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Professional Studies Capstone

As part of wrapping up and completing a bachelor's degree, which itself is a "professional studies" degree which incorporates my prior education in architecture, historic preservation, and so forth:

1. I am working on the capstone project class beginning this week and that will span 10 weeks. It is the only class I am taking so I would have potentially more hours over the 10 weeks than than I may normally have under full-time enrollment. However, I would need to keep the scope within reason to be done in a compressed time line than it might be in some capstone/thesis project in architecture school.

You might wonder, why am I thinking of architectural thesis/capstone project in this? While there are broad general deliverables framework, in a professional studies background, the capstone needs to be adapted to each student's professional studies and career field track so a capstone for someone pursuing a marketing director career would be different than someone in an architectural career field. Right away, I have looked at some examples and kinds of deliverables that would go into such.

Therefore, some of you are more familiar with such capstone/design-thesis project in the course of completing your B.Arch or M.Arch degree. I'm looking into tailoring this capstone around my background in architecture/historic preservation.

Some examples I have seen and looked at have students complete a "thesis design project book" or something like that. They would tend to have "posters" and such. Since this is being delivered digitally, I am looking at something more along the lines of digital deliverables as this is done online versus in-person where you would have a pin-up session and final presentation in person so I would be adapting the kinds of deliverables into digital deliverables. While I won't necessarily have physical models (albeit not entirely out of the question), I would likely have a digital model. If I were to have physical models, I would have to photograph and present such models in photographs versus one in physical form. I probably also have to be a little extra considerate of the audience isn't necessarily architects so I might have to be careful to tone the vocabulary somewhat or incorporate some glossary.

2. This would be where I would ask or receive feedback from within the architecture profession versus just relying on my own background alone but I am not in any way asking anyone for doing my homework.

Core course deliverables/assignments:
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1. Annotated Bibliography 
2. Project Proposal
3. Capstone Project Proposal
4. Ethics Assignment
5. Capstone Project
6. Capstone Presentation

Now, this is pretty generic. 

Examples of typical deliverables during a capstone/design-thesis from architecture school terminal/capstone design thesis projects, that I have ascertained but is not a claim of an exhaustive list:

 - Poster board (large format representation of the design in a "poster" format during pinup session. In on-campus mode, these would be pinned up to the wall. In online/digital mode, we'd just deliver that in a digital file. That may be a PDF file.

- "Thesis Project Book" - a "book" with the thesis.

- Models (in this case, instead of physical models, it would be digital models and incorporated into the other deliverables. 

 - Sketches, diagrams, floor plans, and so on. (usually incorporated into the other deliverables)

- Presentation in video form which would likely incorporate PowerPoint or similar presentation tool and then incorporated into the video.  The above "poster boards" maybe integrated into power point format instead of conventional large format posters or it could be integrated into PowerPoint and yet also be available in poster format in a PDF. 

Thoughts, feedback, or questions?

PS: I am also dialing in on what the project may be.

"A Capstone Project, as mentioned above, is a significant and comprehensive project that allows you to demonstrate your ability in an area of your career focus. The project must be realistic and original, meaning that the deliverable cannot be a revision of an existing assignment, document, or product. The Capstone Project provides you with the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills acquired throughout your Professional Studies degree program. The Capstone Project allows you to think critically about academic, professional, or social issues and further develop your analytical and ethical leadership skills needed in the workplace."

The degree is largely designed around students who may have an assortment of college education and other experience without a whole lot of specific courses absolutely required. In my case, I have a lot of college education that leaves me with a minimal amount of courses but 
courses required are minimal, some electives to fill minimum credits from the curriculum including this capstone project. 

Some of the other students are under from other backgrounds, including those taking certain concentration choices (concentrations are optional) in Leadership or Supply Chain Logistics, or Industrial/Organizational Psychology and some other backgrounds that are individualistic to the student. So in a sense, the Professional Studies degree is somewhat like a degree in Individualized Studies. This is to provide some context... maybe TMFI but hopefully not too much.

Thank You.

 
Nov 7, 24 6:56 pm
graphemic

Wow.

Nov 7, 24 7:35 pm  · 
2  · 
JonathanLivingston

We're proud of you Rick.  I'm not going to read all that because I have fallen for that before, but glad you're making good on all those posts with an education.  Something tells me you will be able to write it and will be persistent enough to get a decent grade. 

Nov 7, 24 8:34 pm  · 
3  · 

Understandable. It was more providing context and information necessary for anyone so if they have any thoughts, suggestions, or insight they can present from experiences. If I am anywhere remotely on track with the typical deliverables typical of architecture capstone or thesis design projects with what I stated so far, that would be good to know.

Nov 7, 24 10:36 pm  · 
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Regarding "poster", I am using it loosely to refer to the pin-up deliverables pinned to the wall or otherwise may be a 'poster' or maybe a couple of 'posters' or so. In a digital deliverable, it would make sense to communicate such possibly as large format sheets that are in a sense like a 'storyboard' of your presentation. I believe I heard it referred to in a variety of ways. 

Nov 7, 24 11:11 pm  · 
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If anyone has any thoughts, should I lay out these conventional "posters" or "presentation boards" in Power Point slides style given that it would more be viewed this way in an online course and not be printed and pinned up on a wall? In any case, I'd be communicating the same "presentation" narrative. 

I have my gut feeling but it's worth asking because it may be excessive and redundant work to make "posters" and make "power point" which would lend well for a video presentation recording. 

Thank you in advance for any feedback on that.

Nov 7, 24 11:46 pm  · 
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I'm thinking the underlying justification would be about quality not quantity. Qualitative efficiency. With finite time and resource, apply efficiency that adds quality over mere quantity and excess effort and time for redundancy in a non-"gallery-style" presentational delivery.

Nov 8, 24 1:02 am  · 
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