capstone project reflection

capstone reflection essay

Capstone Of Reflection

Reflecting on the Journey Throughout my two semesters in CommSkills 1015 and 1016, I have learned a lot, and developed academically. The countless essays and speeches have helped me to become a better writer, and speaker. Prior to my time in CommSkills, I would write without a goal. I would sit down and words would go down on paper, but they never truly accomplished the goals that I had while writing. Through attention to MAP, attention to detail and practice I have come a long way. The Integrative

Capstone Reflection

Greetings MBA Students!   Several of you have requested more information on the "reflection paper" so I am providing more explicit instructions below:   1. The paper should be 3-5 pages long, double-spaced, 1-inch margins all around, 11-pt Times New Roman font. (I won’t be a stickler on these details).   2.There is no single "right" content expected for the reflection paper; that is, different people can be expected to reflect uniquely on the simulation experience. Just think about your simulation

Fabian Rolon Capstone Paper My personal experience with the Capstone course taught me a lot of different subjects and how to use different tools from the computer. I didn't knew a “capstone class” actually existed and to know what one had to do seemed scary at first since my work experience was not that advanced. It was because of Research Techniques and the teachers help on teaching me how to make the capstone paper and capstone presentation. Because of my late transition from Puerto Rico after

Capstone class is the final process for graduation. The workload was intense, but it was a learning experience. Working under a short time frame was rewarding, challenging, and manageable. This has shown me that I can complete an assignment under pressure and in a short time frame. The topic that my group presented on was informative where knowledge can be used for future references. The first and second week everyone on the team was participating and helping each other out. However, that started

My main takeaway from the capstone experience is to have compassion for the disfranchised population rather it is the single mothers or the homeless population etc. Additionally, it is important to behave ethically, practice inclusiveness and with integrity. The clients need to be able to trust that you are genuine in your intention to help them and they must feel understood. What I found difficult with the capstone was searching for resources that were valid. Some of the resources had phone numbers

and tie it all together into one piece, called the capstone. The capstone was a challenge that I had to overcome as a student and as an individual. There were days when I was stressed out and others where I felt confident. The constant roller coaster of emotions made this final project unforgettable. In fact, there were countless hours of research and revising paragraph after paragraph, until it was as close to perfect as I could get it. This capstone project has helped me work on my weaknesses and

for me to prepare my capstone and deliver it to a room full of people. It only began to set in when we I was sitting in my section of capstone proposal writing class last spring that this was actually happening. Now that I am sitting here writing the essay to my final report, I am overwhelmed that I am just days and weeks away from graduating. This is a bittersweet end to such an incredible time throughout my experience here and specifically during the preparation of my capstone. Through these experiences

My plan and dissemination and implementation for my capstone project is to educate the nurses on the importance of teaching parents about the proper use of skin-to-skin contact. I plan on implementing this project by providing the nurses with the latest evidence based practice so that they can help implement this in their education in the NICU unit at Mount Sinai. Nurses are viewed as reliable source by the patient therefore it is important for us to implement good quality teaching. When I present

Examples Of Capstone Reflection

This capstone course has helped me tie together all the material I have learned thus far in the program as well as helped me to identify what skills and knowledge I need to continue working on. The capstone presentation, as well as class, helped me to practice strength-based language and be conscious of how I describe my client’s when presenting them to others. It can be a habit to use negative language to describe a problem-saturated story and unintentionally describe a patient’s story in a way

Capstone Essay Reflection

Ashtin Colby Web Design I 9 April 2015 Sixth hour Capstone Essay Rough Draft My name is Ashtin Shyenne Colby. I was born in Lawton, Oklahoma on October 13, 1998. I am the second child of Glenn Colby and Belinda Colby. My older brother Austin is eight years older than me. I have lived with my family in the same house for the entirety of my life. A few other people have lived with us temporarily in the past. The only others living with us now are my pets. I have a German Shepherd Husky mix dog named

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Reflection Paper and Capstone Project Guidelines

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Office of Institutional Diversity & Equity > Education > BUILD Diversity Certificate > Reflection Paper and Capstone Project Guidelines

LEVEL I: GUIDELINES FOR FINAL REFLECTION

Reflection formats differ depending upon learning styles. However, for the most part, a reflection paper cites your reactions, feelings, and analysis of your BUILD experience. This reflection will allow you to gain a deeper understanding of your values, goals, and actions in light of this program.

Paper Requirements:

The final paper should be approximately 3-5 pages long. If you have gone to workshops that included readings, feel free to integrate the material into your reflection. In addition, we hope that you will relate the content of the workshops to your observations of your environment, work, family, society, and yourself. We hope this reflection will focus and challenge you to consider the next steps in your DEI journey.

LEVEL II: THE CAPSTONE EXPERIENCE

The BUILD Diversity Certificate's capstone project is the culminating experience of the program. It is designed with the participant's specific goals to apply what they have learned in the workshops to their work and personal lives. The purpose of the capstone is to bring the participants' life experiences into the learning process.

This capstone project allows students the opportunity to explore a problem or issue of particular personal or professional interest and to address that problem. The project allows for the synthesis and application of knowledge and skills acquired through the BUILD workshops to real-life issues and problems.

This capstone project allows participants the opportunity to explore a problem or issue of particular personal or professional interest and to address that problem. The project is the synthesis and application of knowledge and skills acquired through the BUILD workshops to real-life issues and concerns.

• To provide participants with the opportunity to apply DEI knowledge and skills acquired through the program to a specific problem or issue.
• To allow participants to expand their learning into areas of personal interest, working with new ideas and issues, internal and/or external organizations, and individuals.
• To encourage participants to think critically and creatively about diversity, equity, and inclusion issues and further develop their analytical and ethical leadership skills necessary to address and solve issues of interest to them.

Outcomes: DePaul's commitment to diversity is stated in the university's mission and history.  DEI continues to be an important goal of the last two strategic plans, and operationalizing this commitment is evident by, among many other things, the creation of the BUILD program. Consistent with this mission and goals, participants of the capstone will:

• Apply conceptual foundations of organizational DEI
•  and best practices to a problem/issue of their choosing
• Think critically
• Communicate effectively
• Display a commitment to social and ethical responsibilities
• Display a commitment to leadership and service

LEVEL II: PROPOSAL REQUIREMENTS FOR BUILD CAPSTONE PROJECT

• Project Definition: Provide a one or two-sentence description that defines your project. Explain the big picture.
• Project Setting:  Provide the location and the “where" of your project. If it is appropriate, discuss any key agencies, departments, or parties involved. Is your project mainly analytical or investigative (e.g., analyzing an organization), or problem-solving (e.g., creating a diversity awareness project at your place of worship)?
• Project Rationale:  Why have you chosen this project? What is the problem or opportunity you see? What importance does this project have for you? How will it exemplify the BUILD goals?
• Project Objectives:  What are your goals and outcomes for this project? What are you going to acquire, accomplish, produce, and/or deliver? What are the specific and concrete, measurable objectives/accomplishments intended for your project?
• Project Methodology: How are you going to proceed? What research must you do to complete your goals for your project? Do you have a timeline? Who might be resources for you in this project? What do you need to learn before beginning? Project Examples:
• Setting up diversity training for your place of worship.
• Research the various diversity programs at the Department of Aging.
• Create a brown bag lunch symposium for your unit regarding a specific topic of diversity.
• Research current diversity “best practices" in nursing.
• Write a grant application for a DEI project.
• Analyze an existing DEI initiative.
• Write a program evaluation.​

Capstone Reflection Paper

Show More Capstone class has challenged my communication, writing, and presentation skills. These skills I have improved on and found my voice in doing presentation. Working in a group has thought me on how to communicate with difficult people especially when everyone has their own opinion. Even though the workload was intense under a short time frame it was rewarding, challenging, and manageable. I learned that I could complete an assignment under pressure and in a short time frame. The topic that my group presented was informative where knowledge can be used for future references. The first and second week everyone on the team was participating and helping each other out. However, that started to change in week three. Unfortunately, it only came down to three people that were putting …show more content… However, I know that editing improves your work and make it look better . Every time I thought that I was done there was always a mistake that needed to be corrected. Correcting a paper that is 20 pages or less is much easier than a paper with more than 70 pages. Researching articles to support evidence and increase knowledge on the topic was a process that I enjoyed. Summarizing the articles was a difficult process for some of the articles that were found. Trying to extract the key information from the article was more work. On the other hand, I discovered that I have to improve on putting together a PowerPoint. Placing tables and making boxes on PowerPoint was not my strongest point. Trying to change specific charts in PowerPoint just kept changing the format. Capstone was a rewarding and challenging experience. One thing I notice is that writing in such a short time frame is that my typing speed had increased. Once you know what you are talking about, just be confident and strong in presenting. Also, be ready for questions after the presentation. Overall, it was a good experience that I could add to my life

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Distance Learning

Reflections on my capstone project.

by Guest Author

 Guest Blog by Britain Willcock

The Capstone experience in my final quarter of the Master’s in Information Design and Strategy program was the perfect culmination of the skills and ideas learned throughout my time at Northwestern. We were challenged to reflect on the various classes and projects completed in the program and develop a Capstone that aligned with our passions while showcasing the various lessons we had learned.

Finding the Focus

In brainstorming for my project, I realized that there was a consistent theme I had grasped onto throughout the program: the power of information was only as potent as our ability to communicate it . Having spent the first part of my professional career in theatre, I have grown to understand that no matter how well crafted a story may be, if it doesn’t connect with the audience then the work is incomplete . Using this idea as a filter, I examined the theories and concepts presented in the program and noticed there was a gap between how virtual communication is often utilized and how our brains are wired to receive and comprehend information. In everything from standard daily emails, to the presentations presented in the boardroom, we are stuck in older models of communication that weren’t created with virtual mediums in mind, and thus keeping us from using them to their fullest potential to improve comprehension. While I had numerous ideas around the matter, combined with powerful research to support them, I was struggling to find the “center” of my project. Something that could ground the ideas around a solid foundation of clarity. In a one-on-one video call with Dr. Noffs, my Capstone instructor, we discussed various ways this could be approached. At one point the idea of a conceptual model was presented and it served as a moment of clarity that became the bedrock of my Capstone. 

Developing the Model

From there everything fell into place. Through my research, I realized that communication had become almost a product, due to the necessary translation into a digital form and ultimate “deliverable”. While most products are carefully designed, digital communications are often created haphazardly with little to no thought to structure and aesthetics. This is where I developed the Intentional Design Model of Digital Communication . With the idea that communications should be created with the audience at the center, focusing on empathy, and intentional choices should be made around three component phases: the message , the medium , and the design , before reaching the decision point .

Figure 1. The Intentional Design Model of Digital Communication

Since every communication revolves around the sharing of ideas, it is important that the message be constructed in a way that aligns with the audience and helps clarify an idea. This requires intentional choices around the structure of the story, words used, and the overall tone. This focus can help direct whether the information is best shared through prose, a bulleted list, an infographic, etc. Considering the medium allows us to choose which method is best for the delivery of the message. It also helps us break away from the stagnant conceptual models created around the written word and allows us to consider the various tools that each medium provides. For example, email platforms now often include more dynamic text options (bold, italics, bullet points, text colors, highlighting, etc.) that could be used to help draw the reader’s eye and connect thematic elements. These possibilities lead us to the third component… the design . Continuing with the email example, most are sent with no intentional design and thus arrive as a large block of text with similar weight and visual appeal. This creates a monotone message that doesn’t help the reader to understand the message. Instead, various elements of the email could be designed to improve comprehension such as chunking sentences together, titles, various font weights, and colors, etc (based on Gestalt Principles of visual perception). These simple changes, which require little time, can drastically change the overall feel and efficacy of the digital message. Finally, we reach the decision point , where the communication is reviewed and an intentional choice is made to either deliver the message to our audience or address the design components once more in an iterative process. 

The Capstone Process

The power of the Capstone Process for me was that chance to synthesize the information from the program with my own perspective through the creation of the project. It provided me the opportunity to take an important observation and expand it into a fully realized conceptual model through a structured process that kept me both accountable and motivated. The invaluable guidance from my instructor, combined with the support and input from my peers, allowed me to create a final project that demonstrates the power of the IDS program and can serve as a portfolio piece that I am proud to share with future employers.

About the Author

Britain Willcock is a professional storyteller and communication specialist. After earning his M.F.A. in Acting he has spent the past 12 years working in professional theatre as an actor, director, and fight choreographer. Looking to apply his skills in other areas of communication he recently earned his M.S. in Information Design and Strategy in Communication with Data, from Northwestern University. His passion lies in taking ideas and insights gained through data and breaking them down into accessible information. At the heart of this approach is an intentional design method that shapes information to align with how we think and learn, improving comprehension and building a connection between communicators. He is currently shifting his career towards an information design role. 

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Capstone Reflection Essay

A Classroom Environment’s Effect on Students

Behaviors and Their Learning Abilities Capstone Reflection

Platte County High School

It is hard to say where the line was that this inquiry was just school work and a real product. When I was prompted to pick a subject and research it for at least a semester and then create a real product from it, I was very unsure. I had never done a project that was almost entirely self motivated before; the same goes for pretty much every other student I know. I have always been interested in the processes of the brain. I like to study the motives of people; are they conscious or unconscious? When I find the motives of people I find myself thinking of ways to make what they are doing more efficient, controlled, or expanded upon. So I knew that I wanted to do something that had to do with psychology. It made sense that I should pick a topic like this because I would be going to college next year and studying psychology. What I needed to figure out is how I could make it applicable to my current life.

I realized that the biggest part of my life was probably school. In fact, school is the most important part of our lives for thirteen years or more of almost every person’s life. I have always been bother by how  the school system is not being as productive as we need. I realize that the way to educating is changing too but the classrooms that we learn in are not making these changes as easy to work with. We are expected to be self motivating and teach ourselves and each other, but our classrooms are still set up so it is easier to mass teach and mass learn. I have always believed that the environment that we are in affects us tremendously, but it is not focused on as much as the teaching style.  

I decided that I could bind my love for psychology with my want for change in the classroom. I wanted to see how changing the environment around students could affect their focus and learning ability. I also wanted to show how to change the environment to match the changing education style. I knew that this project was meant to be real life process, so I wanted to take advantage of it and create a small legacy for myself.

It took me a very long time for me to realize what I wanted to do this project. I knew how it was relevant, but I didn’t know exactly what I wanted my product to be. At the end of the first semester, I came up with three solutions. Two of these solutions were classrooms that I thought I could actually create within my school, specifically the Paxton school for next year. My other solution was a website or application that you could use to create your own classroom.

I wanted that to be a place where people could educate themselves on how different parts on the classroom environment affected students. I also wanted to make it much more complicated by making so that a student or teacher could put in information like dimensions and specific things that they wanted, and they could create a 3D version of their room. Another thing that I wanted to have, and would still like to add even though the class is done, is to have a part of my page able to lead people to product such as the S.A.D. light or the Node chair so that they can know how different products are and they would be easily able to find the prices and buy those products.

This semester, I started by wanting to create a different classroom in the Paxton school. I eventually realized that I did not want to just have a small space within my school. I wanted my inquiry to have a larger change; everyone should be able to get easy information that can help the redesigning process of a classroom. This lead me back to my idea of the website that I had at semester. I definitely knew that I could not do as much with it as I would have liked; it would have required much more computer skills than I posses even though I did have to improve my technological literacy by doing what I have been able to produce.   

I wanted to conduct research on how students as a whole are operating in the class room. I want to know what makes us respond positively or negatively and how to incorporate that into schools. Particularly, I wanted to know how the physical environment affect our focus and social environment.

My best informative resource was the “Clever Classroom Holistic Evidence and Design”. The HEAD study focuses on the holistic scope (how characteristics interact). There needs to be an appropriate level of stimulation such as colour. There also needs to be an individualisation in the room so that students have a sense of control but also flexibility. And finally there should be naturalness to the environment i.e: light, temperature, air quality, sound, view. They recorded these characteristics from 153 classrooms and 27 schools. “The single most important finding reported here, is that there is clear evidence that the physical characteristics of primary schools do impact on pupils’ learning progress in reading, writing and mathematics. This impact is quite large, scaling at explaining 16% of the variation in the overall progress over a year of the 3766 pupils included in the study.”

Another source that I found particularly inspiring was “Classroom Eye Candy: A Flexible-Seating Paradise”. This was a personal experience of a women who did homeschooling and wanted to become a teacher or school psychologist. She noticed that, when allowed, people would gravitate to places that made them feel more comfortable, happy, and able to focus. She described how seating, lighting, writing surfaces, things to do with your hands, walls, and music will affect the focus of the students.

My most important overall source was my students survey. I already knew we had good learning areas in the school, but I also knew that we have bad ones. This survey showed me the personal opinion of other students in my school. Many of their opinions correlated with the statistics of some of my other sources. Having this survey prompted me to take pictures of classrooms around the school. They helped inspire me to make changes and showed me good ideas for changes that could be advised for other classrooms.

My most inspirational source was “”A Place for Learning: The Physical Environment of Classrooms”. I liked this article because it came from the personal experience of a teacher. This person created exercises to be used in the classroom for community, trust, and motivation among the students. Those exercises were not working in the environment that the students were in. When this happened they decided to remodel the basement that these students were being taught in. When the students were allowed to create their own environment they developed community, trust, and motivation. Students should be allowed to create their own environment. It does not have to be funded by the school and the kids will feel empowered.

The “Environmental Engineering: Arranging Your Classroom Environment For Optimal Functioning” was another article that helped me a lot. This article is basically an outline of how to structure your classroom. It doesn’t give exact answers but it makes you think about nearly every detail in the room. Although it doesn’t tell you the best design it gives examples of things teachers do like splitting the room into multiple types of working spaces. (It all depends on the type of activities you do in the classroom). It shows how to use your space and resources well and how to position the students and teacher physically in the classroom.

These sources answered questions that I didn’t even know I had. In the beginning, I was only thinking of the big picture. I figured that things like furniture and decorations were important but I never thought of how the natural environment can be part of the classroom. Since data I found showed that the naturalness of the environment was about twice as important as the individualization and amount of sensation, I now find it surprising that I never thought about how things like windows are extremely effective. The things like the furniture and decorations were predictable, although I did find out about a lot of different and interesting ideas like podiums and student use dry erase boards. The things that I found to be the most important when making the class into a community is to separate the classroom into class, group, and individual learning spaces and the students should be included in helping design the room and controlling things about the environment like having the windows open or the amount of lighting on a day to day basis.

The Network that I used was basically facebook. I started looking at pages like T. J. Hoffman, Edutopia, WeAreTeacher, and Mind Shift. When something was posted that related to classroom design or just education and the learning/creative process, I could join in on the comments which helped me see what other people thought.

I did my Network in this way because I find Facebook really easy to use. By using this, I can join in an international conversation happening in real time. The articles I read were announced to me in a way that captured my attention, were almost always relevant, and they were recent.

Sometimes I would see things that were not related to my inquiry at all, but they still helped motivate me or bring me back to the reason for my inquiry topic. I remember a quote that I read in a post; “Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” – Malcolm Forbes. This made me think about all the different possibilities I could have with my own inquiry. My network made itself into a way to connect to teachers themselves. Most of the information is meant to help teachers learn how to change their ways of teaching. By knowing the needs of teachers for teaching, I am able to have a new perspective of what is needed in the classroom because I know what the teachers need to and it gives me an idea of how teaching is changing. Since I have an idea of how education is changing, it helps me see what kind of environmental resources should be in a classroom.

For my Capstone project, I designed a website. This website included why you should redesign, learning to redesign, my designs from the end of first semester, and my references.

The “Why Redesign” page explains how the expectations for how students are being prompted to learn in new ways and how standard classrooms do not have the capacity to endorse student’s creativity let alone ability to focus and learn.

The “Learn to Redesign” page has five tips that I thought were the most important to remember throughout the entire process of redesigning; 1. The room cannot be too different from a standardized classroom. 2. Student’s need to have a say. 3. Most of the time, teachers will think that any change is for the better. 4. The environment should be inviting. 5. Keep in mind the activities that are to be done in the class. There are also three subpages: Natural Environment, Individual Environment, and Ornamental Environment. These all included: air quality, temperature, lighting, sound, flexibility, personalize, intricacy, and color & coordination. They all included things that would be good additions and why, but they also had the side effects.

Including my designs on the page was meant to show people how they can make their own designs. On this page, I explain exactly what is going on in the picture and why I believe it would be beneficial to the room.

My references consisted of my solution paper sources, survey data, and pictures of my school. The solution paper sources are included so other people can make sure my information is accurate or just to find out more information in a different format. My survey data in included to show that students have opinions and that they are important to how well they can focus and learn. I also wanted people to see how it supports the decisions made on the “Learn to Redesign” sub-pages.  The pictures of my school were taken and included because they were referenced in the student survey. I thought that it would help show reader exactly what the students were talking a about. These resources are meant to give readers background information for all the redesigning advise I made.

I delivered and am delivering my website through “Edutopia”. I am still in the process of getting the article published, but editors of the page have been in contact with me. We are trying to decide what route I should go about to get the most useful information from my website into an article that will still be worthy of reading without going to my website but is still likely to drive traffic to my website. They have reviewed my website and told me that the website was very informative and would be very valuable in the Edutopia community. It would have been nice if my survey had more participants and although there is a lot of good information, the format that it is in is a bit overwhelming for someone who is not familiar with the organization.

I believe that I represented my creativity and documentation attributes very well during this entire inquiry. I did not just copy information that I read in my sources; I took the information that I found (all of it was used in some way) and I created my own ideas from it. I think I would have tried to be even more diverse in my research. I would have liked to have more information on the “Naturalness” of the environment seeing as data shows that it accounts for about half of a student’s ability to or to not be able to focus and learn. I would have also wanted to include and aspect on my website that would show all the different types of products you can get and where you can buy them. This would show multiple styles of thing like node chairs or rolling tables.

Many things are needed for an inquiry to be successful. The most important thing is that you have a passion for what you are doing. Without a passion, it doesn’t make sense to be doing it and you won’t have much motivation to do it. You need to be able to apply it to real life. Being somewhat technologically literate will help a lot when finding information and creating a presentation. Having background knowledge will allow you to have a head start when starting the inquiry because you know a bit more of what you are looking for. A mentor or partner would be better for reviewing. Another person will help you see your project from multiple perspectives. Ask as many questions as possible. Remember that the first step is always the hardest. One who start, you will probably get on a roll and find it hard to stop  My last suggestion is to know that you are never done; you can always get more feedback, deliver it to more people, add more information, etc.

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