A Proposed Design for the Business Capstone Course with Emphasis on Improving Students' Information Competency

Abstract

Business school accrediting agencies and employers increasingly demand evidence that students are mastering information competency (IC) skills. The authors present an innovative approach to inculcate IC skills in the strategic management "capstone" class, integrating cross-departmental student training in using electronic information sources, pretests and posttests of student familiarity with such resources, an externally judged team case presentation sequence, and a unique research log component. Their results from the pretests and posttests show preliminary evidence of IC mastery, supported by anecdotal evidence from participants and judges. The authors also offer guidance for implementing and evaluating this exercise.

Strategies for Teaching Evidence-Based Management

“…Our suggestion that management students, like junior doctors, might benefit from "lived experience" of research aligns with advocacy in the EBMgt literature for a research-across-the-curriculum approach (Burke & Rau, 2010;Rousseau & McCarthy, 2007;Rynes et al, 2015), including teaching specific skills such as the conduct of systematic reviews (Briner & Walshe, 2015) and bibliographic searching (Goodman et al, 2014). It is also consistent with calls to improve the underdeveloped research skills of undergraduate students through training in information literacy skills (Leigh & Gibbon, 2008) and testing of information competency skills (Gilinsky & Robison, 2008). We propose augmenting these in-curriculum approaches with "undergraduate research experiences" that are out of class and cocurricular (Bauer & Bennett, 2003).…”

The Accounting Undergraduate Capstone: Promoting Synthesis, Reflection, Transition, and Competencies

“…However, Moore (2006) noted that the capstone should not teach new skills, but rather act as a culminating educational experience. Capstone courses may be designed to enhance information competence (Gilinsky & Robison, 2008). Fernandez (2006) remarked that developing information competency in prerequisite courses is central to information literacy and research success in the capstone.…”

“…By relying on previously acquired ways of thinking, students can tackle more difficult problems and research. Unstructured problem solving is thus an important element of capstone courses (see also Ainsworth, 2001;Dunlap, 2005;Fairchild & Taylor, 2000;Gilinsky & Robison, 2008). Jervis and Hartley (2005) noted various goals for capstones, including making sense of the relationship between the general education curriculum and courses in the students' major; refining personal skills, abilities, and viewpoints acquired throughout the students' undergraduate years; and enhancing students' understanding of and readiness to enter the world of work.…”

Development of Information Competency in Students during Training in Al-Farabi's Geometric Heritage within the Framework of Supplementary School Education

“…However, despite the rather wide range of pedagogical studies (Yermakov, 2009;Kizik, 2003;Falina, 2007;Trishina, 2005;Moore, 2002;Kamhi-Stein, 1998;Gilinsky, 2008;Kwon, 2011;Cunningham, 2003), issues of developing information competency in students through training in Al-Farabi's geometric construction tasks, together with the scientist's other mathematical achievements, including in the context of supplementary education, within the framework of a general secondary school, have not yet been the subject of a separate study.…”