Catalyzing Capstone Project Success through Readiness Reviews and Reflection

Abstract "Catalyzing Capstone Project Success through Readiness Reviews and Reflection" Capstone projects are a common way to finish an undergraduate engineering education. They have many advantages, but they can get off track for a variety of reasons. This can fuel unequal results, both technically and in terms of students' educational experience. A growing body of work supports the idea of internal Project Readiness Reviews (PRRs) to help assure that all students have a successful capstone experience. PRRs were added to and existing two-term team-based capstone framework. The framework already included advisor meetings, coordinator reviews of project progress and writing skills, and external expert design reviews. The PRRs were done by the course coordinators (the faculty of record for the entire program) near the end of the first term, after the final presentation, but before the final report was due. The coordinators reviewed all teams base on their work to date: a presentation, memos, problem statements and background research. The review was intended as a frank and critical, but not graded, review of the project. In the first iteration, the coordinators presented their assessment with questions only at the end; this was quickly modified to a more interactive format based on clear student feedback. The students were asked to reflect on the PRR experience about a week later at an end-of-term wrap-up event. The results to date have been positive. An unanticipated but welcome effect was seen at the first-term presentation: the coordinators took a background role, collecting information for the review, resulting in much richer engagement between student peers, and with non-coordinator faculty. The PRRs were private, allowing more frankness (in both directions), thus informing students of problems that might otherwise have been minimized, and faculty of student concerns that they may have been reluctant to discuss in person. The student reflections indicate that they gained insight into issues such as insufficient planning, the need for technical writing improvement, and specific technical issues. They also valued positive comments in this environment highly, which helped with the stress that comes with uncertainty. The students noted they could put the feedback given in the PRRs to work immediately in their first-term reports; this seemed to have a positive effect although this is only anecdotal at this point. This is work in progress; the good effects to date have been more than sufficient to earn the PRRs a place in the crowded syllabus, and the reflections have already driven improvements.