Business 421 capstone | TESU | Tips from our members

[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.