{"id":622,"date":"2016-11-09T11:35:06","date_gmt":"2016-11-09T19:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ucore.wsu.edu\/assessment\/?page_id=622"},"modified":"2025-09-15T10:10:33","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T17:10:33","slug":"caps","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ucore.wsu.edu\/assessment\/key-assessments\/caps\/","title":{"rendered":"CAPS"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Capstone [CAPS] Assessment for UCORE<\/h1>\n\n<\/div>\r\n\n<\/div>\n\n
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Introduction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

UCORE’s Integrative Capstone [CAPS]<\/a> courses provide a culminating student experience by asking students to integrate their learning to address authentic situations. [CAPS] courses are required to advance designator student learning outcomes associated with four of the WSU Undergraduate Learning Goals<\/a> (Critical and Creative Thinking<\/strong>, Integrative Learning<\/strong>, Information Literacy<\/strong>, and Written Communication<\/strong>). In addition, [CAPS] courses may advance additional applicable designator learning outcomes associated with Quantitative Reasoning<\/strong>, Scientific Literacy<\/strong>, Diversity<\/strong>, and\/or Non-Written Communication<\/strong> as appropriate to the course. [CAPS] courses are 400-level courses and students should have at least junior-level standing as a general prerequisite (senior-level standing is strongly preferred). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given their position as the culminating experience within the UCORE curriculum, [CAPS] courses carry a strong responsibility to provide evidence of student achievement of the learning outcomes of the UCORE general education program, as well as provide evidence of UCORE\u2019s contribution towards advancing the WSU Undergraduate Learning Goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assessment<\/h2>\n\n\n
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In place since 2015, UCORE’s Capstone [CAPS] Assessment is intended to help UCORE understand how well students are achieving the [CAPS] designator learning outcomes, as well as provide evidence of UCORE\u2019s contribution towards advancing the WSU Undergraduate Learning Goals at the near-graduation level. Each semester, [CAPS] instructors are asked to submit a short report providing an assessment of student achievement of [CAPS] designator learning outcomes in their course (direct measure, using faculty expert judgement). The report switched to a rotating format starting in AY 2019-20, with four learning outcomes evaluated per year. For more information, see UCORE’s [CAPS] Assessment Reporting FAQs (PDF)<\/a>. Additionally, see the spotlight blog post Efficient Assessment: Aligning Grading Rubrics with WSU Learning Goals in UCORE [CAPS] Courses<\/a> to learn more about how one [CAPS] instructor uses her final project grading rubric to efficiently produce assessment data for UCORE’s [CAPS] reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To complement UCORE’s [CAPS] Assessment Reporting (direct measure, using faculty expert judgement), [CAPS] course enrollments and C-\/D\/F\/W rates are also monitored (indirect measures, giving information about success and progress through the curriculum) for UCORE assessment. The Office of Assessment for Curricular Effectiveness (ACE)<\/a> coordinates the assessment, reporting, and data analysis for Capstone [CAPS] Assessment for UCORE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evidence of Student Learning<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Results of UCORE\u2019s Capstone [CAPS] Assessment are compiled to provide a summary of student achievement of [CAPS] designator learning outcomes at the near-graduation level, as well as provide evidence of UCORE\u2019s contribution towards advancing the WSU Undergraduate Learning Goals. Click on the links below to explore recent results from UCORE’s Capstone [CAPS] Assessment. For more summaries of results from UCORE’s Capstone [CAPS] Assessment, see Results of UCORE’s [CAPS] Assessment<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n