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I have the best readers ever, and I’m not afraid to solicit their wisdom from time to time. This is one of those times.
My state is taking a fresh look at the requirements for the number of gen ed credits in an associate of arts degree. Depending on how that plays out, it could open up room for different sorts of courses. One possibility that a colleague mentioned on Monday was a capstone course.
I was immediately intrigued.
At the two-year level, the liberal arts major is usually a popular option built almost entirely for transfer. It leans heavily on gen eds, and it’s ideal for students who want to go on to get bachelor’s degrees in subjects like English, history, sociology or political science. It tends to offer a considerable amount of space for students to customize, though we generally try to push against too much focus on any one discipline. (Many destination schools put caps on the number of classes they’ll accept in any one field.) Since courses within majors tend to be backloaded in most bachelor’s programs, the liberal arts major in the first two years is pretty wide-ranging. Sympathetic observers might call it broad-based; critics might call it a sampler platter. They’re both sort of right.
As a program, it has two major flaws, one academic and one administrative. A capstone course offers a potential solution to both.
The academic flaw is that, as Churchill once said of pudding, it lacks theme. When students select from a broad range of options in (almost) no particular order, we’re sort of taking it on faith that the whole equals the sum of the parts. The administrative flaw is that it’s hard to find really good points to do outcomes assessment, since students take classes in such different sequences.
Theoretically, a capstone course could provide both an integrative experience at the end, at which students could draw on various skills to dive into something substantive, and a really obvious place to assess outcomes. At the end of the program, can they present coherent arguments using research and evidence? Give them that assignment in the capstone course and see.
That said, a capstone course needs its own identity, its own reason to exist. And that’s where I’m hoping to draw on the insights of my wise and worldly readers.
A good theme for a capstone course should be broad enough to encompass interests from around the liberal arts, while being specific enough to have some bite. They should be sufficiently appealing that both faculty and students would look forward to them, rather than seeing them as exercises in box-checking. If we need to split them between humanities and social sciences, that’s probably fine.
For the humanities, for instance, I could imagine something like “love,” or “truth,” or “narrative.” How does each of those play out in a given context? It could cover love songs, satirical plays, philosophical musings or artwork.
As far as the social sciences go, I like to say that they’re the study of money, sex and power. If you can’t find anything interesting among those three, I really don’t know what to tell you.
Wise and worldly readers, what would make a good hook for a liberal arts capstone class at the two-year level? If you’ve seen it done, what worked? And what should we avoid?
I can be reached on Twitter (@deandad), or via email at deandad (at) gmail (dot) com.
Thanks!
