Capstone project: from theory to practice

Abstract

Due to the didactic methods based on the tradition of theorizing, including the practical aspects of education, and scholastic custom, having become routine, which without doubt disadvantages the training and development of specific skills declared in the university curricula for studying engineering disciplines. Because some of the given disciplines should be practical, the author debates in this article the didactic strategies built around the creative, and/or research, and/or design activities of expert systems prototypes, capitalizing on the so-called Capstone Project concept. This work is a case study that falls within the field of Education Science and covers topics at the intersection of University and Vocational Didactics, and also Computer Science Didactics. Beside the presentation of the research approach, the author reviews the specialized literature related to the applicability of the Capstone Project. She then analyses, in a descriptive manner, the case study design; the data regarding the students' feedback was then collected after completing their experiences on the Capstone Project, made by their own conception; these are in places expressed in statistical terms.