Business 421 capstone | TESU | Tips from our members

[TopHatWombat]

12 weeks, 10 hours a week, generally about 120 hours in total... give or take, depending on your learning abilities, habits, and time management.

I’m in this course right now, and 10 hours a week is a pretty solid estimate. That’s for reading the text, doing the online discussion posts, writing papers, all of it.

For anybody seeing this in the future, absolutely use the two Quizlet resources in the original post to study for the midterm exam. Those were the only resources I used to cram for the exam, and they are excellent preparation for the test.

[Kones]

I just finished this course (1/8/24 – 3/31/24). Despite a few bumps in the road I got an A-. I did the Online version, not the Guided Study. My mentor was Dr. Lawrence Ness. Nothing has changed about the course structure.

For the programs recommended by the OP, I only used Word and Excel (for scheduling and making charts). I do have Grammarly but it is far more updated in 2024 than when the OP posted. Now, Grammarly features include AI, so I would not at all recommend using it to correct writing style because it may be flagged in an AI detector.

Structure – This is a 12-week course broken up into 8 modules.

• Online discussions – 12 posts, 11 of which are graded. You must also respond to at least two classmates’ posts. 15% of final grade.
  
• Case studies – 7 assignments of 1000-1100 words each. 35% of final grade.
  
• Midterm – 10 multiple choice and 4 essay questions. 25% of final grade.
  
• Proficiency assessment – 5% of final grade.
  
• Final project – 3500 to 5000 words (14-20 pages). 20% of final grade.
  

Time – Previous mentions of about 10 hours per week are pretty accurate UNTIL the final two weeks. I spent a couple of entire weekends working on my final paper and even took a day off work so I could spend the whole day on it. I did my best to work ahead, but the workload still caught up to me. Each module requires reading of 1-2 chapters (with the final week having 3 chapters to read). Don’t forget that to complete the case study assignment, you also must read the case study itself. Yup, more reading! I would estimate that each module had around 50-75 pages of reading. Some modules are shorter than others and all the activities must be done in a week, whereas some others you may have 2-3 weeks to complete.

• Reading textbook chapters (1-2 per module, 15-40 pages per chapter, 12 chapters in all)
  
• Reviewing the chapter PowerPoint (anywhere from 39-105 slides, average 65)
  
• Taking notes
  
• Writing a discussion forum post (this usually entails answering a couple of questions or performing an activity such as identifying the strategy used by a list of companies)
  
• Responding to two classmate’s forum posts
  
• Reading a case study (10-45 pages)
  
• Doing independent research on the case study company
  
• Writing 1,000-1,100 words analyzing the case study
  

Online discussions (15%) – Not sure if this depends on the mentor or not, but my mentor posted guidelines and was very clear that the posts needed to be substantive and needed to integrate and cite concepts from the textbook. He didn’t freely give out 100s like some courses. I got at least four 95s (no feedback, so no clue why). I’ve taken five courses with TESU and this is the first one where I didn’t get 100 on every discussion forum post. These generally weren’t an easy “jot down a paragraph” type of assignment. They required research, sometimes extensive. I recall there were at least two posts that required you to research 9-10 specific companies or industries. These posts were more work than I expected. However, the OP mentioned that the mentor asks follow-up questions – mine did not. I finished the course with a 98 in this section.

Case studies (35%) – I agree with OP that the first one is the hardest, not knowing the expectations. I did quite poorly on my first one and only got a 75. I emailed the mentor because I was so upset. I’m glad I did. He gave me valuable feedback and actually regraded my paper to an 85. I did much better on all the rest of my case studies and I don’t think I would have if I hadn’t reached out to ask questions. Probably the biggest problem with my first paper is that I didn’t cite concepts from the textbook. I did reference them, I just didn’t cite them. Also important, is to cite facts from the case study separately from concepts in the text. The case studies are sometimes written by people other than the textbook authors, so they need their own citations. The textbook used is from 2016, so you are expected to not only read and analyze the case study but to add your own research on the company’s current state. So, the case study assignment is not just reading a 15-page study and slapping together 1,000 words about it. I finished the course with a 95 in this section.

Midterm (25%) – I’m not sure how the OP knew they got 100% on the essay questions, but not on the multiple choice. I wasn’t able to find any such feedback about my grade. I’m not a great test taker, so I didn’t do very well on the midterm despite using all the recommended resources for studying. I actually did feel pretty confident when answering the essay questions, so I was surprised when I only got a 72. Oh well.

Proficiency assessment (5%) – This is an easy 100. You just need to take it. Your score does not affect your grade.

Final project (20%) – Man this was a lot of work. I probably spent upwards of 60 hours writing this paper. I started the outline in the first few weeks of the course. I started to research and flesh things out after the midterm. Be sure to incorporate concepts and tools from the textbook. I got a 100 on the final project.

Tips

• I agree with everything the OP recommended
  
• I’ve read course reviews from people who had trouble choosing a final project topic (they give you 3 choices). I reviewed the final project guidelines and pre-selected my topic right away so that throughout the course, I could add notes and develop an outline. To prevent myself from changing my mind, I set up the template and format for the final project and began bullet-pointing topics and ideas to include. As we made our way through each module, I would add concepts to the bullet points so that when the time came I didn’t forget to include important topics.
  
• Use the rubrics!
  
• I found a copy of the textbook on Amazon for around $16. Make sure you get the right edition per the syllabus.
  

[LevelUP]

I do have Grammarly but it is far more updated in 2024 than when the OP posted. Now, Grammarly features include AI, so I would not at all recommend using it to correct writing style because it may be flagged in an AI detector.

You can turn off those AI features. 

Online discussions (15%) – Not sure if this depends on the mentor or not, but my mentor posted guidelines and was very clear that the posts needed to be substantive and needed to integrate and cite concepts from the textbook. He didn’t freely give out 100s like some courses. I got at least four 95s (no feedback, so no clue why). I’ve taken five courses with TESU and this is the first one where I didn’t get 100 on every discussion forum post. These generally weren’t an easy “jot down a paragraph” type of assignment. They required research, sometimes extensive. I recall there were at least two posts that required you to research 9-10 specific companies or industries. These posts were more work than I expected. However, the OP mentioned that the mentor asks follow-up questions – mine did not. I finished the course with a 98 in this section.

That's why it's good to use student feedback on DF or RateMyProfessors to find professors who are known to give out easy A's.

Each professor's expectations may be different, and if they don't include their expectations clearly in the welcome forum, then you should pm them to find out their expectations for the case studies and forum posts. 

Time – Previous mentions of about 10 hours per week are pretty accurate UNTIL the final two weeks. I spent a couple of entire weekends working on my final paper and even took a day off work so I could spend the whole day on it. I did my best to work ahead, but the workload still caught up to me. Each module requires reading of 1-2 chapters (with the final week having 3 chapters to read). Don’t forget that to complete the case study assignment, you also must read the case study itself. Yup, more reading! I would estimate that each module had around 50-75 pages of reading. Some modules are shorter than others and all the activities must be done in a week, whereas some others you may have 2-3 weeks to complete.

• Reading textbook chapters (1-2 per module, 15-40 pages per chapter, 12 chapters in all)
  
• Reviewing the chapter PowerPoint (anywhere from 39-105 slides, average 65)
  
• Taking notes
  
• Writing a discussion forum post (this usually entails answering a couple of questions or performing an activity such as identifying the strategy used by a list of companies)
  
• Responding to two classmate’s forum posts
  
• Reading a case study (10-45 pages)
  
• Doing independent research on the case study company
  
• Writing 1,000-1,100 words analyzing the case study\
  

Case studies (35%) – I agree with OP that the first one is the hardest, not knowing the expectations. I did quite poorly on my first one and only got a 75. I emailed the mentor because I was so upset. I’m glad I did. He gave me valuable feedback and actually regraded my paper to an 85. I did much better on all the rest of my case studies and I don’t think I would have if I hadn’t reached out to ask questions. Probably the biggest problem with my first paper is that I didn’t cite concepts from the textbook. I did reference them, I just didn’t cite them. Also important, is to cite facts from the case study separately from concepts in the text. The case studies are sometimes written by people other than the textbook authors, so they need their own citations. The textbook used is from 2016, so you are expected to not only read and analyze the case study but to add your own research on the company’s current state. So, the case study assignment is not just reading a 15-page study and slapping together 1,000 words about it. I finished the course with a 95 in this section.

Final project (20%) – Man this was a lot of work. I probably spent upwards of 60 hours writing this paper. I started the outline in the first few weeks of the course. I started to research and flesh things out after the midterm. Be sure to incorporate concepts and tools from the textbook. I got a 100 on the final project.

I usually tell people that the total time it takes to complete this course is around 80 hours, give or take 20 hours. However, some students may require up to 120 hours. 

A lot of it depends on how quickly you can write once you start. Personally, I averaged 500 words per hour, so each case study took me around 2 hours, and the final project took 10 hours.  Keep in mind, I know Tesla, Panera, TOMS, Southwest, Amazon, Google, and Costco like the back of my hand, so I could almost write all these papers without researching them.

Midterm (25%) – I’m not sure how the OP knew they got 100% on the essay questions, but not on the multiple choice. I wasn’t able to find any such feedback about my grade. I’m not a great test taker, so I didn’t do very well on the midterm despite using all the recommended resources for studying. I actually did feel pretty confident when answering the essay questions, so I was surprised when I only got a 72. Oh well.

I suggest reading chapters 1-6 before the course begins to get a jump on the material. This will put you six weeks ahead and include everything you need for the midterm exam, which is crucial. The other chapters won't significantly impact your grade, so you can breeze through those readings. (80/20 rule) I scored in the low 80s on the exam largely because I only studied for 7 hours; I needed 12 hours. I recommend allocating 10-20 hours to study for the mid-term exam.

[Dosada]

I just finished this course (1/8/24 – 3/31/24). Despite a few bumps in the road I got an A-. I did the Online version, not the Guided Study. My mentor was Dr. Lawrence Ness. Nothing has changed about the course structure.

For the programs recommended by the OP, I only used Word and Excel (for scheduling and making charts). I do have Grammarly but it is far more updated in 2024 than when the OP posted. Now, Grammarly features include AI, so I would not at all recommend using it to correct writing style because it may be flagged in an AI detector.

Structure – This is a 12-week course broken up into 8 modules.

• Online discussions – 12 posts, 11 of which are graded. You must also respond to at least two classmates’ posts. 15% of final grade.
  
• Case studies – 7 assignments of 1000-1100 words each. 35% of final grade.
  
• Midterm – 10 multiple choice and 4 essay questions. 25% of final grade.
  
• Proficiency assessment – 5% of final grade.
  
• Final project – 3500 to 5000 words (14-20 pages). 20% of final grade.
  

Time – Previous mentions of about 10 hours per week are pretty accurate UNTIL the final two weeks. I spent a couple of entire weekends working on my final paper and even took a day off work so I could spend the whole day on it. I did my best to work ahead, but the workload still caught up to me. Each module requires reading of 1-2 chapters (with the final week having 3 chapters to read). Don’t forget that to complete the case study assignment, you also must read the case study itself. Yup, more reading! I would estimate that each module had around 50-75 pages of reading. Some modules are shorter than others and all the activities must be done in a week, whereas some others you may have 2-3 weeks to complete.

• Reading textbook chapters (1-2 per module, 15-40 pages per chapter, 12 chapters in all)
  
• Reviewing the chapter PowerPoint (anywhere from 39-105 slides, average 65)
  
• Taking notes
  
• Writing a discussion forum post (this usually entails answering a couple of questions or performing an activity such as identifying the strategy used by a list of companies)
  
• Responding to two classmate’s forum posts
  
• Reading a case study (10-45 pages)
  
• Doing independent research on the case study company
  
• Writing 1,000-1,100 words analyzing the case study
  

Online discussions (15%) – Not sure if this depends on the mentor or not, but my mentor posted guidelines and was very clear that the posts needed to be substantive and needed to integrate and cite concepts from the textbook. He didn’t freely give out 100s like some courses. I got at least four 95s (no feedback, so no clue why). I’ve taken five courses with TESU and this is the first one where I didn’t get 100 on every discussion forum post. These generally weren’t an easy “jot down a paragraph” type of assignment. They required research, sometimes extensive. I recall there were at least two posts that required you to research 9-10 specific companies or industries. These posts were more work than I expected. However, the OP mentioned that the mentor asks follow-up questions – mine did not. I finished the course with a 98 in this section.

Case studies (35%) – I agree with OP that the first one is the hardest, not knowing the expectations. I did quite poorly on my first one and only got a 75. I emailed the mentor because I was so upset. I’m glad I did. He gave me valuable feedback and actually regraded my paper to an 85. I did much better on all the rest of my case studies and I don’t think I would have if I hadn’t reached out to ask questions. Probably the biggest problem with my first paper is that I didn’t cite concepts from the textbook. I did reference them, I just didn’t cite them. Also important, is to cite facts from the case study separately from concepts in the text. The case studies are sometimes written by people other than the textbook authors, so they need their own citations. The textbook used is from 2016, so you are expected to not only read and analyze the case study but to add your own research on the company’s current state. So, the case study assignment is not just reading a 15-page study and slapping together 1,000 words about it. I finished the course with a 95 in this section.

Midterm (25%) – I’m not sure how the OP knew they got 100% on the essay questions, but not on the multiple choice. I wasn’t able to find any such feedback about my grade. I’m not a great test taker, so I didn’t do very well on the midterm despite using all the recommended resources for studying. I actually did feel pretty confident when answering the essay questions, so I was surprised when I only got a 72. Oh well.

Proficiency assessment (5%) – This is an easy 100. You just need to take it. Your score does not affect your grade.

Final project (20%) – Man this was a lot of work. I probably spent upwards of 60 hours writing this paper. I started the outline in the first few weeks of the course. I started to research and flesh things out after the midterm. Be sure to incorporate concepts and tools from the textbook. I got a 100 on the final project.

Tips

• I agree with everything the OP recommended
  
• I’ve read course reviews from people who had trouble choosing a final project topic (they give you 3 choices). I reviewed the final project guidelines and pre-selected my topic right away so that throughout the course, I could add notes and develop an outline. To prevent myself from changing my mind, I set up the template and format for the final project and began bullet-pointing topics and ideas to include. As we made our way through each module, I would add concepts to the bullet points so that when the time came I didn’t forget to include important topics.
  
• Use the rubrics!
  
• I found a copy of the textbook on Amazon for around $16. Make sure you get the right edition per the syllabus.
  

Congrats on finishing the class!  Once I saw the syllabus I was quite overwhelmed at the amount of reading involved.  I think I've already spent 10 hours this week just reading everything and getting acquainted with the course.  I haven't even started the first case study yet!  Hopefully that will lessen as the course goes on.  

Do you feel reading the PowerPoint slides offered any added benefit to what was in the Chapter reading assignments?  I briefly skimmed them and it seemed like it was the same information as in the book.  Just curious if you felt reading this was worth the time?

[TopHatWombat]

Congrats on finishing the class!  Once I saw the syllabus I was quite overwhelmed at the amount of reading involved.  I think I've already spent 10 hours this week just reading everything and getting acquainted with the course.  I haven't even started the first case study yet!  Hopefully that will lessen as the course goes on.  

Do you feel reading the PowerPoint slides offered any added benefit to what was in the Chapter reading assignments?  I briefly skimmed them and it seemed like it was the same information as in the book.  Just curious if you felt reading this was worth the time?

I'm at the tail end of this class right now. I looked at the PowerPoint slides for the first chapter, and haven't touched any since, because I didn't feel they added any value if you're actually reading the chapters in the book.

[Kones]

Congrats on finishing the class!  Once I saw the syllabus I was quite overwhelmed at the amount of reading involved.  I think I've already spent 10 hours this week just reading everything and getting acquainted with the course.  I haven't even started the first case study yet!  Hopefully that will lessen as the course goes on.  

Do you feel reading the PowerPoint slides offered any added benefit to what was in the Chapter reading assignments?  I briefly skimmed them and it seemed like it was the same information as in the book.  Just curious if you felt reading this was worth the time?

I'm at the tail end of this class right now. I looked at the PowerPoint slides for the first chapter, and haven't touched any since, because I didn't feel they added any value if you're actually reading the chapters in the book.

I agree that there’s not much added value. But I did use the slides to study and help pinpoint important concepts. Much easier because you can do a find instead of having to flip through a textbook.

[TopHatWombat]

Now that I'm effectively done with this class, I'll add my final thoughts for this thread.

I'll reiterate the use of the two recommended study guides for the midterm exam, created by another forum member:

BUS-421 midterm study guide
BUS-421 midterm concepts & terms

These were the only resources I used to study for the midterm. I'm largely an auditory learner, so in addition to flipping through them on the web, I also used the voice memo app on my phone to record myself reading each of these Quizlet decks aloud. I then listened to those recordings multiple times while driving over the course of about ten days. This got me an 89% on the midterm. I'm sure I could have done better if I had spent time studying specific lists directly from the textbook, but I'm perfectly happy with my grade considering the limited study time I actually put in, which was probably around 6 hours.

I'm still waiting on grades for the last case study and the final project paper, but so far I've received a 100% on each of the case study papers from Dr. Courts. His evaluative feedback on the grades page is worth reading after your first paper submission. Basically, just follow the grading rubric and exactly answer the questions for each case study, and you'll be fine. I aimed to always include at least three to five citation sources outside of the textbook for each paper, and that seemed to work fine. Each paper took me about 2 hours to write.

For the online discussion forums, I always aimed to be as thorough as possible. Each of my responses has been several hundred words, rather than just a few sentences. I always aimed to include practical examples to illustrate the theme of each forum topic, provide 2-3 citations, and write replies to other students in a more detailed manner than you think is necessary. This has yielded me 100% on all discussion topics so far. I probably spent about 20-30 minutes writing each forum post, and 5-10 minutes on the mandatory replies. I also wrote more replies than the minimum, in an effort to make it an actual discussion.

For the final project, I chose the nuclear power case scenario (the scenario requirements are visible in a publicly available document that anybody can see before they register for the class, so I don't think I'm giving away anything secret here). This was based on my experience in that industry, the fact that it was the subject of my first TESU degree 20 years ago, and just a continued personal interest in the subject. One interesting difference between that case scenario and the other two options is that the other two specifically state which companies you're analyzing and writing a recommendation for (Google and Lockheed Martin), whereas the third option just says "a utility company". My assumption is that most students chose to write the case study about TEPCO, since that is the owner of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that experienced the disaster in question. I took a very different approach, however, and choose a specific U.S. utility company that happens to own and operate a nuclear power plant as part of their energy mix. This is submitted but not yet graded, so I don't know yet whether my approach was welcome or not, but I think it allowed me to present the analysis and strategy options from a unique perspective. I guess I'll edit this post after grades in a couple weeks to reflect how it was received.   My total time spent on the final project was about 12 hours.

The final and most important thing I want to post about is regarding the use of AI in an academic setting. Specifically, ChatGPT Plus, which gives you access to the most capable and recent language model, as well as dozens of proprietary extensions to GPT-4 from third parties. This should go without saying, but obviously don't use AI to write your papers and forum posts. That's cheating, they use AI detection software, and it's just plain wrong.

However, I used ChatGPT+ the entire semester as a research tool to find academic sources, as a spelling and grammar checker, to run my own pre-submission writing style and plagiarism checks, and to properly format citations. Basically, ChatGPT+ replaces every other tool referenced in the original post in this thread, such as EasyBib and Grammarly. I'll give a specific shout-out to the ScholarGPT extension that Plus users have access to, which claims to connect ChatGPT to 200 million journal articles and other academic sources (ChatGPT doesn't otherwise have access to external sources on the Internet). ScholarGPT was invaluable in helping me to find obscure journal articles and other references, including direct links to the journal articles. It also flawlessly generates the entire References page for you in proper APA 7 format, from the references you've flagged during a chat session. ChatGPT+ was the best $20/mo I spent during this term.

While I personally did not care for the subject matter of this course, and would never have chosen to take a corporate strategy class if it were optional for the degree, it wasn't as intimidating of a slog as I thought it was going to be. As many other forum members have stated, I highly recommend Dr. Bari Courts as your advisor for this class. Calendar out your deadlines before the term even starts, get ahead on reading the textbook, and just keep pace with that calendar.

I hope this is helpful to a future capstone student.

[Dosada]

Can anyone chime in on their experience with the Practice Midterm Exam?  Did anyone find it helpful compared to the study guide?  Was the actual exam similar to the Midterm?

[akr680]

Is the Mid term exam proctored ?

[TopHatWombat]

Is the Mid term exam proctored ?

Yes, with a live proctor using a really annoying system (ProctorU). Oh, how I wish they used RPNow, but sadly that's not an option.

---

Can anyone chime in on their experience with the Practice Midterm Exam?  Did anyone find it helpful compared to the study guide?  Was the actual exam similar to the Midterm?

The midterm study guide in the course shows you the possible topics that will be on the exam. Then the Quizlet guides up-thread are clearly derived from that. While the practice exam was helpful to see the format and preview the system, the actual practice exam questions were not helpful, in my personal opinion. But they also weren't unhelpful. So definitely do the practice exam, but don't expect the same questions (or even subject areas) on your actual test.