to which the student might apply; and create a meaningful experience for its students.
The Faculty Investment Required
High-quality senior capstone programs require significant faculty time. That time can compete with a host of other demands that faculty have. Most institutions have found that releasing a faculty member from a course or two for a year, or providing summer salary, or giving the faculty member credit for supervising a capstone for being a key part of their teaching load, is necessary to sustain a high-quality program.
The Student Experience
As a student, you may not realize the significance of a capstone experience until after you have completed it. The work is demanding but the end result is very meaningful and most students say that they would retrace their steps to complete another capstone experience. Students report that the capstone experience is the best academic experience they had while an undergraduate student. It was an integration of all the courses that they completed throughout their undergraduate studies and the intellectual work was continuous over a strong contrast to traditional coursework where there is a lull between the end of one course and the beginning of another. Additionally, the capstone project is presented to an audience of peers, faculty and staff and in some instances to employers, alumni and the community at large.
Editor’s note: This article was reviewed against primary sources and peer-reviewed research where applicable. Quotes from teachers, administrators, and researchers were verified before publication. If you find an error or have feedback, please reach out through our Contact page. See our Editorial Standards and Fact-Checking Policy for our complete review process.
