Abstract:

My presentation will address several of the topics in this year’s conference program. They include co-curricular learning, encouraging transfer and capstone courses and career preparation. I focus on how these come together in the capstone course I am developing for students in the Business Administration program at a new community college.

Several high impact strategies are embedded in courses at the college, which culminate in the capstone and are integral to the curriculum of all our programs. Over the duration of students’ coursework, their learning experience is deepened, widened and enriched through use of a common first-year experience, including a mandatory summer bridge program, interdisciplinary coursework (often in learning communities), research projects, team work, contextualized learning, co-curricular activities and reflection facilitated by electronic portfolios.

In their capstone course for the Business major, students integrate their learning in prior Business courses, applying critical thinking, numerical and communication skills developed along the way in an analytical research project on a current business issue. They use this to reflect on their learning and examine its relevance in context of their future career and academic plans.

The college is focused on improving students' graduation rates and preparing them for continuing their education and/or entering the workplace. This capstone course thus serves as a bridge to the next stage in our students’ academic and professional development.

The presentation describes the capstone course in the Business Administration program at our institution. The course incorporates several high impact practices and provides students an opportunity to reflect on their learning through a research project and to connect it to their career and academic plans upon graduation.

In addition to being focused on curriculum development, the presentation will also describe the use of technology in the form of electronic portfolios as a course management system, as well as a means of assessment and self- reflection in the course.

Keywords:

Economics, capstone, curriculum design and integration, interdisciplinarity, assessment, electronic portfolios.