Abstract: Many computer science programs have capstone experiences or project courses that allow students to integrate knowledge from the full breadth of their major Such capstone projects may be student-designed, instructor-designed, designed in conjunction with outside companies, or integrated with ongoing free and open source (FOSS) projects The literature shows that the FOSS approach has attracted a great deal of interest, in particular when implemented with projects that have humanitarian goals (HFOSS) In this article, we describe five unique models from five distinct types of institutions for incorporating sustained FOSS or HFOSS (alternatively H/FOSS) project work into capstone experiences or courses The goal is to provide instructors wishing to integrate open source experiences into their curriculum with additional perspectives and resources to help in adapting this approach to the specific needs and goals of their institution and students All of the models presented are based on sustained engagement with H/FOSS projects that last at least one semester and often more Each model is described in terms of its characteristics and how it fits the needs of the institution using the model Assessment of each model is also presented We then discuss the themes that are common across the models, such as project selection, team formation, mentoring, and student assessment We examine the choices made by each model, as well as the challenges faced We end with a discussion how the models have leveraged institutional initiatives and collaborations with outside organizations to address some of the challenges associated with these projects

Abstract: A 14 week undergraduate course on laboratory safety was developed at the University of Pittsburgh. The first segment of the course consists of a series of lectures intended to increase the students’ knowledge and appreciation of safety. In the second segment, experts from both academia and industry present and discuss case studies on specialized issues in laboratory safety. The course culminates with interactive exercises, written assignments, and student capstone projects, which reinforce an understanding of the course principles and encourage undergraduates to take leadership and ownership of safety. The creativity exhibited through the student projects and the results of a post-semester survey suggest that the course inspired students to take a greater role in promoting safety culture.

Abstract: Teaching of software engineering using capstone projects has seen a steady growth over the years with overwhelmingly positive reported experiences. Discerning what students consider of value before and after a software project course, is crucial for developing a relevant curriculum. This paper reports on the affective learning outcomes of a Scrum based capstone course with industrial clients. We measured affective learning as changes in the attitudes towards the difficulty and importance of certain aspects present in software development, including technical, teamwork and customer interaction. Data was collected from 14 student teams of 7-9 members in the form of team interviews and individual surveys, with 86 students participating in the interviews and 86 valid survey answers. %corresponding to a 66% response rate. Our results show that students largely change their attitudes in the desired direction after the course regarding both importance and difficulty, with 57% reporting an increased understanding of the importance of collaboration and communication within the team and 44% reporting less than expected difficulty in learning new technologies/programming languages.

Abstract: Problem: The involvement of external stakeholders in capstone projects and project courses is desirable due to its potential positive effects on the students. Capstone projects particularly profit from the inclusion of an industrial partner to make the project relevant and help students acquire professional skills. In addition, an increasing push towards education that is aligned with industry and incorporates industrial partners can be observed. However, the involvement of external stakeholders in teaching moments can create friction and could, in the worst case, lead to frustration of all involved parties.Contribution: We developed a model that allows analysing the involvement of external stakeholders in university courses both in a retrospective fashion, to gain insights from past course instances, and in a constructive fashion, to plan the involvement of external stakeholders.Key Concepts: The conceptual model and the accompanying guideline guide the teachers in their analysis of stakeholder involvement. The model is comprised of several activities (define, execute, and evaluate the collaboration). The guideline provides questions that the teachers should answer for each of these activities. In the constructive use, the model allows teachers to define an action plan based on an analysis of potential stakeholders and the pedagogical objectives. In the retrospective use, the model allows teachers to identify issues that appeared during the project and their underlying causes. Drawing from ideas of the reflective practitioner, the model contains an emphasis on reflection and interpretation of the observations made by the teacher and other groups involved in the courses.Key Lessons: Applying the model retrospectively to a total of eight courses shows that it is possible to reveal hitherto implicit risks and assumptions and to gain a better insight into the interaction between external stakeholders and students. Our empirical data reveals seven recurring risk themes that categorise the different risks appearing in the analysed courses. These themes can also be used to categorise mitigation strategies to address these risks proactively. Additionally, aspects not related to external stakeholders, e.g., about the interaction of the project with other courses in the study programme, have been revealed. The constructive use of the model for one course has proved helpful in identifying action alternatives and finally deciding to not include external stakeholders in the project due to the perceived cost-benefit-ratio.Implications to Practice: Our evaluation shows that the model is a viable and useful tool that allows teachers to reason about and plan the involvement of external stakeholders in a variety of course settings, and in particular in capstone projects.

Abstract: Multiple national-level reports encourage engineering faculty to help undergraduate engineers develop a basic level of leadership knowledge to enable leadership growth upon graduation. Rece...

Abstract: Many undergraduate ICT degrees culminate with students completing a team-based capstone project under academic supervision. Capstone projects provided by external clients facilitate authentic experiential learning, but sourcing external projects can be difficult, and there can be issues managing industry clients within an academic setting. Capstone projects also provide an opportunity for professional skill development to increase student employability, though to fully assess generic learning outcomes requires evaluating more than the final product created for the client. Teamwork can have a positive impact on student learning, however it is challenging to determine a process of assessment that enables formative and summative assessment that does not require an academic to immerse themselves within a team to evaluate an individual's contribution. Team members are often the best source of meaningful information, and self and peer assessment is commonly used as part of an assessment scheme, but to ensure the objectivity and integrity of the final grade it is necessary to correlate data from a variety of sources. This experience report reflects on a team-based capstone project approach that has been offered for 17 years and proposes some effective strategies for coordinating the more challenging aspects of capstone projects.

Abstract: Teaching a business program capstone class presents a double challenge, requiring the educator to integrate different functional areas of business and evaluate student learning. This paper discusse...

Abstract: Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is gaining wide attention. STEM education assimilates rigorous disciplines and requires diverse skills. Effort to promote and integrate STEM education in schools has been significant during the recent years. This paper investigates promoting students interest in STEM beyond the K-12 levels outside the US. The investigation targets the American University of Kuwait, where the educational community in general, and the students in particular, are faced with different challenges. Comprehensive proposals are suggested to extend STEM education to be part of the Engineering programs at the undergraduate level, with focus on Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering. Remedies for overcoming the weak background in mathematics and sciences, for many students, are explored. In addition, parallel laboratory-based educational components are applied, for selected courses, to enhance the technological aspects via providing deep hands-on experience and exposure to real-life scenarios. Incorporating STEM education in courses/labs, academic activities, extracurricular activities, capstone design projects, internships, and satisfying accreditation requirements are addressed. A thorough discussion is presented to include analysis of best practices, evaluations, examples, and case studies from the local and regional institutions.

Abstract: This paper describes the collaborative learning environment, aligned with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, provided by the European Project Semester (EPS). EPS is a one semester capstone project programme offered by eighteen European engineering schools as part of their student ex-change programme portfolio. In this international programme, students are organized in teams, grouping individuals from diverse academic backgrounds and nationalities. The teams, after choosing a project proposal, become fully responsible for the conduction of their projects. By default, project proposals refer to open multidisciplinary real problems. The purpose of the project is to expose students to problems of a greater dimension and complexity than those faced throughout the degree programme as well as to put them in con-tact with the so-called real world, in opposition to the academic world. EPS provides an integrated framework for undertaking capstone projects, which is focused on multicultural and multidisciplinary teamwork, communication, problem-solving, creativity, leadership, entrepreneurship, ethical reasoning and global contextual analysis. Specifically, the design and development of sustainable systems for growing food allow students not only to reach the described objectives, but to foster sustainable development practices. As a re-sult, we recommend the adoption of this category of projects within EPS for the benefit of engineering students and of the society as a whole.

Abstract: The purpose of this innovative learning strategy was to decrease students' fear and anxiety within the critical care environment before the initiation of a critical care capstone clinical experience by enhancing their familiarity of the critical care environment through deliberate practice and experiential learning. This will in turn increase student knowledge and competence in the critical care setting.Critical care units are often used during a capstone clinical experience to enhance critical thinking and clinical reasoning. Student preparation for these rotations, however, is varied and often inadequate. The resulting fear and anxiety impair learning and also contribute to an unsafe environment for this at-risk population.Before the capstone experience, students participated in 3 simulation experiences, each addressing a core concept of critical care nursing. Faculty engaged students during the simulations, while modeling the confidence and critical thinking of a critical care nurse.After both the critical care simulation and the capstone rotation, students stated that the simulation allowed them the time in a safe environment to critically think through the steps to care for critical patients before the capstone rotation. The experience provided them with increased confidence necessary to discharge the responsibilities of a critical care nurse-attention to critical thinking and reasoning.Mindfully constructed simulations with clear objectives help to inoculate the student against fears associated with high-risk patients. This decrease in fear and anxiety before a hands-on clinical experience may improve patient safety. More confident students are also better able to engage in both experiential and deliberate learning, resulting in a more enhanced and meaningful clinical experience.

Abstract: We have developed an experiential learning global health design program that emphasizes direct interactions withstakeholders and first-hand exposure to the contexts in which solutions will be implemented. Students in the program gainpractical hands-on experience identifying and defining unmet global health needs in low-resource settings and applyhuman-centered and co-creative design approaches. Device designs that incorporate rigorously collected and analyzedfirst-hand data from diverse users and stakeholders rather than anecdotal or poorly represented information are moreeffective at meeting true needs. To date, more than 100 undergraduate student participants have identified hundreds ofneeds in collaboration with sub-Saharan and Asian healthcare providers. Approximately 400 students from the U.S.,Ghana, Ethiopia, and Uganda have contributed to the generation of technology concept solutions to address these needs.Program outcomes include approximately 100 student design projects completed at multiple institutions, student-leddesign-based conference publications and journal articles, device commercialization, and peer-to-peer mentoring withintraditional capstone design courses. In this paper we describe the curricular elements of the clinical immersion and designethnography experience. Additionally, we describe programmatic best practices that have emerged over the past 10 yearsand challenges students encounter when performing this front-end design work.

Abstract: Using university capstone courses to teach agile software development methodologies has become commonplace, as agile methods have gained support in professional software development. This usually means students are introduced to and work with the currently most popular agile methodology: Scrum. However, as the agile methods employed in the industry change and are adapted to different contexts, university courses must follow suit. A prime example of this is the Kanban method, which has recently gathered attention in the industry. In this paper, we describe a capstone course design, which adds the hands-on learning of the lean principles advocated by Kanban into a capstone project run with Scrum. This both ensures that students are aware of recent process frameworks and ideas as well as gain a more thorough overview of how agile methods can be employed in practice. We describe the details of the course and analyze the participating students' perceptions as well as our observations. We analyze the development artifacts, created by students during the course in respect to the two different development methodologies. We further present a summary of the lessons learned as well as recommendations for future similar courses. The survey conducted at the end of the course revealed an overwhelmingly positive attitude of students towards the integration of Kanban into the course.

Abstract: Two cases help students identify the influence that self-interest can have on ethical decision making and encourage them to practice “giving voice to values.” The learning objectives are to: (1) increase student awareness of the role of ethical fading in unethical decision making; (2) develop critical-thinking skills for ethical decision making; and (3) practice applying moral imagination to resolve ethical dilemmas. Specifically, we designed these case scenarios to develop skills in recognizing and resolving ethical dilemmas. Post-case survey responses indicate that beyond meeting the learning objectives, students personally relate to the protagonists. The cases are appropriate for graduate or undergraduate accounting courses, including capstone accounting courses, in which ethics, auditing, forensic accounting, and/or the professional code of conduct are discussed. Implementation guidance and Teaching Notes are provided to aid instructors seeking to motivate in-class discussions of the current...

Abstract: We discuss an allocation mechanism of capstone projects to senior-year undergraduate students, which the recently established Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) has implemented. A...

Abstract: This dissertation overview summarizes a study that examined the alignment between employability skills employers need and employability skills graduate business students gain through service-learning in business capstones. This nonexperimental, mixed-methods, comparative study assessed whether the inclusion of service-learning in capstone courses influences students’ development of employability skills. The top three employability skills enhanced by service-learning were decision-making, presentation skills, and teamwork; only presentation skills showed a significant difference for students whose capstone included service-learning versus those whose did not. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) found a four-factor solution, and one factor, collaborative learning, was significant for service-learning. Qualitative data from semi-structured interviews revealed that decision-making, teamwork, and presentation skills were enhanced by service-learning. Findings show alignment between collaborative learning skills needed by employers and those enhanced through service-learning, and that the instructor’s role in structuring projects is key to learning.

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to analyze the effectiveness of Capstone Design Program on creative leadership, problem solving ability and critical thinking of nursing students. The subjects of 18 experiment groups taking course in nursing capstone design of U university in P city and 20 control group of K university in G city. Data were collected before and after nursing capstone design class using self-reported questionnaire. Students Creative leadership and problem solving ability showed significant showed improvements after the Capstone Design Program. Creative leadership, Problem solving ability and critical thinking was positively correlated and then Problem solving abilities appeared to be higher improved critical thinking. Therefore, it is recommended that sufficient repetitive practice is to be made in order to improve Creative Leadership, Problem solving ability and critical thinking. ■ keyword :∣Capstone Design Program∣Creative Thinking∣Problem Solving Ability∣Critical Thinking∣ 접수일자 : 2018년 02월 02일 수정일자 : 2018년 03월 22일 심사완료일 : 2018년 04월 04일 교신저자 : 김지숙, e-mail : jskim@uu.ac.kr 캡스톤디자인 프로그램이 간호학생의 창의적리더십, 문제해결능력, 비판적사고 성향에 미치는 효과 407

Abstract: This Innovative Practice Full Paper is an experience report that presents a collection of initiatives, circumstances, and teaching practices that coincide with improvements in gender diversity in the undergraduate software engineering program at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo. The percent of females in the software engineering capstone increased from an average of 3.81% in the first five years of the program (2003-2007) to 18.82% in the most recent four years (2014-2017). Multiple initiatives were instituted beginning in 2009 to improve a gender imbalance, addressing recruitment and retention of women. One key initiative was the creation of a new introductory course with multiple themes (e.g. art, mobile, music, robotics) from which incoming students could choose. These courses were designed to include significant collaboration, rapid application development in interesting domains, and strategic selection of tools and languages that reduced the advantages of previous student programming experience. Additional initiatives included club activities, sending large numbers of female students to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference, K-12 outreach, and a vibrant and mature SE capstone experience. Also during this timeframe, course scheduling changes were imposed which naturally created informal cohorts of software engineering students earlier than in previous years. Student self-evaluations collected in the SE capstone were analyzed, comparing male and female responses, as well as teams with different gender mixes. This analysis indicates no significant difference between male and female enjoyment of the capstone projects overall, and no significant difference between team enjoyment regardless of the percentage of females on the team.

Abstract: Angrist and Pischke (2017) call for a pedagogical paradigm shift by pointing out that econometrics courses often do not align with modern empirical approaches employed by economists. This article's...

Abstract: This case study analyzed the effect of capstone design on students’ competence and class satisfaction. Three subjects developed in S university were analyzed, and 92 students participated. Results show that the lesson structure of the capstone design was developed to provide students with problem solving competence and practical business skills through hands-on experience. In addition, the students’ competence was enhanced, and their satisfaction in class was very high. Statistical results show that, compared to the existing classes, class satisfaction in capstone design improved significantly. Considering the foregoing results, this study suggested that for the capstone design, the lesson structure and method need to be diversified to provide more opportunities for students to participate and become active. The assessment procedure and method also have to be more objective to lessen subjectivity and to increase class satisfaction in capstone design. ■ keyword :∣Capstone Design∣Capstone Design Lesson Structure∣Student’s Competence∣Class Satisfaction∣ * 본 연구는 2016년 수원대학교 교내학술연구 지원 과제로 수행되었습니다. 접수일자 : 2018년 02월 08일 수정일자 : 2018년 03월 02일 심사완료일 : 2018년 03월 02일 교신저자 : 전영미, e-mail : binibini319@hotmail.com 한국콘텐츠학회논문지 '18 Vol. 18 No. 3 602

Abstract: The integration of hard and soft skills has become increasingly important to employers. Colleges of agriculture and natural sciences can facilitate the development of these skills in their students. The purpose of this study was to explore impacts of a behavioral style learning unit on soft skill development with 15 students enrolled in a senior-level undergraduate capstone course. The research objectives were to (a) explore students’ preflections and reflections for indications of soft skill development, (b) explore team dynamics, and (c) identify best practices for integrating a behavioral style learning unit into a capstone course. Qualitative content analysis methods and basic quantitative methods were used to examine the preflections and reflections of the students. Students found the behavioral assessment improved understanding of their own behavioral needs, and allowed them to flex their style to meet the needs of team members. Relationship compatibility, based on behavioral styles within teams, correlated with the ability of team members to accurately perceive their contributions to tasks, relative to peer-based perceptions of contributions. Based on these results, it is recommended that a behavioral style learning unit, or a similar psychological type unit, be integrated into courses where soft skills are a desired student learning outcome.

Abstract: By embedding an ePortfolio process in a general education core that culminates with a senior capstone course, Thomas Jefferson University has created an opportunity for students to use their completed ePortfolios as archives of primary sources that they can curate to produce narratives about their intellectual development. The result was a capstone course with a level of integrative metareflection that allows students to select, rearrange, and narrate the contents of their ePortfolios as they reviewed and redefined their identities as learners, citizens, and future professionals.

Abstract: Recent technologies are offering the power to share and grow knowledge and ideas in unprecedented ways. The CogEx software platform was developed to take advantage of the digital world with innovative ideas to support designers work in both industrial and academic contexts. This paper presents a qualitative study on the usage of CogEx during capstone design projects in mechanical engineering. It explores its potential to eventually supersede a paper logbook. This study combines three pilot projects where 15 undergraduate students used CogEx for one semester and discussed their experience in a final interview. The focus is limited to individual usage in this study. Results support that the platform has a good potential for engineering design education by replacing the paper logbook. The “extended concept mapping” structure was efficient to organize design work, and although the “concept-knowledge” separation needs refinement, it has good potential in building designer knowledge base.

Abstract: Using university capstone courses to teach agile software development methodologies has become commonplace, as agile methods have gained support in professional software development. This usually means students are introduced to and work with the currently most popular agile methodology: Scrum. However, as the agile methods employed in the industry change and are adapted to different contexts, university courses must follow suit. A prime example of this is the Kanban method, which has recently gathered attention in the industry. In this paper, we describe a capstone course design, which adds the hands-on learning of the lean principles advocated by Kanban into a capstone project run with Scrum. This both ensures that students are aware of recent process frameworks and ideas as well as gain a more thorough overview of how agile methods can be employed in practice. We describe the details of the course and analyze the participating students' perceptions as well as our observations. We analyze the development artifacts, created by students during the course in respect to the two different development methodologies. We further present a summary of the lessons learned as well as recommendations for future similar courses. The survey conducted at the end of the course revealed an overwhelmingly positive attitude of students towards the integration of Kanban into the course.

Abstract: Computer science and technology education should provide not only a strong theoretical foundation, but also problem solving, and communication and teamwork skills to prepare the students for careers. Including projects in curricula is a norm in many disciplines. However, projects are generally individual or based on small teams (two to five members). This paper presents my approach to teaching a capstone undergraduate computer technology course at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) in the Computer System Technology (CST) Program in which a large class of students (maximum 22), organized into small teams work together and apply Agile software development practices to design, implement, integrate and test a large project. This model provides students with unique learning opportunities and experiences, as well as improving their soft skills, engagement and motivation.

Abstract: – To encourage innovation and positive team behavior, a bonus innovation assignment is included at the start of the introductory design course. Students are encouraged to choose from a reading list and insert themselves in the material to explore how leadership, creativity, and innovation might impact their design team experience. Students are then introduced to CATME and asked to evaluate themselves and their team members on a monthly basis as they work on lab assignments and project work in a cooperative learning environment. Capstone and introductory design students assess their individual skills relative to the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) graduate attributes (GA) pre and post course, including teamwork skills. In addition, capstone student design teams use reflection to self-assess team function based on their perceived attainment of team level, and confidence in their ability to perform categorized skills related to team performance, technical performance, planning and logistics performance. The goals of these changes are to provide a collaborative framework for students to construct activities to learn and develop innovation, team, and leadership skills. This report focuses on the structure of the cooperative learning framework and the development of five cooperative learning criteria: positive interdependence, individual accountability, face-to-face interaction, appropriate use of interpersonal skills, and regular assessment of group functioning. Assignment effectiveness is demonstrated.

Abstract: Capstone projects improve the endowments of knowledge, ability and skills earned by higher-education students, and help intensify the university-business dialogue. While not solely suited for BSc curricula, capstones raise the employability of BSc graduates, whose market value is intrinsically inferior to their MSc correspondents, yet highly attractive thanks to shorter turn-around time. Designing a BSc curriculum in Computer Science after those premises requires balancing two forces. One is traditional content-centered teaching, which has many adepts and exerts higher pressure on the shorter duration of the study path. The other is learner-centered teaching, which promotes active teaching strategies, and makes room for capstone inserts. This paper discusses how the University of Padua went around that challenge designing its BSc curriculum in Computer Science in 2002, and critically assesses its outcome to date. 27 credit hours of the total 180 in the novel curriculum were devolved to a capstone project comprising an internship in business, whose critical review feeds the final exam. The capstone was organized as a two-staged progression: (a) the first leg being a preparatory, learning-for-work collaborative laboratory aimed at the acquisition of soft skills, and exposure to technology innovation challenges; and (b) the second leg promoting a learning-through-work individual internship. Evaluation of field data from 14 cohorts of graduates, from 07/2004 to 12/2017, shows that the BSc curriculum has met with the appreciation of students and employers, and it has served well the purpose of boosting the university-business dialogue.

Abstract: Engineering design serves as the capstone experience of most undergraduate engineering programs. One of the key elements of the engineering design process is the compilation of results obtained into a technical report that can be shared and distributed to interested stakeholders including industry, faculty members and other relevant parties. In an effort to expand the tools available for assessment of engineering design technical reports, this study performed an initial validation of a previously developed Technical Writing rubric. The rubric was evaluated for its reliability to measure the intended construct, inter-rater reliability and external validity in comparison to an existing generalized written communication rubric. It was found that the rubric was reliable with Cronbach’s alpha for all dimensions between 0.817 and 0.976. The inter-rater reliability for the overall instrument was also found to be excellent at 0.85. Finally, it was observed that there were no statistically significant differences observed between the measurements obtained on the Technical Writing rubric in comparison to the more generalized Written Communication Value rubric. This demonstrates that although specific to engineering design environments the Technical Writing rubric was able to measure key constructs associated with written communication practice. This rubric can now serve as one additional tool for assessment of communication skills within engineering capstone design experiences.