Liberal Arts Capstone has replaced both textbooks with a free e-book

[dcan]

Don't know if this was mentioned before or not (did a search, nothing found) so just in case I figured I'd pass it along...

I start my capstone in July and just went to check the required texts so I can order them. It traditionally required two texts, one on writing a thesis/dissertation.

Today I checked and there is now no textbook is required for the Liberal Arts capstone. Dr Haydel has written a 117-page e-book and per the syllabus that is the only required text. This is confirmed through MBS Direct as well. The book is available right now from the example syllabus available here: http://www2.tesu.edu/syllabus/current/LI...B-495.html

Though I can't be sure, I think the syllabus has been expanded to explain the types of projects that can be completed. Though maybe those were there before, can't recall. I did however confirm that this is a new change -- MBS Direct shows two required texts as recently as the June 2017 class: Writing the Winning Thesis or Dissertation and Keys for Writers.

I'm sure some will appreciate this and be happy with this change. However I plan to purchase the first book anyway. My gut feeling is that they are "simplifying" the capstone. Writing the Winning Thesis or Dissertation is nearly three times longer than the e-book. Seems appropriate for a true capstone course.

Since I haven't been through the capstone yet I don't know how this will compare to previous courses, or if they've changed the course any more significantly. I've done a lot of reading of the experiences here though so if anything jumps out as significantly different I'll be sure to let everyone know.

[rlw74]

I seriously doubt they are simplifying the capstone. The Writing the Winning Thesis never was tailored to that course. I'm in it now. You only need a small portion of that book and it's nothing you can't get online from other sources. Hopefully the ebook will give better explanations specific to the course. Right now it's broken up into 6 modules. If you were to write the paper as a true research paper you wouldn't have chapters. It would have an entirely different structure. But the course has to be this way to break it up into manageable sections that are spaced 2 weeks apart. The book will be good for writing your master's thesis and the course will prepare you for that.

We were given detailed instructions on the different types of projects but most opt for the normal APA style paper. It makes it easier overall in the discussion forums and cuts out some of the work of preparing videos/PowerPoint presentations etc. All that has to be shared with the class if you include it and you are in an online format class - at least in my class that is how it is.

Who do you have for your mentor? I loved mine. I have Cody. I'm just waiting for my final paper to be graded. It is due tonight but I submitted it a week ago. So hopefully it's first in line so I can email advising and get my final audit done.

[davewill]

Yeah, Writing The Winning Thesis was a bad fit, so if they've published something more pertinent to the course it can only help. If it's free, so much the better. It would have been easy to turn it into an expensive text.

[dcan]

Apparently I was quick to judge and am glad to hear I could be wrong. I'm actually looking forward to the class, though my current class will overlap about 3 weeks at the start of the capstone.

Who do you have for your mentor? I loved mine. I have Cody.

I have Cody too! I took a lot of notes reading through the forums here discussing the mentors and he was consistently one of the highest recommended. Also highly recommended were Maugh and Haydel.