View through a brick arch with additional brick colonnades in the background. Overlays read, "CEL Podcasts. Making College Worth It. Capitalizing on Capstone Experiences."

Capitalizing on Capstone Experiences

Making College “Worth It” – Season 1, Episode 4 Caroline Ketcham and Tony Weaver, co-editors of Cultivating Capstones: Designing High-Quality Culminating Experiences for Student Learning, share strategies for faculty and students to make the most of these high-impact opportunities for…

Elon Statement on Capstone Experiences

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…

Higher education has struggled with defining the capstone, understanding the purpose or the desired outcomes of the experience, and agreeing on how to assess characteristics of a successful experience.

Communicating the Goals of Capstones

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…

capstone cornerstone keystone illustration

The Art of the Capstone

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…

capstone cornerstone keystone illustration

‘Capstone’ Experience in Higher Education

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…