A postgraduate capstone project: Impact on student learning and organizational change. Issue 3 (June 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Elwell, Gordon R.; Dickinson, Thad E.; Dillon, Michael D.
• Is Part Of: Industry & higher education. Volume 36:Issue 3(2022)
• Page Start: 334
• Page End: 343
• Publication Date: 2022-06
• Subjects: Business–education relationship -- capstone -- graduate education -- organizational change -- student learning; Business and education -- Periodicals; University cooperation -- Periodicals; 378.104
• DOI: 10.1177/09504222211036584
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0950-4222

Abstract

The capstone course serves to integrate accumulated knowledge with a culminating experience or project and is a common component in undergraduate and graduate programs. The research on capstones courses shows that many capstone experiences or projects involve students working with outside clients, such as local businesses and organizations, to solve problems or develop new projects or campaigns. Such capstone experiences or projects seek to offer students real-world, career-building experience, while the clients seek to benefit from the learned academic knowledge of the students. Where the literature is scarce on client-based capstone projects is when the client is the student's employer or career-related organization. A graduate program in administration at a public Midwestern university in the USA offers a different approach to the student–client model by requiring a degree-culminating capstone project that challenges adult students to apply their learned knowledge to solve administrative problems not for an outside client but at their place of employment or career-related organization. The researchers surveyed 66 alumni and interviewed 6 on how the capstone project had benefited their work-related learning and its impact on their employer or career-related organization. Students perceived an improvement in their ability to define and analyze administrative problems in their workplace, while the employers or organizations which implemented the project recommendations experienced positive organizational change. This case study contributes to the literature on capstone courses by examining the relevance of a work- or career-related capstone project to students and their workplace.