The Capstone Journey

Touchpoints and Temporalities in a Redesigned Master’s Capstone Process

Abstract

Capstone experiences provide important opportunities for learning that integrates theory and practice while developing situated and reflective knowledge. However, reflection and integration are challenging to plan and enact from a programmatic perspective. In this article, we discuss how students’ perceptions and experiences of academic time shaped their perception of a capstone course in our master’s-level technical communication curriculum. Drawing on our observations of students’ performance in the capstone class alongside a small-scale interview inquiry, we discuss how we came to empathize with students’ experiences of the course and learning process. We follow our analysis with a discussion of how temporalities (as experiences of institutional time structures) shaped our capstone redesign. We designed a capstone journey with many planned student touchpoints both within and outside typical formal curricular structures to address students’ perceived struggles. Our article adds to the literature about capstone pedagogy in technical and professional communication by focusing on the role of academic infrastructure (specifically organizational policies, material, and social relationships) on students’ perceptions of learning time, while offering a model for capstone redesign that distributes integrated learning across multiple interactions with people and information.