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The present study aims to the feasibility and potential application of briquettes obtained from dehydrated mahogany sawdust as a feasible and eco-friendly alternative to traditional fuels. Briquettes have been observed to be widely utilized in rural areas for culinary purposes. These briquettes are derived from various biomass sources, which contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions and the promotion of ecological consciousness in waste management and energy generation. Lantawan Municipality of Basilan, renowned for its agricultural resources, such mahogany lumber and sawdust as substantial agricultural wastes that can be potential to the production of biofuel. Notably, CMS exhibits favorable characteristics for briquette manufacturing, owing to its capacity for carbon sequestration, durability, efficiency, burning time, kindling time, and heat quality. This study aims to assess the physical characteristics, efficacy, and combustion time of CMS charcoal briquettes by means of a Likert questionnaire. Results revealed a cumulative average rating of 5.0 (Very Much liked) in all parameters expressing high praise for the briquettes' remarkable capacity. Although CMS briquettes performed well in all physical tests, proving their viability as an eco-friendly energy source, recommendation such as collection and transformation of mahogany sawdust into sustainable alternative biomass fuel, Enhancement of the efficiency and accessibility by involving Technical-Vocational-Livelihood (TVL) students in the design and creation of machines that could optimize the production process and testing briquettes to various parameters such as fixed carbon content, moisture content, and ash content to improve product yields and performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a lack of mentorship assessment and objective improvement measures for mentorship in the field of occupational therapy. This study aimed to investigate differences in mentor readiness and identify areas for improvement. Participants completed the validated Mentor Competency Assessment. Participants were stratified into two groups for data analysis. 103 participants were included. No significant differences were identified, indicating that the instrument was unable to differentiate between those with and without mentor experience. An occupational therapy mentor competency assessment may be useful for mentor development, process improvement, and future educational opportunities.

Background: Historically marginalized psychologists are underrepresented in history of psychology textbooks, which contributes to their poor recognition by psychology students. Open Educational Resources (OERs) offer a viable solution to inadequate pioneer representation. Objective: This study sought to replicate and extend prior research by examining whether diverse and inclusive OERs related to students' pioneer recognition and perceptions of course material identity representation (recognitive justice). Method: Undergraduate students (N = 50) enrolled in a History of Psychology course completed a pioneer recognition test at the beginning and end of the semester. Students' perceptions of recognitive justice and the OERs were also assessed. Results: Initial pioneer recognition benefitted white pioneers and pioneering men. Follow-up recognition significantly improved for all pioneer groups. Students reported positive perceptions of OERs, and feelings of recognitive justice were associated with final grades. Conclusion: Undergraduate psychology students need exposure to marginalized pioneers prior to taking a history of psychology course. A more inclusive history of psychology curriculum improves students' marginalized pioneer recognition and may benefit their course performance. Teaching Implications: Given the absence of women and pioneers of color in commercial textbooks, teachers of the history of psychology should consider using OERs to achieve more diverse pioneer representation in their curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background A capstone course often serves as the final checkpoint of student readiness before the commencement of experiential training. The purpose of this study was to determine if the assessment components from the capstone course can serve as predictors of student performance during their Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPEs). Methods Student data was analyzed to observe the correlation between performance in the Pharmacy Curriculum Outcomes Assessment (PCOA), student performance in the capstone course, and the overall grade point average (GPA) earned during APPEs. Spearman rank correlation analysis, multiple linear regression, and Mann-Whitney U test were used for statistical analysis. Results A statistically significant positive correlation was observed between the overall APPE GPA and students’ capstone course grade, top drug competency exam score, pharmacy calculation competency exam score, and PCOA exam score. A significant regression equation was obtained during the analysis: (F(5, 97) = 5.62, p

The capstone project is considered one of the most important contemporary global applications that are offered to university students, through which it is possible to support the academic program for industrial design in Egypt and develop the professional experiences of the graduate who faces great challenges between what he practiced in university life and what he should be in practical and professional life. In the Capstone Project, students work in teams divided into groups of up to 5 students to design, build and test prototypes using real-world applications. The duration of the Capstone Project lasts for two full semesters, and at the end of the semester, students present their efforts they have reached in the design required for a project Graduation This period gives students some time to plan and implement their project, so that the main objective of this project is to test the students' competency and skill level. Thus, the capstone course is an integrated experience for an educational program. Through it, it is possible to think about all the things that were important to the student in university life by solving the most complex problems in the early educational stages. The capstone also helps in preparing the graduation project, which is one of the critical needs of students to help them pass the last semester, which qualifies him for practical life. The capstone course also provides students with privileges by providing opportunities to work with real-world, open-ended and interdisciplinary challenges proposed by sponsors of industrial and research projects. They learn and apply the engineering design process, define functional requirements, conceptualize, analyze, identify risks and countermeasures, and choose between physical models. Based on the above, Capstone courses in industrial design seek to prepare students to solve real-world problems to be more prepared for the workforce. The research paper deals with the definition of the capstone, its importance, characteristics, types and Methodology for the industrial design graduate in career progression, the method of its application and examples of it from some industrial design universities.

Over and above technical skills, software development graduates need to also poses team-based skills, such as, leadership, oral communication and project management by the time they graduate from tertiary institutions. In order to fulfil this requirement, institutions introduced a project-based module, generally referred to as capstone, to be undertaken by students on the their final year. The essence of this module, amongst other things, is to expose students to the real-world professional experience through partnership with industry. Much research has been conducted on students software projects, but very little investigation has gone into understanding how students evaluate the success of their projects. In is in this light that this study was conducted. A systematic literature review (SLR) was performed on empirical studies published between 2000 and 2022, to establish criteria used by students in evaluating software project success. The investigation led to the discovery of one (1) paper, which identified three most important success criteria used by students. However, this study identified some short-comings (eg students had to pretend to be employed graduates when evaluating the imaginary projects) with the approach used by the abovementioned research paper in determining the students' success criteria. Beside the fact that there is only one study that was found that addresses the study's phenomenon, the identified short-comings on the paper indicate that there is a need for empirical research studies on this matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, social work has focused on identifying widespread societal problems that should drive research, teaching, and practice in the coming years. There are very few scholarly articles about the integration of the Grand Challenges into curricula, despite reports that about half of social work academic institutions have done so. This study provides pre-post data from a cohort of social work students who focused their undergraduate capstone experiences on the Grand Challenges. The vast majority of undergraduate social work students were initially unaware of the Grand Challenges. Students felt that they had significantly more perceived competence to address almost all of the Grand Challenges at the end of the course. There was increased interest in addressing smart decarceration. Integration of the Grand Challenges into undergraduate curricula should occur, especially as social workers prioritize work on restorative justice and mass incarceration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the outcomes of a faculty partnership between a math professor and a composition professor to improve the final paper in a research-focused senior capstone math course. Much attention has been paid in recent years to the importance of undergraduate research experiences and how to best create and support such endeavors. However, little space has been dedicated to helping math faculty design and scaffold writing assignments to support their students' development as scholars. We describe how our partnership took place, the changes we made to existing assignments and the creation of new ones, and an assessment of our efforts completed by an interdisciplinary group of faculty and students, which showed marked improvement in the areas of information literacy, critical thinking, and quality of writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A capstone course often serves as the final checkpoint of student readiness before the commencement of experiential training. The purpose of this study was to determine if the assessment components from the capstone course can serve as predictors of student performance during their Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPEs). Methods: Student data was analyzed to observe the correlation between performance in the Pharmacy Curriculum Outcomes Assessment (PCOA), student performance in the capstone course, and the overall grade point average (GPA) earned during APPEs. Spearman rank correlation analysis, multiple linear regression, and Mann-Whitney U test were used for statistical analysis. Results: A statistically significant positive correlation was observed between the overall APPE GPA and students' capstone course grade, top drug competency exam score, pharmacy calculation competency exam score, and PCOA exam score. A significant regression equation was obtained during the analysis: (F(5, 97) = 5.62, p < 0.001), with an R2 = 0.225 (adjusted R2 = 0.185). In the linear regression model, capstone GPA emerged as a significant predictor (β = 0.155; p = 0.019) of APPE GPA amongst the tested variables. Additionally, students scoring < 73% on the top drug competency exam in the capstone course or less than the reference group in the PCOA exam were found to have significantly lower GPA during their APPEs compared to other students. Conclusion: Performance on the top drug competency exam and the PCOA exam can serve as potential predictors of success during APPEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering education has continually evolved to embrace Project–Based Learning (PBL), a dynamic classroom approach emphasizing learning through engagement in real–world projects. The study conducts a comparative analysis of multidisciplinary Capstone Senior Design Projects across Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Computer Science at Texas A&M University at Texarkana. The research emphasizes understanding the dynamics of student collaboration within these disciplines and scrutinizes the impact of industry and faculty sponsorship on these projects. The methodology involves a comprehensive comparative analysis, employing diverse performance metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of different sponsorship models. This approach aims to uncover the influence of these models on project outcomes and students' educational experiences. The results reveal notable differences between industry–sponsored and faculty–sponsored projects. Industry sponsorship leads to higher performance in overall project execution and professional skills development. In contrast, faculty–sponsored projects are more effective in nurturing teamwork and communication abilities among students. The findings suggest that each sponsorship type presents unique benefits and challenges. Industry–sponsored projects provide valuable hands–on problem–solving experience, though they may suffer from inconsistencies in mentorship and varying expectations. Faculty–sponsored projects offer a more stable and consistent educational environment but might lag slightly in performance metrics. Integrating elements from both sponsorship models could provide students with a more balanced and enriching learning experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed to know the opinions of faculty members about the use of digital platforms to manage graduation projects (Capstone), which includes the preferred digital collaborative tools, the appropriate roles that can be played, and the regulatory concerns that may arise from this type of collaboration. To achieve the aim of the study, the descriptive analytical approach was adopted, and three online platforms were reviewed to manage and facilitate cooperation on graduation projects through description and analysis, and knowing the current reality of the graduation projects in the Department of Information Systems at King Abdulaziz University, and the tool used was the interview, and the questionnaire was used as a main tool in the study. The sample amounted to 71 faculty members, after which it was analyzed. The study concluded with a set of results, including: the importance of employing participatory technical means and tools on the platform, especially the tools that provide the possibility of direct communication between the project team in writing, audio, and video, as well as reconsidering in some roles in the platform and determining the role of each person and the tasks required of him and taking into account flexibility and non-interference in powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment is essential to ensure that quality levels of teaching and learning are maintained in graduate programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD). In this article, we present a ten-year retrospective case study of one CSD master’s program approach to address speech-language pathology program-level summative assessment. We evaluated the strength of the relation between three departmental summative measures (i.e., Grand Rounds [Capstone Course] final grade percentages, Written Comprehensive examinations, Oral Comprehensive examinations) and the national Praxis Examination in Speech-Language Pathology (5331). The strongest correlations were between the Grand Rounds final grade percentages, Written Comprehensive examinations, and the Praxis. The weakest correlations were between the Oral Comprehensive examinations and the other examination types. The study findings demonstrate the concurrent validity of Grand Rounds final grade percentages, Written Comprehensive examinations, and the Praxis. Capstone courses should be considered for their benefit in Praxis preparation, whereas oral comprehensive examinations may better serve as formative rather than summative assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maintaining peace is intricate, with Blue Helmets symbolizing hope for millions. They play a pivotal role in peacekeeping, raising questions about its ease. Effective partnerships with international and local actors require dedication and preparedness. UN Peacekeepers must execute their mandate professionally, protecting themselves and upholding UN rules. This study explores the significance of deploying peacekeepers and the establishment process of the UN Peacekeeping Training Department. Analyzing peacekeeping policies like the Brahimi Report 2000, Capstone Doctrine 2008, and others delves into the complexity of deployment. Case studies of Pakistan’s Centre for International Peace and Stability and Peacekeeping Training Department provide insights, supplemented by UN reports and discussions with peacekeeping staff.

This article offers a rationale and model for a reflective capstone course for English majors. Rooted in the SoTL concepts of active transfer and project‐based experiential learning, this course asks students to reflect on and analyze their undergraduate work while developing a toolkit to articulate the value of their humanities degrees. Toward that end, students create scaffolded professional projects in multiple genres that help them highlight the soft skills they have developed in their academic career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Engineers are socialized to value rational approaches to problem solving. A lack of awareness of how engineers use different decision‐making approaches is problematic because it perpetuates the ongoing development of inequitable engineering designs and contributes to a lack of inclusion in the field. Although researchers have explored how engineering students are socialized, further work is needed to understand students' beliefs about different decision‐making approaches. Purpose/Hypothesis: We explored the espoused beliefs of undergraduate students about technical, empathic, experience‐based, and guess‐based approaches to engineering design decisions. Design/Method: We conducted semistructured one‐on‐one interviews with 20 senior engineering students at the conclusion of their capstone design experience. We used a combination of deductive and inductive data condensation approaches to generate categories of beliefs. Results: We identified a total of nine categories of beliefs, organized by approach. Although students' espoused beliefs did reflect the emphasis on technical approaches present in their socialization, they also described technical approaches as limited and overvalued. Conclusion: The landscape of beliefs presented make explicit both the challenges and the opportunities that students' beliefs play as the backdrop for any efforts of engineering educators to develop engineers as effective and equitable engineering designers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The grading of assessments that consists of large calculations represents an odious task for educators, as they must verify the correct procedures and algorithms were used as well as ensure that the calculations have been done correctly. For engineering capstone design project assessments, these calculations represent spreadsheets, coding and ancillary calculations that can run to over a hundred pages. There is no meaningful way an educator can properly assess such material in the timeframe given for grading. As such, quantitative tools are needed that enable educators to rapidly evaluate calculation-based assessments. Forensic auditing tools were used here to evaluate calculation-based assessments associated with chemical engineering capstone design projects. These tools analyse how data within sets are presented, the structure of spreadsheets and tables, as well as statistical principles around numbers and their distribution within large data sets. This enables the rapid identification of features within students' assessments that warrant further investigation to establish if the data has been manipulated or calculation errors exist. The analysis demonstrated that chemical engineering students' reports can be analysed by forensic auditing tools. Furthermore, these tools identified student errors and misconduct, based on abnormal results highlighted by the analysis, which were not discovered during the standard grading procedure. Applying forensic auditing tools enable a rapid approach to verify engineering students reports submitted for grading. This approach will reduce the time burden on educators, enabling them to focus on ensuring the correct design equations and procedures have been applied. • Establishing forensic auditing tools can analyse chemical engineering student capstone projects. • Identification of numeral formatting within students' reports as one mechanism for error/misconduct detection. • Utilising statistical methods on numbered data sets to identify student's calculation errors and misconduct. • Identifying several significant errors within students' capstone projects that were missed by educators during standard grading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capstone experience in engineering curriculums is a critical component focused on the unification of several years of student learning, but its unique nature can present challenges to engineering departments in faculty assignment and ensuring consistent, high-quality instruction. During a seven-year period, five instructional modalities, defining the interaction between students and faculty, were explored in capstone courses in the University of Maine Mechanical Engineering Department. By sharing the lessons learned from this case study, other engineering departments can make more informed decisions about how to operate capstone courses. We present the benefits and challenges of each modality and evaluate them for scalability, student satisfaction, project diversity, cost, and instructor workload. Annual data were collected on student, instructor, and project counts. Data from student evaluations and department budgets were used to evaluate student satisfaction and costs, respectively. Insights from the three authors, who were the primary capstone instructors during this study, are shared as part of the evaluations and lessons learned. Key results are that cost, student satisfaction, and project diversity did not depend strongly on the teaching modality. However, scalability and instructor workload were highly dependent on the teaching modality. The University of Maine Mechanical Engineering Department sees the most promise in a modality with multiple lead instructors who each oversee a portion of the teams, which provides scalability to add or remove instructors, and the ability for high-quality instruction through close coordination of a small instructor group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The online Executive MPH (EMPH) Program at Emory University offers three majors, and prior to 2015, all integrated learning experiences (ILE) required theses. In 2015, the Program adjusted the ILE requirement based on each major's intended career outcomes: Applied Epidemiology (Epidemiology: research thesis); Applied Public Health Informatics (Informatics: program-focused capstone courses instead of thesis); Prevention Science (Prevention: choice of research or program-focused thesis or program-focused capstone courses). Our goal was to describe major-specific curricular changes of the ILE requirement aimed to reduce time-to-graduation. We compared three cohort years before (2012–2014) and after (2015–2017) the 2015 curricular change using registrar data of time-to-graduation (339 students) and students' self-reported satisfaction with their thesis experience (152 students). Informatics and Prevention majors had significantly more students (34%–35%) graduate on time in the 2015–2017, compared to the 2012–2015, cohorts. There was no significant difference by cohorts in perceived student thesis satisfaction in Informatics and Prevention majors and a decrease in satisfaction in Epidemiology majors. Before 2015, the main theme reported as a detractor to thesis satisfaction was lack of Program thesis support. After 2015, this detractor theme was not mentioned and instead a motivator theme was continuous thesis support. After 2015, the main detractor theme was difficulty with time management. Consistent motivator themes across 2012–2015 included thesis committee support and students' self-fulfillment due to their thesis learning experience. The curricular strategies described can inform other online and residential programs that have a thesis requirement for the ILE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article shares the reflective experiences and learning of two students and a faculty member from the Bachelor of Child Studies degree at Mount Royal University who embarked on a collaborative learning journey in a 4th-year capstone course. Capstone courses provide students with real-life projects within a community agency where they are able to apply theories and knowledge under the guidance of a faculty member and community partner. Key themes are shared that led to transformative change and learning. This was done through collaboration, relational practice, co-learning, and critical reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trinidad and Tobago, as a small island nation in the Caribbean is experiencing climate change impacts. A qualitative survey was created and administered to environmental organizations, government entities, and an academic institution in the island of Trinidad. The results were compiled visually into an ArcGIS Story Map and is available through the Human Ecology Laboratory at UC San Diego’s website. The purpose of this study is to hear directly from community members who are experiencing climate impacts on the island of Trinidad to understand the level of risk associated with those impacts. There is a need for more community organized environmental groups to lead others towards proactive behaviors following a climate event. This is essential in protecting livelihood. This document provides the complete process leading up to the creation of the Story Map.

Engineering education has continually evolved to embrace Project–Based Learning (PBL), a dynamic classroom approach emphasizing learning through engagement in real–world projects. The study conducts a comparative analysis of multidisciplinary Capstone Senior Design Projects across Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Computer Science at Texas A&M University at Texarkana. The research emphasizes understanding the dynamics of student collaboration within these disciplines and scrutinizes the impact of industry and faculty sponsorship on these projects. The methodology involves a comprehensive comparative analysis, employing diverse performance metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of different sponsorship models. This approach aims to uncover the influence of these models on project outcomes and students’ educational experiences. The results reveal notable differences between industry–sponsored and faculty–sponsored projects. Industry sponsorship leads to higher performance in overall project execution and professional skills development. In contrast, faculty–sponsored projects are more effective in nurturing teamwork and communication abilities among students. The findings suggest that each sponsorship type presents unique benefits and challenges. Industry–sponsored projects provide valuable hands–on problem–solving experience, though they may suffer from inconsistencies in mentorship and varying expectations. Faculty–sponsored projects offer a more stable and consistent educational environment but might lag slightly in performance metrics. Integrating elements from both sponsorship models could provide students with a more balanced and enriching learning experience.

This article aims to share a process framework created to guide entry-level occupational therapy doctoral programs in operationalizing and expanding the scope of the education-focused capstone described by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE®).The impetus for this work was the completion of a professional development, education-focused capstone that proved to be novel, sustainable, and transformative for the capstone team, including the student, faculty mentor, site mentor, and doctoral capstone coordinator. This capstone ultimately created a professional development course covering the social determinants of health for occupational therapy practitioners, now offered through the American Occupational Therapy Association. Due to the lack of published guidance for this type of capstone project, the road from ideation to creation had a larger learning curve than the team anticipated. Following the completion of the capstone, the team performed a 3-month retrospective analysis through reflection, discussion, literature review, and journaling during weekly meetings to uncover facilitators, barriers, key takeaways, and themes. The team posited that the methods were grounded and reproducible and created the Education-Focused Capstone Framework to assist other capstone teams interested in similar expansion of the education-focused capstone. This framework was built on an understanding of Standards, current literature, and theories of transformative learning and heutagogy.

Background and purpose : Pharmacy capstone exams are an example of an assessment strategy to evaluate student competency and practice-readiness. Capstone exam processes have been discussed in the literature; however, description of format, evolution of the process, and implementation in the year prior to rotations is lacking. This manuscript discusses the development, implementation, and utilization of a third professional year pharmacy capstone exam to assess advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) readiness. Educational activity and setting : A pharmacy year three (PY3) capstone exam was initially developed prior to enrollment of the inaugural graduating class. Since the first iteration, utility has remained the same, but the overall development and implementation process has evolved due to changes in programmatic and student learning outcomes, curricular mapping, student and faculty feedback, and practice expectations. Findings : The entities responsible for exam implementation perceive faculty and students have a positive perception of the exam evolution and improvements implemented. Specifically, feedback from students and faculty mentioned clear expectations, comfort with the new capstone exam process, and an appreciation for the focus on interrater reliability. As assessment is an iterative process, quality improvement strategies continue to be implemented to address feedback regarding the PY3 capstone exam. Summary : Purposeful utilization of capstone exams in the third year is one method to assess APPE readiness. Sharing one college's experience with the evolution of such an exam, quality improvement methods, and experience in implementing reliability and validity measures may provide a model for institutions to implement similar assessment methods efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extensive studies have indicated that real-life project-based learning through industry involvement in capstone design courses provides benefits to students, faculty, and industry practitioners. This paper presents the contributions of industry participants to student experiential and project-based learning in the civil and environmental engineering senior design courses at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU). Surveys were conducted to obtain insights into the contributions of industry involvement in the capstone design course from the perspectives of both students and practitioners. Practitioners have been involved in various roles, including project mentors for capstone design projects and/or judges for students' capstone design project presentations. Practitioners, through the students, are provided with new ways of looking at and solving problems. Practitioners, through their involvement, provide valuable feedback to the faculty and students that enriches the overall experience gained in the capstone design course. This feedback helps improve student performance on their projects and provides them with additional tools to carry forward into their engineering careers. However, there was a gap in perception between students and practitioners with regard to the benefits of industry involvement. This paper also describes two successful capstone design projects and culminates success drivers from the reflection of instructors teaching these courses. The results of this study have substantial implications for faculty teaching these courses. They showed what students did well and pinpointed areas for improvement through the lens of industry practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The doctoral capstone coordinator (DCC) position is a required faculty position in U.S. entry-level OTD programs, but there is limited information about this role. This descriptive study aimed to explore the demographics of DCCs; their required workload, tasks, and responsibilities; and the supports available to DCCs. The researchers administered an online survey and analyzed the data using descriptive statistics and content analysis. The results revealed much variability in DCCs' experiences, workloads, and responsibilities across OTD programs. Of the DCCs survey, 74.0% previously held leadership positions in academia or clinical practice before taking the role, and 60.5% of the DCCs worked overtime for at least half of the previous year. Approximately half of the DCCs spent different percentages of time on teaching, research, service, and clinical responsibilities than expected by their universities. Common capstone tasks completed only by the DCC involved educating others about the capstone process, developing and evaluating the capstone processes, and teaching capstone courses. Tasks commonly completed with support include ensuring student completion of preparatory requirements, securing placements and affiliation agreements, and advising students. The responses varied regarding the individuals involved with mentoring and student assessment responsibilities. Overall, 67.7% of the DCCs were slightly to extremely satisfied with their existing workload. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The onset of the global pandemic forced universities to rapidly shift to emergency remote teaching (ERT), which could cause even more perturbations for engineering courses with a hands-on, project-oriented focus. Thus, the purpose of this project was to gain a data-driven appreciation of how teamwork performance was impacted for engineering students in this environment and recommend focus areas for instructional designers. The Comprehensive Assessment for Team-Member Effectiveness (CATME) tool was used to assess different aspects of teamwork performance for 108 students in an undergraduate engineering capstone course during an in-person course offered in 2019-2020 (pre-pandemic) and an ERT course offered in 2020-2021 at a major Midwestern university. The classes were divided into teams for their capstone projects using the CATME Team-Maker tool. Students were asked to rate their teammates at the beginning, middle, and end of the course across five CATME dimensions: (1) Contribution to Team's Work, (2) Interacting with Teammates, (3) Keeping the Team on Track, (4) Expecting Quality, and (5) Having Relevant Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs). Statistical modeling was implemented to decipher how ratings differed throughout the year in each course as well as to identify specific CATME areas that varied between the in-person and ERT courses. A qualitative assessment was also implemented for the ERT course based on student responses to a prompt that asked them to comment on how the pandemic impacted their personal and team performance. Results revealed that engineering students showed a significant reduction in three categories in the ERT course compared to in-person: Contributing to Team's Work, Expecting Quality, and Having Relevant KSAs. Interestingly, these three categories deal largely with student motivation toward team efforts, which was echoed in the qualitative assessment. The majority of alarming comments made by students were regarding not being able to build camaraderie with their teammates in the ERT environment. It was surprising to find that engineering students found this lack of team camaraderie even more challenging than the limitations on testing their designs. Thus, more data-driven analyses are necessary to examine which methods and technologies are ideal for teleworking project-based courses in terms of facilitating team bonding, helping teams brainstorm, and fostering more engaging communication between team members. Future efforts should build upon this exploratory study and employ a larger sample size so that results can be generalized to all courses and also provide insight into disparities between subpopulations such as race, gender, or international status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To ensure workforce readiness, graduate-level public health training programs must prepare students to collaborate with communities on improving public health practice and tools. The Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) requires Master of Public Health (MPH) students to complete an Integrative Learning Experience (ILE) at the end of their program of study that yields a high-quality written product demonstrating synthesis of competencies. CEPH suggests written products ideally be “developed and delivered in a manner that is useful to external stakeholders, such as non-profit or governmental organizations.” However, there are limited examples of the ILE pedagogies and practices most likely to yield mutual benefit for students and community partners. To address this gap, we describe a community-led, year-long, group-based ILE for MPH students, called Capstone. This service-learning course aims to (1) increase capacity of students and partner organizations to address public health issues and promote health equity; (2) create new or improved public health resources, programs, services, and policies that promote health equity; (3) enhance student preparedness and marketability for careers in public health; and (4) strengthen campus-community partnerships. Since 2009, 127 Capstone teams affiliated with the Department of Health Behavior at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have worked with seventy-nine partner organizations to provide over 103,000 h of in-kind service and produce 635 unique products or “deliverables.” This paper describes key promising practices of Capstone, specifically its staffing model; approach to project recruitment, selection, and matching; course format; and assignments. Using course evaluation data, we summarize student and community partner outcomes. Next, we share lessons learned from 13 years of program implementation and future directions for continuing to maximize student and community partner benefits. Finally, we provide recommendations for other programs interested in replicating the Capstone model.

This paper examines the systemic racism operating behind the over-criminalization of the US immigration system, a relatively recent transformation occurring as a product of the War on Drugs. The unprecedented scale of deporting and detaining Latinx immigrants, in combinationwith the political effort to scapegoat this community as a “threat to national security,” shares commonalities with the heinous mass incarceration and criminalization of African Americans.Both processes thrive on an artificial appearance of “colorblind” impartiality, as the War on Drugs has ensured that racial bias remains implicit, not explicit, in these policies. However, as the increasingly punitive immigration system has entangled itself with the criminal justice system, the distinctive pattern of anti-Latinx racism obscures from public consciousness. Inresponse, this paper attempts to weave a comprehensive narrative that contextualizes the myth behind the so-called “illegal immigrant.” It proceeds by analyzing and connecting works of literature discussing the changes in immigration law, public discourse, and foreign policy occurring at the intersection of the War on Drugs.

While biomedical and life science research have embraced interdisciplinarity as the means to solving pressing 21st century complex challenges, interdisciplinarity in undergraduate education has been more difficult to implement. As a consequence, disciplinary rather than interdisciplinary capstones have become ubiquitous. Disciplinary capstones are valuable for students because they enable them to integrate knowledge and skills within the discipline, but they are also limiting because the integration is within rather than across disciplines. In contrast to a capstone, which involves a single discipline, interdisciplinary capstones require two or more disciplines to combine and integrate across disciplinary boundaries. Interdisciplinarity, where two of more disciplines come together, is difficult to implement in the biomedical and life science curricula because student majors and finances are administered in ways, which reinforce institutional organization of schools and faculties and prevent collaboration. Here in this "idea to explore" we provide an interdisciplinary capstone model where students enroll in disciplinary courses, but then these disciplinary courses and students collaborate on interdisciplinary real‐world problems. This interdisciplinary capstone model was implemented across two diverse and large biomedical and life science schools within two faculties in a research intensive, metropolitan university. This approach allows for integration of the biomedical, social and ethical perspectives required when solving problems in the real world, such as COVID‐19. Interdisciplinary learning also better prepares students for higher degree research and future careers. Overcoming disciplinary curriculum silos and faculty barriers is critical if we are to meet expectations of acquiring interdisciplinarity as a key competency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Statistics Practicum course is offered as another option besides an internship or research experience for students to fulfill a required statistics major capstone experience. This paper discusses the first and fourth offering of this practicum course, which provides a unique perspective on the initial implementation of the course and its development over time. The course offers students opportunities to carry out statistical consulting projects with external clients. Students were given multiple reflection assignments throughout the course. Challenges of the projects were discussed in the reflections, which included issues of data cleaning and analysis. Students also responded to both Likert-scale and open-ended questions on an end of semester survey. These responses provided information on sentiment regarding the consulting projects and perceived usefulness of various components of the Statistics Practicum course. Both student reflection assignments and survey responses were analyzed in this study. Explanations of the thought processes that went into setting up and running the course are included. Advice and suggestions for course improvements and successful administration are also presented.

For the spring semester of 2021, two University at Buffalo faculty collaborated and built a course to address Council on Education in Public Health (CEPH) competencies and support student career readiness. This new course builds on the existing Integrated Learning Experience (ILE) to enhance its transmissibility for future employers and help students articulate their ILE as evidence of the strengths gained during their MPH program. Throughout the course, students focus their ILE on one public health topic as a set of high quality, written materials that promote synthesis, including a literature review, executive summary, and gap analysis. These assignments must demonstrate synthesis of foundational and concentration-specific competencies students gained from their coursework, including at least one competency related to equity, structural racism, or cultural competence. To supplement the ILE process, students develop additional components allowing them to translate skills and knowledge from the MPH program into career-ready materials such as a revised resume, a cover letter, and mock interviews. The goal for these supplemental components is to allow students to demonstrate their abilities with prospective employers. All students in the initial spring 2021 cohort and subsequent cohorts are currently working in public health-related jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores a Capstone course’s pedagogical process and considers both the challenges and triumphs that emerge from experiential learning within a news desert region. The research employs micro-ethnographic methods to analyze the learning outcomes gleaned by both students and instructors of one magazine publishing Capstone course over the timespan of 9 years, 2014 to 2023. The research acknowledges the pedagogical evolution of the Capstone course as both a means of assessment and workforce preparation and seeks to add the concept of the Capstone as a venue for service and community journalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capstone experience in engineering curriculums is a critical component focused on the unification of several years of student learning, but its unique nature can present challenges to engineering departments in faculty assignment and ensuring consistent, high-quality instruction. During a seven-year period, five instructional modalities, defining the interaction between students and faculty, were explored in capstone courses in the University of Maine Mechanical Engineering Department. By sharing the lessons learned from this case study, other engineering departments can make more informed decisions about how to operate capstone courses. We present the benefits and challenges of each modality and evaluate them for scalability, student satisfaction, project diversity, cost, and instructor workload. Annual data were collected on student, instructor, and project counts. Data from student evaluations and department budgets were used to evaluate student satisfaction and costs, respectively. Insights from the three authors, who were the primary capstone instructors during this study, are shared as part of the evaluations and lessons learned. Key results are that cost, student satisfaction, and project diversity did not depend strongly on the teaching modality. However, scalability and instructor workload were highly dependent on the teaching modality. The University of Maine Mechanical Engineering Department sees the most promise in a modality with multiple lead instructors who each oversee a portion of the teams, which provides scalability to add or remove instructors, and the ability for high-quality instruction through close coordination of a small instructor group.

Many higher education institutions have responded to the significant shortage of professionals with strong analytical expertise by offering graduate programs in business analytics and data science. These programs are typically designed to be practitioner focused and many of them offer a Capstone course that gives students the opportunity to conduct a real‐world analytics project. In this article, we describe the innovative design of a Capstone course offered to cohorts of approximately 110 graduate students in the business school at the University of Texas, Austin. This course is designed to deliver self‐directed and experiential learning from interacting with business stakeholders and successfully completing team‐based, business analytics projects within a commercial firm using the firm's data. The course design includes student and sponsor engagement, the formation of diverse balanced project teams, matching of teams with projects, and scaffolding, which includes consistent structured mentoring, team reflections, interim deliverables and in‐class learning for practical skills not covered elsewhere in the curriculum. This course has now been offered successfully to two cohorts. In this article, we will also describe changes made for the second cohort related to team formation, project matching, mentoring and in‐class learning. These changes were based on feedback from the first cohort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The HyFlex course structure allows students to attend class in-person or via synchronous videoconferencing technology. This model has been described, but no data are available in pharmacy curricula. Students enrolled in Grand Rounds (GR) were eligible. The GR Engagement Assessment Tool (GREAT) measured engagement three times during the semester. Eighteen statements across four domains were rated using a five-point Likert scale (1 = not true at all and 5 = completely true). Free-text responses were collected for qualitative analysis. The primary outcome was the difference in GR engagement between students attending in-person vs. remotely. Descriptive statistics were used for demographic information. Wilcoxon rank-sum tests compared Likert-scale responses between in-person and remote attendance. Surveys included 128 responses from 88 unique students. There were no differences between remote and in-person attendance for the boredom and elaboration domains. In-person students reported listening more intently (median 4, IQR [3,4]; P =.03). In-person students felt the material was more practical (median 4, IQR [4,5]) than remote students (median 4, IQR [3,4]; P =.002) and more applicable to other situations (median 3, IQR [3,5]) than remote students (median 3, IQR [2,4]; P =.04). Qualitative analysis of the entire cohort demonstrated five themes for satisfaction: safety, flexibility, convenience, technology, and professionalism. There were subtle differences in student engagement or satisfaction using the HyFlex model. This study supports the expansion of this methodology to similar courses where remote instruction is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An advisory board, often called an Industrial Advisory Board or a Board of Advisors, is generally defined as a group of volunteer external experts that support a program's activities. Many ABET-accredited engineering programs use advisory boards to help ensure that Program Educational Objectives meet the needs of programs' constituencies. The limited published research on advisory boards suggests that many boards are underutilized. Advisory boards can support programs through the following three fundamental functions: advising, mentoring, and assessing. This work shows how an advisory board can be leveraged to (1) advise by improving the curriculum and enhancing compliance with ABET criteria; (2) mentor by developing students' abilities to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities; and (3) assess by providing feedback on students' design and communication skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aimed to implement and evaluate the outcomes, perceptions, and satisfaction of the Capstone Program developed at the Catholic University of Korea, which integrates career exploration and medical humanities., Methods: This study was conducted with fourth-year medical students from 2017 to 2019. First, the study analyzed the trends in the results of Capstone Projects conducted by students as part of their career exploration, where they independently explored areas of interest and selected topics. Second, it qualitatively analyzed the content of individual reports in which students reflected on their experiences from a "medical humanities perspective" through the Capstone Program. Third, it examined students' perceptions and satisfaction with the Capstone Program., Results: The analysis revealed that students chose research topics from a wide range of fields, including basic medicine, clinical medicine, global healthcare, and integrated healthcare systems and innovation. The students reported positive perceptions of their career exploration and research experiences through the Capstone Program, particularly valuing sessions like "Meetings with Seniors" within the conference framework. Students indicated that the Capstone Program enhanced their ability to think introspectively from a humanities perspective, deepening their understanding of their roles and responsibilities as medical professionals., Conclusion: The Capstone Program provides a significant opportunity for medical students to explore their career paths and engage in introspective reflection from the viewpoint of medical humanities and social sciences. Thus, the integration of programs like capstone into the broader medical curriculum, focusing on career guidance and the reinforcement of medical humanities education, is imperative.