TESU Liberal Arts Capstone mentor feedback

[happydayruth]

I just realized that I wrote a review about my mentor on another forum, but never posted it here. I'll do so to hopefully help others in the process of choosing a Capstone mentor!

- My Mentor
My Mentor for the online class was Dr. Gregory Caicco. Dr. C. was very engaged with the class and with the forum posts, which was very helpful to everyone. I will also say that Dr. C., for the most part, responded to all of my email questions (except one) and provided excellent direction for the Capstone projects, and I also ended up with a great grade. The biggest thing that bothered me with Dr. C. is that I consistently felt like his feedback, while he did give it, was mostly generic and blanket-like. Also just to note, Dr. C. does not provide examples and will not "pre-read" assignments before they are turned in. He was, however, very willing to answer questions asking for clarification on instructions.

I think a *lot* of your Capstone experience depends on which mentor you have. I get the impression from reading about other students' experiences that not all mentors have the same requirements. Bear that in mind. Dr. C. pretty much *required* that our project include research that you conducted yourself via survey or interviews. The topic chosen needed to be fairly narrow, and confined to a particular time/place. For example, you could not say that you want to research the effects of technology on teenagers. He would probably say that "technology" is too broad, and your study group of teens needs to be a particular group in a particular place. So...teens (ages 13-18) from low-income families in the U.S. between year 1999-2015. (My example is not perfect, but I hope you get the idea.) Generally, Dr. C. wanted the "problem" to be one that is able to be documented as existing, before doing the research on it. So for example, one of my classmates wanted to research the "problem" of food safety in U.S. restaurants, and used the recent Chipotle issues as documentation of the problem. In Dr. C.'s own words: "You first have to document that this is actually happening before you can study it--Ideally it needs to happen within the United States and in the past 5 to 10 years. You cannot go on your own anecdotal evidence or heresay. Otherwise this will be a project that will simply be created to confirm your own bias. A good way to document that public this is by looking at government data or published research that has noted a problem..."

- My Topic
First, I want to mention that I had kept the Capstone in the back of my mind ever since I began pursuing my degree. I would make note of ideas and links that I thought might prove helpful once it came time to take the course. However, I was not able to nail down my topic until after I actually started the course. So don't panic if you don't know exactly what you want your project to be on before you start.

I knew I wanted to do my project on a topic that had something to do with English as a Second Language, since that is my area of interest and the focus of my English degree. But I started the course without being very clear on how to make that a good research topic. I ended up with the following "main question" for my research project:

"Why do adult (18-65 years old) U.S. immigrants whose first language is not English seem to demonstrate a consistent pattern of functional English illiteracy, even after living in the U.S. for 10 or more years?"

I was able to establish documentation of this problem through data reports and published research, and I knew that I could conduct my own primary research by distributing a survey to a network of ESL teachers and administrators that I belong to. The survey ended up being one of my favorite parts of the project.

[jsd]

Anybody had Dan Wiley? They said they can see if they can move me to his class, but I can't find any word about him anywhere

I ended up switching to Wiley even though I couldn't find any reviews on him. The reviews I found on the other mentor they tried to move me to didn't look good, so worst case with Wiley is he is also not good, but at least the possibility exists that he's better that Chawla.

Class officially starts Monday, but access to the content and professor opened up Thursday night. At least I already received some good news from Dr. Wiley after asking about needing to do original research...

You can do original research, but you can also work with existing research in the field, so long as you do something new with it (e.g., apply that research to answer a new question). Either way, the research must be fairly detailed. You'll use the special subscription databases that TESU provides rather than Google searches, and the final project will need to cite a minimum of 15 sources.

Does that help?

Good luck,
Dan

That's the only interaction I've had with him so far, so who knows how he'll be as a mentor, but he answered quickly (and gave the answer I hoped for :p ) so, so far so good.

When all is said and done come August, I hope I'm able to give a glowing review of him.

[petersouth]

I had Dr. Weischadle for capstone. I think he is a fair grader, but very tough to win over. I worked very hard on all of my assignments and was typically disappointed in my grades, but thought they were fair considering my shortcomings. In retrospect, my first few assignments were fubar, but I think they take into account that the capstone is a work in progress and most people don't know what the hell is going on - so I am actually lucky I didn't get a lower grade on those. I did all my discussion forums on time, followed directions, and put forth thoughtful submissions and aced all those. I think good writers will break into the A range on the written paper assignments, but otherwise will have a tough time. My tips for doing well with him are 1) properly cite in either APA or MPA (be consistent with whatever one you choose 2) make it readable and understandable for a common undergraduate student (if it is highly technical and only understandable to a PHD student in that field you will get docked). 3) the professor will make recommendations on where he wants your direction to go. If you follow them your grade will go up. Some of his recommendations may not seem in tune with your project and then you will have to make the personal decision to get higher grade or keep the focus of your project. 4) you will have to reach out to him if you are having problems. he'll remain very distant and assume you are doing fine on your own otherwise. 5) some of my classmates had problems "meshing" with him.

[Mamasaphire]

I ended up switching to Wiley even though I couldn't find any reviews on him. The reviews I found on the other mentor they tried to move me to didn't look good, so worst case with Wiley is he is also not good, but at least the possibility exists that he's better that Chawla.
...
When all is said and done come August, I hope I'm able to give a glowing review of him.

So how's it going with Wiley & also with your Capstone project?

[jsd]

I really like him. I haven't had to interact with him too much, but his feedback has been very insightful. He's always on top of sending reminders and updates to the class, which compared to the only other TESU course I've taken is a nice change. My previous mentor didn't seem to be involved at all in the course except for grading papers. Wiley is a bit more active.

The capstone isn't fun and it can get a bit grueling, but as many people have said it's really just repeating yourself over and over again. I'm only working on chapter 3 so far, but it's unbelievable how much I have written the same thing in different ways. You're a bit on your own trying to figure out what the course is actually asking you to do. The book isn't very helpful and I've basically stopped opening it. It's aimed at a level beyond the scope of this capstone. I've relied pretty much exclusively on the sample papers that others were so kind to share here for guidance. I'd be lost without them. I'm sure Wiley would be helpful if I reached out to him for it, but thankfully due to the samples I've gotten by without bugging him. But I can't imagine what a headache this course would be without samples or without a mentor who is accessible.

I'm not particularly gung-ho or proud of my paper; I'm not putting the most effort into it that I feel like I should. I feel like I finally hit a wall gathering up all of these credits, and I'm so happy that these are my final three. I guess I have senioritis hilarious

That being said, Wiley's grading on the first 2 chapters has been more than fair, and an A should be easily attainable if everything keeps up at this rate.

[msd2012]

I'm finishing up the course with Steve Ryan. I chose him based on much of the feedback I read here and I am very happy with the choice. He gives sample papers, lots of guidance and is a more than fair grader. Having those sample papers really, really helped me figure out how to structure the project. Definitely recommend him.

[PunctuationMark]

I just recently finished the Capstone with Dr. Haydel, who as previously mentioned created the capstone course.

Overall Dr. Haydel was very involved with all of us in making sure we picked an acceptable topic -- the first discussion forum post involves you basically sharing what your topic is, or what you're leaning towards. She got involved on pretty much everyone's discussion forum postings, and the chapter feedback was clear so that I didn't need to ask any followup questions to understand what was required of me.

In addition, she posted several example papers of every single chapter, which was critical to use as a guide; probably the most important part of the entire course for me. I was glad I went with her as my mentor.

[toast iguana]

I had Dr.Haydel. She wrote a book on this course(and was the creator of the course). During my capstone, she was giving it to us electronically,for free. I am not sure what will happen once it is printed.(maybe its already printed). I got an A in this class. She gives out multiple sample papers,and sample chapters. If you are willing to work, you will be okay. She has a quick response to all questions. This really is unlike anything you've ever written before. It was hard at first to get my head around that. Make sure you have your APA format locked down TIGHT. She is not playin' when it comes to that lol

[Mamasaphire]

Overall Dr. Haydel was very involved with all of us in making sure we picked an acceptable topic -- the first discussion forum post involves you basically sharing what your topic is, or what you're leaning towards. She got involved on pretty much everyone's discussion forum postings, and the chapter feedback was clear so that I didn't need to ask any followup questions to understand what was required of me.

In addition, she posted several example papers of every single chapter, which was critical to use as a guide; probably the most important part of the entire course for me. I was glad I went with her as my mentor.

Very helpful. Congrats on finishing well!

I had Dr.Haydel. She wrote a book on this course(and was the creator of the course).... I got an A in this class.... She gives out multiple sample papers,and sample chapters. If you are willing to work, you will be okay. She has a quick response to all questions.

Thanks for sharing! Good job on the A!!

[JTP]

JSD,

How is the capstone course going? You should be rappidly approaching the finish line I think.