Reflections of nine years of interdisciplinary capstone courses

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the students' experiences in our Computer Science capstone course at the University of Buenos Aires during the last nine years. Students developed applications and prototypes for the School researchers that the School's overburdened computing services group could not undertake. The benefits and challenges in collaborating with the School of Engineering's community provided an opportunity for the students to undertake meaningful responsibility and to see the effect of their own actions on others. All activities that instructors and students undertook to get information of both quantitative and qualitative data were used diagnostically to alter teaching and learning to meet student needs. A phenomenographic qualitative approach was chosen to evaluate our clients' concern about students' motivation and expectations. We found that almost all of the study participants perceived that contributing to a better service of campus labs positively enhanced their motivation toward the project. The key ingredient of highly motivated teams was the empathy towards the client's lab researchers and they software problems. These teams committed significant time for the project, more than we asked for, and finished earlier than others.