How Valuable Are Capstone Projects for Community Organizations? Lessons from a Program Assessment

Abstract

Many MPA programs use capstone courses as culminating experiences to assess students' capacity to apply program knowledge and skills to challenges facing public or nonprofit organizations. This paper examines whether capstone projects in one university's MPA program were beneficial to organizational partners. Using data from a survey of capstone supervisors and 10 follow-up interviews, the paper finds that supervisor engagement, project location, and faculty involvement were significant factors in determining whether projects were beneficial to host organizations. The findings indicate that closer relationships among the three primary participants in capstone projects (student, supervisor, and instructor) will lead to more successful capstones for partner organizations. This study adds to our knowledge about how to structure effective capstone programs; it also suggests that community partners can be valuable sources of information in assessing the effectiveness of MPA programs. Many Master of Public Administration (MPA) and related degree programs require students to participate in a culminating experience that assesses students' capacity to synthesize their previous coursework and apply the knowledge and skills they have learned (Garris, Madden, & Rodgers, 2008; Jennings, 2003). These culminating experiences are typically referred to as a capstone or practicum. Although MPA programs structure capstone experiences in different ways (Jennings, 2003), many require students to work with a community organization to address a managerial or policy issue (Garris et al., 2008). Some researchers 62

The Influence of a Student-Led Advertising Agency Service-Learning Project on SMME Client Satisfaction: An Expectancy–Disconfirmation Paradigm

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Use of active learning strategies in public affairs education: Advances and lessons from the scholarship and the practice

“…The literature portrays them as effective tools for: student engagement and critical thinking development (Goings and Johnson, 2011;Van der Meer and Ringeling, 2010), collaborative learning (Goings and Johnson, 2011;Kramer, 2007); emotional intelligence, conflict resolution and leader capacities (Hartley, 2009;Kramer, 2007). They are also said to provide useful spaces that emulate real-life and real-work contexts (Green and Farazmand, 2012;Hartley, 2009;Van der Meer and Ringeling, 2010), and improve real-client satisfaction and student achievement, particularly in the case of capstones (Campbell and Lambright, 2011). Therefore, the extant literature shows a high potential of such active learning group strategies in anticipating the development of abilities that are deemed essential for public affairs practice.…”

Capstone experiences in small MPA programs in the United States

“…At the program level, partnering with local communities brings outside tacit knowledge with live experiences into a static capstone format. Capstone projects offer successful accomplishments of program missions in preparing students for careers and creating more symbiotic relationships with communities (Campbell and Lambright, 2011).…”