The Value of Capstone Projects
Joel Spolsky, CEO and co-founder of Fog Creek Software, writes about the value of Capstone Projects for college computer science students. While I disagree with some of his peripheral points, I agree that a capstone project or course certainly holds great value for the student and his or her potential employer.
The LCCC Business Division Computer Information Systems curriculum has included a capstone Systems Development (CISS 247) course since at least 1981 (when I took the then equivalent course). CISS 247 addresses exactly the issues Mr. Spolsky talks about - "working on teams, scheduling, estimating, debugging, usability testing, and documentation."
Professor Huffman, who teaches the CISS 247 course, does a great job of identifying and organizing real and challenging I.T. projects from the LCCC campus and surrounding community. Student teams are each assigned a project and a mentor who is familiar with the project (typically an LCCC faculty or staff member). The teams then have until the end of the semester to complete their projects and present their work to their peers and the LCCC campus community.
I have worked with several CISS 247 project teams and they have all indicated that 1) the course was the most challenging course they have ever taken in college, and 2) they learned a lot about meeting deadlines, working with other people, and utilizing what they have learned in their other college courses.
It is definitely a plus to see that LCCC has for a long, long time been providing very valuable student experiences that Mr. Spolsky indicates that many larger, more prestigious institutions have largely igonored.
The LCCC Business Division Computer Information Systems curriculum has included a capstone Systems Development (CISS 247) course since at least 1981 (when I took the then equivalent course). CISS 247 addresses exactly the issues Mr. Spolsky talks about - "working on teams, scheduling, estimating, debugging, usability testing, and documentation."
Professor Huffman, who teaches the CISS 247 course, does a great job of identifying and organizing real and challenging I.T. projects from the LCCC campus and surrounding community. Student teams are each assigned a project and a mentor who is familiar with the project (typically an LCCC faculty or staff member). The teams then have until the end of the semester to complete their projects and present their work to their peers and the LCCC campus community.
I have worked with several CISS 247 project teams and they have all indicated that 1) the course was the most challenging course they have ever taken in college, and 2) they learned a lot about meeting deadlines, working with other people, and utilizing what they have learned in their other college courses.
It is definitely a plus to see that LCCC has for a long, long time been providing very valuable student experiences that Mr. Spolsky indicates that many larger, more prestigious institutions have largely igonored.
posted by Paul Norrod at 9:26 AM
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