Integrating virtual internships into online classrooms
With the rapid increase in the number of online enrollments, educators are faced with the challenge of ensuring on-campus experiences are available to distant students, which meet quality and accessibility expectations. One of the biggest challenges with online courses is constructing meaningful group projects for part-time students who can be in disparate time zones. As part of our Master's biotechnology programme, offered completely online, we have developed a capstone course for students approaching graduation, which integrates a semester-long project working with a small biotechnology company in the DC metro area into the course curriculum. The experience and results from these projects have been well received by the participating students and companies. We describe some of the challenges we have faced, strategies we have developed, and ongoing modifications to the programme to integrate projects with small biotechnology businesses into the online classroom.
Making Sense of the Capstone Process: Reflections from the Front Line.
This study examined the process of the Capstone Exhibition, used in the Secondary Education Department for culmination of the Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) program. It builds on the previous study conducted by Fruendt (1994), who analyzed student perceptions in undergraduate classes in the School of Arts and Sciences. Fruendt advocated that additional studies be undertaken to examine the perspectives of capstone participants from other academic disciplines. Accordingly, our study explored the use of the capstone process within a graduate teacher education program, a context for capstones which has not been substantially addressed in the research literature. The study sought to illuminate faculty and student perspectives of the capstone process. The focus was to make sense of the process rather than to evaluate the assessment instrument. The following research question guided the study: How do graduate students and faculty members conceptualize the Capstone process as a form of assessment? Data from recent graduates and faculty members related to perspectives about the benefits and challenges of the Capstone Exhibition were explored. What is a Capstone? According to Encarta Dictionary (1999), the word "capstone" is a noun with two meanings: 1. Top Stone--a building's top stone used at the tops of a wall or other structure 2. High Point--something considered the highest achievement or most important action in a series of actions. Redmond (1998), says that as an architectural feature the capstone diminishes erosion of mortar and compares this formal definition to educational settings. He uses the metaphor that students take a final course in their education that "protects what they have learned by integrating course work into a climactic experience (1998, p. 73). An examination of a historical overview of the development of the college capstone course reveals that the origin of capstone derived from a need to provide more in-depth learning. According to the 1985 publication by the Association of American Colleges entitled Integrity in the College Curriculum, college majors often lack in-depth study (Carlson & Peterson, 1993). That report was developed as a response to concerns about the educational failures of elementary and secondary institutions in the United States. The American Sociological Association (1990) created a task force to examine ways to address in-depth learning. Consequently, the recommendation of a capstone course was introduced as a way to provide an avenue for deeper investigations of the curriculum (Carlson & Peterson, 1993; Gardner & Van der Veer, 1998; Murray, 1998). The shift to the capstone movement draws upon earlier reform movements, such as the authentic assessment movement, which attempted to move instruction away from rote, test-driven, teacher-focused, text-guided practices, as well as upon the apprenticeship model, in which one's ability to perform the tasks learned under an expert is perceived as true mastery. The notion of a scholarly work, defended in public, became the leading practice. Eventually, with the onset of standardized testing initiatives, the popularity of the apprenticeship and public defense diminished in school practice. Movements such as the Coalition of Essential Schools (Sizer, 1992) emphasized the use of a public display to encourage students to synthesize their own learning experiences. Foxfire (Wood, 1992) modeled this approach with the idea that students learned by creating an authentic service for an audience. What Are Current Capstone Practices? Research shows that the addition of a capstone course to the final period of undergraduate study is a means to help assess students' readiness to make the transition from undergraduate to graduate school or work (Gardner & Van der Veer, 1998). The literature suggests that capstone has traditionally been used in liberal arts education, primarily in the disciplines of sociology, psychology, sciences, nursing, communications, and business (Aupperle & Sarhan, 1995; Brewer, Campbell, & McClure (2000); Chew, McInnis-Bowers, & Cleveland, 1996; Durel, 1993; Harrison, 1994; Henscheid, 2000; Khani, Edwards, Read, Pope, & Freeman, 1994), Myers & Richmond, 1998; Obringer & Kent, 1998; Rains & Virginia, 1999; Rouhi, 1999; Sonner, 1999; Wagenaar, 1993, William, 1998; Wood & Stitt, 1975). …
Britain and the Problem of International Disarmament: 1919-1934
Acknowledgements 1. Introduction 2. The Concept and Context of Disarmament, 1919-1934 3. The Human Element 4. The Lloyd George Coalition Government, 1918-1922 5. The Conservative Governments, 1922-1923, and the First Labour Government, 1924 6. The Conservative Government, 1924-1929 7. The Labour Government, 1929-1931 8. The National Government, 1931-1934 9. Conclusion Bibliography