Todd Breuer, Nancy Campoverde, Jo Hanna, Brian Humphries, Charles C. Tappert Seidenberg School of CSIS, Pace University, White Plains, New York April 2015

 Capstone courses are the culmination of the coursework that a student must complete to meet a degree requirement. Capstone courses include projects, case studies, program evaluations and thesis papers that are geared for the post-graduate, real-world working environment  Capstone courses are either one or two semesters

 Real World Customer Determined Projects  38 out of 48 Universities polled use real world customers in their capstone projects!  The remaining 10 universities all try to mimic the real world environment  Some schools report getting paid up to $50,000 per project by the real world customers

 Capstone teams can be chosen using three methods:  Self selected – students choose their own teams via discussion boards or in person  Professor selected – teams are chosen by the professor using enrollment information  Randomly selected – by methods such as class divided up alphabetically

Pros:  Maintains a constant source of accountability to all team members to contribute to the success of the project Cons:  Results may not reflect the actual work contributed by each member of the team

 Also known as a virtual team, distributed team, or remote team  A geographically dispersed team is a group of individuals who work across time, space and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of communication technology

Management of dispersed teams present unique problems  Cultural & Geographical  Time Zones  File Repository issues  Communication Challenges  Leadership Assignment

Promotes Active Learning  Develop Soft Skills such as problem solving, verbal communication skills, and teamwork skills  Promotes flexibility in learning multiple communication and tracking methods  Team leaders learn how to drive their projects and team members learn how to interact  Tech companies currently conduct business with dispersed teams both nationally and internationally

 Alternative Methods  Thesis Paper  Volunteer Work  Internships  Comprehensive Exam  Verifying Progress of Capstone Weekly Reports Bi-Weekly Reports  Capstone Time Commitment Requirements Varied by project  Capstone Grading Letter Grade Pass/Fail

 Some majors two others only one semester  Invaluable for projects involving real world customers  Pace should encourage more real world customers ◦ Some corporate sponsors pay for student teams  True value lies on the structure and execution