Designing a graduate Capstone course for an online information assurance program

Abstract

Many of the Information Assurance programs are looking for ways to improve their programs and incorporate assessment into the program. One way to do this is to add a capstone course at the end of the program. A well designed capstone course can allow your students to demonstrate their mastery of the program knowledge and skills.Walsh College offers a Master of Science in Information Assurance (MSIA) degree program that includes a capstone course. The capstone course is modeled after the Master of Science in Business Information Technology (MSBIT) capstone course originally developed by Dr. W. Don Gottwald. The capstone course was designed to meet the school's goals and objectives, be integrative, span the program curriculum, and be rigorous for the students. To complete the capstone course, every student needs to demonstrate a mastery of the skills taught across the twelve courses in the IA program which is exclusively offered online.This project attempts to identify the design issues that a school should address before launching a capstone course. A well designed capstone course will help the school, faculty, and students succeed with the program.