Does anyone know what the Capstone of excelsior college is?

[qiaoyiren]

I am now studying Cornerstone Course, which is an 8-week course, and ended up being just a short paper. Does capstone mean a graduation thesis? I heard that in traditional universities, someone prepares for a graduation thesis for a year. Capstone is also an 8-week course. Can we complete the graduation thesis in only 8 weeks? Or maybe there are still a few months of writing time after the course, I am very curious now, I hope someone with experience can answer my question, thank you all.
By the way, does anyone know how many words capstone should write？

[ss20ts]

I don't know of any bachelor's degree program which requires a graduation thesis that takes a year. Master's and doctorate degrees, yes. Not bachelor's degrees. Capstone is a 8 week course. You'll write papers. Each one is different based on the professor and the type of degree. It is not a graduation thesis. When you register for the course, there's a description for that section of the course and what it entails. 

[rachel83az]

I would assume that it's similar, but not identical, to TESU's capstone. TESU's capstone doesn't take a full year either.

[dfrecore]

Even at the traditional state universities here, where a capstone course is now the norm, you take it your final term, and it's alongside your other courses. It will take just the term (usually 15-16 weeks for a semester system or 10-12 weeks for a quarter system). Depending on your major, it may be a paper, or it may be a project of some kind (or both). But it will never be a year-long thing.

[qiaoyiren]

I don't know of any bachelor's degree program which requires a graduation thesis that takes a year. Master's and doctorate degrees, yes. Not bachelor's degrees. Capstone is a 8 week course. You'll write papers. Each one is different based on the professor and the type of degree. It is not a graduation thesis. When you register for the course, there's a description for that section of the course and what it entails. 

Thank you very much, so capstone doesn't sound too difficult！

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I would assume that it's similar, but not identical, to TESU's capstone. TESU's capstone doesn't take a full year either.

I am very glad you can reply to me, I have seen you in many posts! ! !

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Even at the traditional state universities here, where a capstone course is now the norm, you take it your final term, and it's alongside your other courses.  It will take just the term (usually 15-16 weeks for a semester system or 10-12 weeks for a quarter system).  Depending on your major, it may be a paper, or it may be a project of some kind (or both).  But it will never be a year-long thing.

Thank you for providing such detailed information

[mrskitty]

Now that it’s June, have you completed the Capstone and how was it?

[trfcrugby]

I'm 4 weeks into the LA capstone.

There is a group project, which is kind of a mess working with people all over the place, with varying levels of skill.

There's a paper to write, with lots of steps involved that are checked along the way.  The paper appears to be somewhere around 12-15 pages long.  There's also a presentation required, but since that assignment is still locked, I can't tell you much about it.

My main gripe about it is the format.  You're working on 3-4 different things at once, and the assignments unlock when you complete the previous one.  So you can't really look ahead to read the future assignments.

It's basically just a bunch of writing and research.  Time-consuming, but not terribly difficult.

[mrskitty]

I'm 4 weeks into the LA capstone.

There is a group project, which is kind of a mess working with people all over the place, with varying levels of skill.

There's a paper to write, with lots of steps involved that are checked along the way.  The paper appears to be somewhere around 12-15 pages long.  There's also a presentation required, but since that assignment is still locked, I can't tell you much about it.

My main gripe about it is the format.  You're working on 3-4 different things at once, and the assignments unlock when you complete the previous one.  So you can't really look ahead to read the future assignments.

It's basically just a bunch of writing and research.  Time-consuming, but not terribly difficult.

Thanks for the feedback! So, basically the group project has nothing to do with the paper? I hate group projects. Also, would this be doable to take with another class? My advisor advised against it.

[trfcrugby]

I'm 4 weeks into the LA capstone.

There is a group project, which is kind of a mess working with people all over the place, with varying levels of skill.

There's a paper to write, with lots of steps involved that are checked along the way.  The paper appears to be somewhere around 12-15 pages long.  There's also a presentation required, but since that assignment is still locked, I can't tell you much about it.

My main gripe about it is the format.  You're working on 3-4 different things at once, and the assignments unlock when you complete the previous one.  So you can't really look ahead to read the future assignments.

It's basically just a bunch of writing and research.  Time-consuming, but not terribly difficult.

Thanks for the feedback! So, basically the group project has nothing to do with the paper? I hate group projects. Also, would this be doable to take with another class? My advisor advised against it.

I would agree with your advisor.  The class is not hard.  There are just lots of little things to do.
I've taken about 5 classes at EC, and this is the only one that I have not enjoyed.

There are several parts to the class, all running concurrently:

Group project:
Week 1 - introduce everyone
Week 2 - assign roles in the group
Week 3 - do some small writing about your assigned topic
Week 4 - annotated bib
My comments:  This part of the class has sucked.  No one reads the assignment completely, no one reads the rubric, so everyone is arguing and lost.  Might just be my group, but I'm paired with someone who tells everyone what to do and screws up constantly.  I spend the most time in this section trying to get everyone on the same page and assignments done because our "leader" is terrible.  The assignment is exceptionally easy...but if you don't read the instructions and the rubric you will fail, and it's 30% of your grade.  The end product appears to be a presentation in Voicethread.  You are correct, the group project has nothing to do with your main paper.

Final paper:
Depending on the instructor, 12-20 pages.
Needs a literature review.
Must be peer-reviewed by someone in your field.
You get to choose the topic.

Final presentation:
I have not gotten this far, but it looks like it is a ppt for an audience based on your research for the paper.
Requires a written script.

The Random Module
There's a final section where you have to do an internship, conduct an interview with someone, and there's one final option, I can't recall what it was.
Since I'm 20 years into my career, I'm not doing an internship, so I chose to do an interview.
There's a bunch of busy work for this one... a professional email to request the interview, draft the interview questions, and a post-interview essay.

Finally...weekly journal logs.
Answer 3-4 questions each week in a blog kind of setup.


Overall, I spend way too much time on the group project, just because of personality conflicts.  I had someone in my group complain to me that my annotated bibliography entries were too long that I needed to shorten them.  I had to go online and get proof that my 100-word entries were acceptable, even slightly short, before they would stop pestering me to shorten them.  If not for this being 30% of my grade I'd just do crap work and be done with it.  However, the grading seems to be pretty strict in the course overall, so I don't want to risk anything on my last class.  I've pulled a 4.0 in every college class I've ever taken, and in this class I'm holding like an 85%, so I don't have 30% to spare for personality conflicts.

And that leads me to the last thing...with my instructor the grades are given at the end, holistically.  So I say I have an 85% because the few things that have been graded were scored there...but the bulk of the class is scored at the end.  So I could have an A-?  I could have a C?  I don't know for sure.

I feel busy with this one class, because there's so much going on at once.

[Chirp]

Hey there! I've been waiting to comment on this thread until I completed my Capstone. I'm a few days away! mine was for History, and it really wasn't bad. 8-12 page paper at the end