Capstones as a high-impact practice are intended to provide students with the opportunity to integrate their learning across the undergraduate experience, often applying their knowledge to solve problems or ask questions while promoting student agency (Ketcham, Weaver, Moore, and Felten,…

From 2018 to 2020, twenty-two scholars participated in the Center for Engaged Learning research seminar on Capstone Experiences, co-led by Caroline Ketcham (Elon University), Jillian Kinzie (Indiana University), and Tony Weaver (Elon University). The seminar fostered international, multi-institutional research on capstone…

June 21-22, 2020 | Elon University, North Carolina The annual Conference on Engaged Learning showcases cutting-edge research on engaged learning. Each annual conference features multi-institutional research from a specific Center for Engaged Learning research seminar, invites research updates from past seminar…

George Bernard Shaw once said, “The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”  Over the next year, as 2018-2020 CEL research seminar participants continue to contemplate the future of the capstone experience, we cannot…

My colleague Dr. Caroline Ketcham wrote in a recent blog post that the work of creating effective capstone experiences “does matter and will matter to students, faculty, and institutions that are developing and implementing capstone experiences aimed at transformation and…

As many of us know in higher education, our lens is constantly changing and therefore our work as a teacher-scholar-mentor is also ever evolving. I am in my 11th year of teaching at Elon University. I have taught multiple capstone…

defining, characterizing, and assessing as a high impact practice in a multi-institutional research context Capstone experiences are used by institutions and departments across higher education. They are often identified as a high impact culminating experience for student outcomes. But what…