Computer ethics: a capstone course
ECA '94 Proceedings of the conference on Ethics in the computer age
Proceedings of the thirty-first SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
Resources for instructors of capstone courses in computing
Working group reports from ITiCSE on Innovation and technology in computer science education
Challenges in teaching capstone courses
Proceedings of the 8th annual conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
A laboratory based capstone course in computer security for undergraduates
Proceedings of the 37th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
A comprehensive Capstone project in Computer Science I: getting the (instant) message
Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges
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A capstone course is an exit course for major students in most computer science programs. Traditionally it is project-oriented and aims to provide students with self-conducted learning experiences to utilize the knowledge that they have previously learned. Depending on subjects focused on and technologies used, there have been various approaches to run such a course. In this paper, we present our new design of a capstone course with its implementation. We integrate a national standardized examination, the Major Field Test (MFT), as an important component in the course. Since taking the MFT is a requirement of this course, students have to spend quality time to review all core courses in the curriculum. The review sessions significantly enhance their understanding of fundamental concepts and improve their problem-solving abilities. A term project, although in a relatively small scale due to the time limit, is also assigned to give emphasis to further developing students' abilities in written and oral communications. Our objectives are to strengthen students' fundamental background in the discipline, to improve student learning outcomes, and to well prepare students for graduate studies and/or entry into the workplace. Our detailed course structure and assessment method are described in the paper. Challenges and problems we have had are also discussed at the end of the paper.