Session 3 - Proposals a Million

A lot of what we're trying to stress during the Senior Capstone sessions is that the students' perception of what ITA was to them will no longer work for their individual projects. They are used to a system where we lecture to the students, the students explore, and we quiz them. What we are trying to demonstrate is that they now have to take their skills and show independent drive via projects that will demonstrate to others their growth both as an ITA graduate and as a person. Our role as their capstone advisers is to help them troubleshoot any problems that will come up during the cultivation of their project and to help them become more attractive candidates for any sort of employment in the future.

Many of the projects currently being undertaken by the students heavily feature web design for local non-profit community groups. Many of our students feel the most comfortable with with their skills using dreamweaver and photoshop, not so many with flash. However, one student would like to use flash skills to help design an educational game. In general, our students have been largely self-sufficient by doing their proposals and portfolios on their own time.

It becomes hard to accurately blog what happens in our class as our time is spent largely as an independent study group. As the students start to progress further with their proposals and projects, and better yet, develop more content, these updates will get more exciting. Some questions to take away as instructors for this session:

1. How best to modify the "class" to offer the most help to the students, while preserving their sense of independence as capstone students.
2. What sorts of assignments, or landmarks should be placed for the students to respect their different projects, yet keep everyone on the same page of progress.