Using a Job Application as the Capstone Exercise for Work Integrated Learning

On the Yogyakarta Train,
after TALE 2019 

On a visit to Singapore for EduTech Asia 2022, I will stopping off at a university to talk about using a job application as the capstone for work integrated learning. I would be happy to talk at other institutions, while in Singapore, or elsewhere. This is an update to a paper I gave at the 2019 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Education (TALE). That was a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic, and I had no idea that my idea of designing a blended learning module which could be quickly converted for full online delivery in an emergency would be needed so soon. I will discuss how it went and what universities should do next post-pandemic.

Original paper:

Worthington, T. (2019, December). Blend and Flip for Teaching Communication Skills to Final Year International Computer Science Students. In 2019 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Education (TALE) (pp. 1-5). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/TALE48000.2019.9225921

Supporting Doctoral Students Online

Ames, Berman and Casteel (2018) report that on-line doctoral students say they have more effective communication with their dissertation committees when a shared electronic workspace is provided. However, the student's still felt isolated, even with the workspace.

As the authors point out, doctoral programs have a high non-completion rate (40% and 70%). The dropout rate for on-line students (not based on a campus) is even higher (another 10% to 20%). The authors examined if a "private doctoral workspace" would improve this.

The term "private doctoral workspace" seems to be a misnomer, perhaps "individual doctoral workspace" would be better, as the idea is that this can be used for the student to communicate with their supervisors.

The authors looked at the literature on doctoral programs in the North America which have a coursework component followed by research and contrasted this with UK, Europe and Australia, where there is typically no coursework. They also looked at the more recent Australian Professional Doctorate which includes fieldwork and applied research. The authors do not appear to have been able to find any studies as to the relative success of the different forms of program in terms of completion rate.

One curious aspect of this study is that the authors do not appear to have considered a role for student-to-student interaction as a way to reduce isolation of doctoral students. The assumption is that a doctoral student works alone carrying out research under the supervision of a panel of supervisors, so only need to communicate with the supervisors. However, researches rarely work alone and so it would seem to make sense for students to learn to work with their future colleagues.

If the aim is to reduce isolation then relying on one supervisor, or a small panel, does not seem a good idea. A batter approach, I suggest, would be for their to be a team of supervisors looking after a group of doctoral students.

Athabasca University's MEd capstone provides an example of an on-line program which has students in a team with multiple supervisors. The students complete an e-portfolio in stages, with peer and supervisor support.

Reference

Ames, C. C., Berman, R., & Casteel, A. (2018). A Preliminary Examination of Doctoral Student Retention Factors in Private Online Workspaces. International Journal of Doctoral Studies, 13, 079-107. URL http://ijds.org/Volume13/IJDSv13p079-107Ames4060.pdf

Georgia Tech Masters On-line for US$10,000

Georgia Tech is offering an Online Master of Science in Analytics for US$10,000. Also offered will be a shorter introductory so called "MicroMasters" program. Both will use the edx platform. It should be noted that Georgia Tech is planning to accept only 250 masters students initially, making this more like conventional distance education programs (which some universities have been running for decades), rather than a called MOOC.

For comparison, the Masters of Education I recently completed on-line at Athabasca University (Canada) cost about US$15,000. This was with classes of  a couple of dozen students and a human tutor. The Georgia Tech Masters is structured similarly to Athabasca, in that the student completes ten courses and then a capstone project.

It is likely that the coursework with capstone will become the standard format for graduate programs, both on-campus and on-line. However, I found the capstone process remarkably difficult. This was remarkable as I was a student of education and was studying the pedagogy of the process, so was much better prepared than the average student would be. 

Institutions need to put in place a process to prepare students for the capstone from the start of their program (including assessment of their progress). Leaving it to the end, as students will otherwise do, will extend the time taken and increase the non-completion rate.

Also we may see use of tools such as Mahara's SmartEvidence, to provide more flexibility. This would allow students to show they have met program requirements using a wide range of courses and non-course activities. However, this will require training students (and staff) to think strategically about learning, rather than just ticking boxes to meet requirements. If we could do this we could offer students additional certifications easily, for example in teaching. 

Designing a Capstone Course

Greetings from the Moot Court at the Australian National University where Professor Sally Kift is speaking on "The Capstone Experience and Designing a Capstone Course". She co-authored "Work-integrated learning as a component of the capstone experience in undergraduate law". The term "capstone" is used by educators to indicate a final course which rounds off the student's experience and prepares them for the wider world.  The metaphor with a capstone (or Coping) on a wall is used to protect the wall from the elements and so I am not sure if this makes a lot of sense in the educational environment. To have to have a "capstone" course suggests to me a symptom of a problem with an academic program. If it is necessary to inset an additional course to provide some connection to the real world and to practical skills for the student, then what are they l;earning in the rest of their program? If the student is undertaking a vocally related program (such as in medicine, law, engineering or computing), then they should be having real world experiences during the course. It would be disastrous if the only time the student did anything useful was in their last course.As fat as I can see the "capstone" approach is designed to retrofit some vocationally relevant skills to programs which either were not designed to get the student a job, or not do it well.Also it strikes me that the techniques well established in TAFE vocational education, where students have to demonstrate they have the skills needed for a particular job, are being applied to university degrees.That could be a good thing, but will require different training for staff (the difference between a Certificate in Higher Education and a Vocational Certificate in Training and Assessment). The obvious way to collect the evidence for the student has the required skills is with an e-portfolio, however, this assumes the student has been trained in how to prepare an e-portfolio and the staff know how to asses them.