Experience report: A sustainable serious educational game capstone project

Abstract

Capstone courses play a key role in many Computer Science/Software Engineering curricula. They offer a summative opportunity for SE students to apply their skills and knowledge in a single experience and prepare them for work in industry. Capstones have many attributes that make them a valuable high-impact practice, yet there are several challenges that can be associated with them. These challenges include the general nature of a capstone that prevents deeper applications of skills, not to mention the difficulty of creating an interesting and engaging design project upon which students can make meaningful contributions and engage in extensive team dynamics. This experience report outlines an innovative approach to a senior design capstone course that addresses common limitations of capstone courses. The SimSYS capstone course is unique in that it involved a mixed team organization involving a more senior design team who led a development team over the course of the semester, thereby leveraging the diverse experience of capstone students completing their CS/SE degree. The results point to solutions for continuing a capstone project successfully in subsequent semesters that could be of interest to other SE curriculum designers looking to develop effective capstone courses.

Learning within a professional environment

“…The main disadvantage is that all work products typically belong to the industry partner and cannot belong to a visible portfolio of student work. A second category is using a home-grown project where the class, department, or institution develops a project for a client either within or outside of the academic institution [5,6]. Advantages are ease of instructor management of the project and flexibility of allowing students to choose a project to their liking.…”

Lessons Learned from Monitoring Electricity Consumption in a Research Lab Through a Capstone Project Course

“…Several experiences have been published on the use of capstone projects as tools to enhance the learning experience of students, (e.g., Longstreet et Al 2013, andWerner el Al 2013), not only in engineering programs but in other areas as well, such as in computer science. In all cases, as in this one, course designers have the main objective of offering students a learning setting based on collaboration, teamwork, and pro-activeness in the solution of industry based problems, using the fundamental knowledge acquired during their studies.…”