1. Comparisons of Criminal Justice Capstone Courses
Criminal Justice Association of Georgia (CJAG) Annual Conference
Morrow, GA
Comparisons of Criminal Justice Capstone Courses
Michael Eskey, Ph.D.
Park University
I’m Mike Eskey. I’m a professor of criminal justice and the program coordinator of the criminal justice program at Park University. I will be discussing my research on the comparison of criminal justice capstone courses of colleges and universities of the Southeast region.
Copyright 2016: Eskey 1

2. Park University Historic Campus in Parkville, MO
43 campus centers nationwide
22,000+ students (in f2f & online modes)
50,000+ online enrollments per year (in 5 online terms)
600+ criminal justice majors
130+ criminal justice internships per academic year
Just as a background, Park University is a private, liberal arts university, located in Parkville, MO. There are 43 campus centers located in 21 states. Additionally, Park has approximately 50,000 annual online enrollments. We have approximately criminal justice majors.
Personally, I teach and coordinate the criminal justice department from my home office in Columbus, GA. I normally attend the annual criminal justice association of Georgia (CJAG) annual conference and the Southern Criminal Justice Association (SCJA) annual conference. 2

3. Overview Background of Capstone Courses at Park University
Research Questions
Survey Results of Southeast Region Faculty Members
Comparison to Georgia Colleges
Conclusions
The idea for the current paper came simply from a personal curiosity about the senior seminar at Park University. We have actually THREE capstone courses – yes --- three. The Internship in criminal justice. This is coordinated from Parkville, MO (home campus) and is required for all CJ seniors …. A graduation requirement.
There are exceptions. We have a number of active-duty military students, many of whom do not have the same opportunities to work in a criminal justice related agency. Also, we have students that are already working in a criminal justice position.
With a waiver, these students are allowed to substitute a course, the senior writing project, for the internship,.
The second capstone course is the research in criminal justice course, where students not only get their basics in social & behavioral research’ but, also complete, as their core learning assessment --- an IRB application and a research proposal.
Finally, the senior seminar is our main capstone course – which covers major current issues, but also students are required to gather data, write, and defend a thesis ………….. as the core learning assessment.
So, is what we have normal?
Does anyone else have these requirements?
What are the requirements that other institutions utilize?
What should the requirements be?
And, in July, 2016, I began the research oriented toward answering my questions. I had an interest in both the senior seminar / capstone requirements of criminal justice programs and the internship requirements of criminal justice programs.
Both the topics of internships and capstone courses last year sparked my interest. I began first with a simple search of the public colleges and universities in the State of Georgia, as this would be of interest at the annual CJAG conference.
It became evident quite rapidly, that there was a difference in the courses at the various institutions. The question was whether there was a difference in the usage of the capstone course(s) at the various institutions and
--Was there a difference by the type of institution – college vs. university? Or private vs. public.
After a review of background literature, to include regional and national studies devoted to capstone course requirements, as well as individual studies that focused on specific disciplines, what became very obvious was that there was very limited emphasis on research related specifically to criminal justice capstone courses. 3

4. Research Questions Do we need a Capstone course? Do we need a thesis?
What should we be including in the capstone course?
What are ‘others’ doing?
How do the capstone requirements compare with ours?
So … this was the beginning of my quest. Some research questions included:
Do we need a Capstone course?
By the was ….. what is a capstone course …….. What is a capstone course?
Well, by definition it is ………. The culmination of the combination of courses that are important for application to real-world situations, employment, or future education. ……
This course gives students the opportunity to apply the knowledge they have acquired through an academic program of study as a summarization of course program learning objectives.
Do we need a thesis?
What should we be including in the capstone course?
What are ‘others’ doing?
How do the capstone requirements compare with ours?
A study design was developed, a survey developed, and the application was made to the IRB. After IRB approval was obtained, surveys were sent to criminal justice faculty members of the Southern Criminal Justice Association.
Although the response rate for institutions was about 55 percent, that provided only about 62 institutions. Although, ideally, I wanted 150 institutions, I sent out surveys to an additional set of public and private universities in the Southeast region and ended with 107 responses from 102 institutions, ending survey acceptance on Sunday, August 3rd.
That, of course, left very little time for analysis and write up of findings and conclusions.
There were two sets of s surveys sent out, first to 110 institutions and a second mailing to 70 additional institutions. There were106 responses from 100 unique schools for a 55 percent response rate.
65 percent of the respondents were from public colleges or universities.
Overall, A total of 170 unique institutions were sent surveys for a 58.8 percent response rate. Because of the timing of the survey (late summer), respondents received up to four requests for participation. Sixty-two percent of the institutions represented were public colleges and universities; 34 percent were private colleges and universities.
Overall, nearly 74 percent of responding institutions indicated that they offered at least one senior seminar or capstone course…….. that is, about one-fourth did not have a capstone course
The respondents were generally from more senior faculty members. 42 percent were full professors; 21 percent were associate professors percent of respondents held the rank of assistant professor, instructor, or lecturer.

5. Enrollment Size by Type of Institution
Table 1
Type Institution / Enrollments
< 1,000
1, ,999
5, ,999
10, ,999
> 20,000
Public College 1 3
Public University 2 13 19 24 11
Private College
Private University 8
Concerning the size of the institutions:
Of those responding, 7 percent reported less than 1,000 students at their institution. 28 percent reported 1,000 to 4,999 students;
53 percent taught at institutions from 5,000 to 20,000 students.
26 percent taught at institutions with 5,000 to 9,999 students.
27 percent were teaching at institutions with enrollments between 10,000 and 20,000 students and
13 percent reported teaching at institutions in excess of 20,000 students.
Instructors
Sixty-five (65) percent of respondents reported that senior seminars and capstone courses are instructed by faculty members working alone.
There were 28.3% of the respondents who indicated that capstone courses are instructed by faculty members working in teams.
Course Types
Of those that indicated that they had a capstone requirement,… % are taught by departmental faculty – to be expected……….., although 16 percent did report the usage and community and/or workplace professionals, and 10 percent stated that they utilized college/university career center professionals in the capstone instruction.
81.0 percent of respondents indicated that capstone courses are discipline- or- department-based. …….. This was followed by 13 percent that selected the choice that the capstone course served as a transition course focusing on preparation for work, graduate school, life choice, life skills, or life after college

6. Capstone Goals by Faculty Rating
Table 2
Sample
mean
Capstone Goals N %
a. Promoting the coherence and relevance of General Education of the institution 70
5.7
3.36
b. Promoting integration and connections between education and the Academic Major 68
17.6
2.55
c. Fostering integration and synthesis within the academic major 73
6.4
1.91
d. Promoting integration and connecting between the academic major and the work world
30.1
2.06
e. Developing important student skills, competencies, and perspectives developed in the college curriculum
38.3
2.07
f. Enhancing awareness-of and support-for key personal adjustment encountered during transition from college to post-college life 69
28.9
2.44
g. Improving students' career preparation and pre-professional development 74
35.1
2.4
h. Enhancing students' preparation and prospects for postgraduate education
23.3
2.28
Goals
Respondents were asked to rank which specific goals apply to their specific senior seminar / capstone course. The rankings were from ‘most important’ (1) to ‘least important’ (5). This included responses by those with capstone courses, with a ‘not applicable’ section, utilized. Respondents were permitted to rank from one to eight of the items listed. The mean was calculated based on the scale of most important (1) to least important (5).
A comparison of the mean responses revealed that respondents ranked highest the goal of fostering integration and synthesis within the academic major (µ = 1.91).
A very close second and third goals priority included: promoting integration and connecting between the academic major and the work world (µ = 2.06); and,
developing important student skills, competencies and perspectives developed in the college curriculum (µ = 2.07).
The remaining rankings are available in the paper to be published.
Respondents were able to indicate from a listing of more than one ‘primary’ goal of their capstone course with
52.1% indicated that the primary goal of senior seminars and capstone courses is to foster integration and synthesis within the academic major
39.7% indicated that the primary goal of senior seminars and capstone courses is to either promote integration and connections between the academic major and the work world;
39.1 percent felt it was most important for developing important student skills, competencies, and perspectives developed in the college curriculum.

7. Components Included in Capstone Course
Table 3
Other SE Region Schools %
Georgia Schools %
a. Thesis
35.5
23.5
b. Final Examination
52.3
72.2**
c. Major Project
71.4
80.0
d. Area Paper
27.0
41.1*
e. Term Paper
46.3
55.6
f. Oral presentation / defense
69.3
66.6
g. Group project
30.6
31.3
h. Leadership training
10.6
26.6**
i. Internship
16.7
28.6*
j. Portfolio
6.9
47.4***
k. Multiple combined projects (research project, academic essay, visual presentation
62.3
94.4***
l. Explicit consideration of graduate school
22.4
44.4***
n. Other culminating project or activity (please explain)
12.5
Instructional Components
As shown in the slide ……… in the ….
Comparison of Georgia Schools to Other States in Southeast Region
Future research will focus on more of the unique features of Georgia colleges and universities compared to other states in the Southeast region. I have addressed here only the requirements for the capstone course that were reported by those that they required a capstone course. In the entire Southeast region, the most common requirements for the capstone course included a combination of multiple combined projects, e.g. a research project, academic essay, or visual presentation with 70 percent of respondents reporting this as a requirement. Georgia schools were statistically more likely to include this requirement.
Conversely, other states in the region were statistically significantly (noted in the yellow shaded cells) less likely to include a final examination,
Area paper,
Leadership training,
internships,
portfolios,
multiple combined projects,
and consideration of graduate school as part of the capstone project.
Besides the first two mentioned, the most common requirements were capstone courses that included an oral presentation/defense (69.1%), a major project (66.2%), a term paper (54.7%) and a final examination (50.7%). Other requirements such as a thesis (23.9%), group projects (33.3%), portfolio (24.2%), and internship (17.7%) were requirements not heavily utilized by all states in the Southeast region.
Significance level * ** ***

8. Conclusions General Findings Needed Improvements
Future Concerns and Plans
Conclusions
Future analysis will examine the differences in these priorities by comparing public versus private institutions,
size of the institutions, and
whether the departments are independent or combined with other disciplines.
Recall, a total of 74 percent of respondents said capstone courses are required in the criminal justice program.
The requirement differed at public versus private institutions (69% - public vs. 82% - private).
Further analysis will compare the capstone requirements by type of institution and size of institution.
Through the preliminary analysis of the data, there can be initial insights into the various methods used to assess student learning outcomes at or near the end of program of study requirements.
  Further, detailed analysis of the data, combined with specific institutional information can focus on learning outcomes and whether assessment is individual, course-related, program-related, or institutional-related.
  There is a benefit to be gained for the program and institutions to assist in a comparative assessment between and among other institutions, public and private, statewide, and across the region.
  Such information could also serve as the basis for further research on additions or modifications in curriculum in an effort to better serve the criminal justice students in terms of future educational or professional pursuits.
 The initial findings from this limited research may be used as a starting point for further, more detailed research.
 The current research reports is a brief, limited, even simplistic broad-brush view of how a number of institutions assess their capstone courses in the criminal justice discipline.
Research of this type must be continuous and supplemented with assessment information within the departments, inter-institutionally, and intra-institutionally.
For most, there is a sound rationale for the usage-of and types-of capstone courses.
There are some institutions that continue to search for the needed format or the rationale for a capstone format and for those this research may be helpful.