OMDE 670 - The Capstone Course
The MDE capstone course is planned to be your final course in the MDE program. It should be a culmination of your work in the program. The two main activities for this course are the e-portfolio and the research project.
In both cases, it is important that you start planning for those activities early in the program. To help you accomplish this, we have made available a set of resources, which we have organized as a wiki - The MDE Capstone Wiki. In this wiki you will find guidelines for work on both deliverables, as well as examples that illustrate what was accomplished by other students. Additionally, plan to participate early and frequently in the MDE Orientation.
As you will notice, the e-portfolio requires you to display several pieces of your work completed throughout the program. This is one aspect of the Capstone Course that requires you to plan early by saving all of your assignments outside the classroom. In many cases, students have doubts about what they should display and what they should do if they have not kept back-ups of their assignments. Here are some answers to most common questions related to this topic:
In both cases, it is important that you start planning for those activities early in the program. To help you accomplish this, we have made available a set of resources, which we have organized as a wiki - The MDE Capstone Wiki. In this wiki you will find guidelines for work on both deliverables, as well as examples that illustrate what was accomplished by other students. Additionally, plan to participate early and frequently in the MDE Orientation.
As you will notice, the e-portfolio requires you to display several pieces of your work completed throughout the program. This is one aspect of the Capstone Course that requires you to plan early by saving all of your assignments outside the classroom. In many cases, students have doubts about what they should display and what they should do if they have not kept back-ups of their assignments. Here are some answers to most common questions related to this topic:
Do I need to display ALL my work?
No. You don't have to display all your work. We advise you to display SAMPLES of your work, which can demonstrate your competency as a distance educator. To help you decide what to display, it is suggested that you consult the rubric for e-portfolios and the MDE assessment plan, where several of the major competencies to successfully complete both components are discussed.
No. You don't have to display all your work. We advise you to display SAMPLES of your work, which can demonstrate your competency as a distance educator. To help you decide what to display, it is suggested that you consult the rubric for e-portfolios and the MDE assessment plan, where several of the major competencies to successfully complete both components are discussed.
What can I do if I have not backed-up my work?
We urge you to be careful in backing up your work throughout the program. In case you have had problems backing up your work, here are things that you should do before getting desperate or asking for support.
We urge you to be careful in backing up your work throughout the program. In case you have had problems backing up your work, here are things that you should do before getting desperate or asking for support.
- Assess how much material you still have: List courses, and make a list of assignments that you have for each course.
- Consider major competencies and see what is missing.
- Search for courses in your class list and in your list of archived classes. Recover anything possible there.
- Make a list of the courses from which you believe assignments are necessary. If these are more than two years old, your situation might be a bit more difficult.
- If possible, contact the faculty member with whom you had that class and ask if he or she has a copy of the specific assignment. They are not required to keep copies, so ask gently and accept whatever answer they give you.
- Look for printed versions of what you did, and consider scanning them.
- If these were group deliverables, consider contacting group members for copies.
- If none of the above works, make the list of what you need, with the information about the course (name and number and term) and contact your program director, Stella Porto at [email protected].