The Trend Toward Online Project-Oriented Capstone Courses

Abstract

At Pace University we have been using real-world student projects in capstone computing courses for about 10 years. While the courses were conducted in a traditional classroom environment during the early years, the current course has been essentially online for the last five years in order to reach a greater number of geographically scattered students. Findings indicate that appropriate team management changes can smooth the transition from co-located to distributed teams, and that peer evaluations and other remote assessment techniques make it possible to assess the work of students on distributed teams.

KEYWORDS:

• distance education
• online courses
• capstone computing courses
• project-oriented courses
• collaborative and teamwork skills