TESU BSBA Capstone - Case Study

[Merlin]

10 Multiple Choice and 4 essay questions.

2 points each on the multiple, and 20 each on the essay.

Like I said earlier, the pre-made flash cards from posta contained 100% of the information. Have a strong grasp of those and then you are asked to write 2-3 paragraphs explaining the answers.

My questions may be different then the ones you received, however I would say that the multiple choice was harder than I thought because there were a couple that "could" be, much more than typical multiple choice tests.

If you know the material on the flash cards (group mapping, blue ocean, offensive strategies, VRIN - SWOT, and how to implement and why etc), you will nail the essay questions.

When I reviewed the flash cards right after taking the midterm I had a few "dangit, I knew that and could have explained it better" moments. I feel that because I was vague in my mastery of some of terminology I will be scored down deservedly so. Yet, I think I did a "decent" job of bs'ing my way through the concepts that I will get a passing/decent score.


With your preparation, I'm sure you will be fine. Like I said, I did almost no studying and just winged it and feel ok.

Okay, I just completed the rescheduled exam. There were a number of confusing multiple choice questions like you said... I ended up having to make a best guess between some choices that seemed like they were equally valid options. For the essay questions, I feel like I did pretty well, though I ended up using almost the entire two hours... I had 2 minutes left when I was double-checking my work on the 4th essay. Luckily I was able to recall the important bits about how to implement the analysis strategies that they asked for. I'm looking forward to seeing my final score. I wonder how long that will take to post?

I found it odd that other than the "submit" button to end the second essay section, there wasn't a "done" button or something to finalize the exam. Plus once the exam was complete, there was no way to exit other than the "link" button that took me back to the course page or closing the page. My midterm exam area now shows "[Restricted] Not available unless: The activity Midterm Exam is incomplete", so I assume that means that it's complete since it is not available. Kind of backwards wording. Hopefully I'm not misinterpreting that.

Glad that it's done either way. I've determined that I don't like essay questions, particularly when I can't use a real editor or word processor and under a time limit.

Edit: Looks like the scores for the multiple choice section are available if you go to the grades section, I got 12 points so far (not including essays) which suggests that I got 6 of the 10 questions correct. That is probably the questions that I knew the answers to and the other 4 were ones I guessed on... incorrectly it appears.

[kodiak61]

Have to thank you Merlin, never even looked for or noticed a grades section before. I got 18/20 on the multiple choice, I won't begin to think that's going to be any sort of indicator for how I did on the essay questions, I know I miffed a those a little.

What did surprise me though was I have been awarded 95% on every one of the discussion forums. Yet, there is no note or explanation as to why I'm losing 5% points on the discussion. Only thing I can think of is I have not cited many sources or gone into extrapolated details on them, I thought they were just discussions. Suppose I will need to step my game up on those a little.

[Merlin]

Have to thank you Merlin, never even looked for or noticed a grades section before. I got 18/20 on the multiple choice, I won't begin to think that's going to be any sort of indicator for how I did on the essay questions, I know I miffed a those a little.

What did surprise me though was I have been awarded 95% on every one of the discussion forums. Yet, there is no note or explanation as to why I'm losing 5% points on the discussion. Only thing I can think of is I have not cited many sources or gone into extrapolated details on them, I thought they were just discussions. Suppose I will need to step my game up on those a little.

Hmm, I've received 100% on all my discussions so far. But I probably earn extra credit since I reply to every other student post and reply to a lot of the replies as well. I like to think I add value to the discussions too, so I assume that is reflected. I also tend to be pretty thorough on my own discussion posts, using citations as necessary, though there are at least one or two discussion posts that I didn't include any citations because they were purely opinion questions.

You can always drop a note to your mentor in the private forum to ask why you're losing 5% each time, though realistically those will probably be lost in the weightings since the discussions are only 15% of the grade. So if you end up with an average of 95% on those, at 15% weighting those become 14.25 (14) which means your final contribution will be 14 instead of 15 points. Not really that big of a deal.

I've considered asking why I keep losing 2% for APA citations on my case studies, though I suspect it is because I'm using obscure APA formats that the mentor isn't aware of. 2% doesn't really bother me enough to make a big deal about it, so I haven't bothered so far. Likewise, if I end up with 98% on all my case studies, with a 35% weighting that will mean I end up with 34.3 (34) instead of 35 points, so 1 point loss.

At this point, the midterm is going to be the biggest hit on my overall grade. Assuming I end up with 80% on that after the essays, after the 25% weighting, that will mean I only earn 20 out of 25 points for that. That means I'm going to end up having to get at least 90% on my final paper to be able to earn an A in the course. If I end up lower than 80%, that means I need an even higher final paper score. I mainly want an A so I can graduate with a 4.0 GPA, though ultimately I'll be fine with graduating.

[hrriggs03]

How can you guys tell the multiple choice have been graded but not the essays?

[Merlin]

How can you guys tell the multiple choice have been graded but not the essays?

Well, for one I was able to see the score right after I completed the exam and the essays require a human grader. So if you have a score listed you can assume that it was the multiple choice section since it was automatically scored.

For folks in the November term, I assume we won't see the essay scores until late next week at the earliest... more likely after the beginning of the year.

[Merlin]

How can you guys tell the multiple choice have been graded but not the essays?

Well, for one I was able to see the score right after I completed the exam and the essays require a human grader. So if you have a score listed you can assume that it was the multiple choice section since it was automatically scored.

For folks in the November term, I assume we won't see the essay scores until late next week at the earliest... more likely after the beginning of the year.

Looks like the midterm scores posted today. I ended up with a 92 overall. So I got 20/20 for all four essays and 6/10 for the multiple choice. That is better than I expected.

[Supermind]

Congratulations Merlin!!

[fork]

Can you explain the proctor format for the essays on the exam? Is is just a window you type into? I'm not a great typist so I'm just wondering what to expect. You're not able to edit at all or it's just difficult?

[Merlin]

Can you explain the proctor format for the essays on the exam? Is is just a window you type into? I'm not a great typist so I'm just wondering what to expect. You're not able to edit at all or it's just difficult?

After you complete the ten multiple choice questions, you move onto the next section where you are prompted with an essay question. There are four essay questions total, two in the second section and two in the third section.

Each essay question is presented in a big text box with no editing or formatting controls... it is not a WYSIWYG editor like a word processor or the forum editor, just a text box like on any other website. You type into it and edit it manually, using spaces to tab and if you want to use bullets, you can just use * or – characters as I did. To move around you use the arrows or click the cursor where you want it. You can't use cut and paste either, but you can highlight text and then drag it around with the mouse to move it. Its weird, but you get used to it if you use it.

FYI, the Q&A questions are tricky and many appear to have more than one correct answer, so review them several times before answering. But that section is only worth 20/100 points total (2 points each) so it isn't that critical. The essays are worth 20 points each, so that is where you need to spend your time.

Good luck on your midterm!

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I'm working on my final project for the Capstone and am running into trouble trying to figure out how it should be structured/presented. The instructions say to write an original 3500-5500 word (14-20 page) anaytical report. But it doesn't feel like they are asking for a traditional English Composition style academic analytical essay. That doesn't support any of what we've been doing in the course to date. I spent the weekend bogged down trying to research how to do an analytical report rather than actually working on the paper itself.

If anyone here has an example final paper they can share, that would be awesome for me and anyone else looking to complete this course in the future. I've already done a good chunk of the research on my topic, so I don't need any content help, just the organization and/or structure or even an outline to give me some idea of how to put it together and present it. I asked my course mentor and he said he'd like to help but doesn't have permission to share any of the papers he's graded in the past, so he can't provide any examples. He did offer some insights that, while not really providing the structural example that I need, helps a bit.

Thanks.

[AMRH94]

A huge thanks to everyone that has contributed to this thread! I'm planning on registering for the Capstone in the March term and this thread has helped calm my fears as well as give me some indication of what to expect.