INDS 491 Interdisciplinary Studies Capstone

The capstone course assesses students’ content proficiency and scholarly synthetization of their chosen Areas of Study within the Interdisciplinary Studies degree. Students will harmonize knowledge with a Christian perspective while incorporating their integrative learning into an interdisciplinary research portfolio and identifying personal and academic strengths for future career application.

In today’s job market, it is imperative that the Interdisciplinary Studies graduate presents a confident picture of his or her own academic mastery and how his or her chosen major areas of study complement future career endeavors.

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After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.

Discussions (2)

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the student will compete two (2) discussions on this course, both of which consist of one (1) initial post and two (2) replies. Each thread must follow the unique prompt and demonstrate course-related knowledge and be at least 400 words in length. In addition to the thread, the student is required to reply to the thread of at least 2 classmates. Each reply must add to the conversation and be helpful to original poster and be at least 150 words in length. Any sources used must be cited according to current APA style guide standards. (CLO: A, B, C, D, E)

The student will narrow an interdisciplinary topic and develop an appropriate research question using the provided model format over the course of two (2) draft assignments. In the Topic and Research Question: First Draft Assignment, the student will choose an interdisciplinary topic to study and fill out the provided Topic and Research Question Template. Then, for the Topic and Research: Second Draft Assignment, the student will edit his or her work from the previous draft based on instructor feedback, using the “Track Changes” feature on Microsoft Word to show the changes made to the assignment. Any sources used must be cited according to current APA formatting. (CLO: B, C, D, E)

The student will create a 1,000–1,500 word Literature Review that incorporates at least 7 scholarly sources and discusses the research around the student’s second topic and research question. The literature review should mention multiple perspectives on the topic and demonstrate a lack of bias on the student’s part. The paper will be formatted according to current APA style guide standards. (CLO: A, E, F)

The student will create a 150-400-word explanation of how he or she intends to study his or her research question or thesis. The methodology section should be short and describe an ideal process for studying the topic. In the same document, the student will include a 250-450-word rationale explaining why his or her research proposal will be relevant to his or her audience, and why his or her topic is an important one to study. This assignment will be formatted according to current APA style guide standards. (CLO: E)

The student will create a 2,000–2,500-word research proposal that includes an abstract, introduction, literature review, methodology, rationale, significance/conclusion, and references (the last of which not counting towards the word count). The student should reuse previous assignments in this assignment, but those assignments should be modified and updated as per instructor feedback. This assignment should cite from at least seven (7) scholarly sources, and the paper must make use of current APA formatting. (CLO: A, E, F)

The student will write a 700–1,100-word essay that explains how his or her areas of study come to together to prepare him or her to accomplish his or her proposed career. The essay should justify the student’s choice of his or her area of study and convince an audience (future employers) that the student has made wise choice in his or her degree. The essay should make use of current APA formatting. (CLO: B, C, D)

Over the course of a three-paragraph paper (of which each paragraph cannot exceed 200 words), the student will reflect on what he or she has learned in this course, how his or her perspective has changed, how he or she now views his/her degree, and how he or she plans to use or think about his or her interdisciplinary degrees differently. The student will briefly explain interdisciplinarity in his or her own words in light of his or her worldview and will reflect on the reading from Covey’s text. This paper will make use of current APA formatting. (CLO: A, B, C, D, F)

The student will complete an APA quiz designed to assist him or her in completing all assignments utilizing an academic format necessary in the course. This quiz is open-notes/open-book, contains 10 multiple choice questions, has a time length of 1 hour, and allows for one attempt. (CLO: E)

The student will complete 8 quizzes on material studied throughout the course. Each quiz will contain 5 multiple choices, true/false questions (the Quiz: Interdisciplinary and Covey’s First Habit contains 5 multiple choice questions), have a time limit of 30 minutes, and allow for one attempt. These quizzes will be open notes.  (CLO: A, B)