TESC Capstone course - LIB495 - guided study or online courses?

[Suksabai]

I am almost ready to sign up for the TESC Liberal Arts capstone course but I don't really know whether I should be signing up for online courses or guided study.

What's the difference between the two and has anyone had experiences with either that they would like to share with me?


Cheers!

[SweetSecret]

I'm curious about this too. I had to do a capstone for my associates degree, but didn't really grasp the concept of it at the time. I want to make sure I get a good grade in it though, since it will probably be the only course I actually take though TESC. I'd like to have an instructor/mentor who can give a lot of guidance, and will allow revisions if I turn projects in early for review.

[Hunter91]

I'm curious about this too. I had to do a capstone for my associates degree, but didn't really grasp the concept of it at the time. I want to make sure I get a good grade in it though, since it will probably be the only course I actually take though TESC. I'd like to have an instructor/mentor who can give a lot of guidance, and will allow revisions if I turn projects in early for review.

Doing the guided study capstone now and finished the first assignment the first day. I wanted to send it to my instructor for review before submitting it and she said that I cannot do that. At the end of each module you submit one chapter of your paper for feedback and that is when feedback is given in order to make corrections to your final paper. I want to get as close to 100 as I can on each assignment though, so it really irks me that she's not willing to review it before I submit it.

[Suksabai]

Who's your instructor?

It seems that the guided study gives you more flexibility but if you don't get a decent mentor, you might struggle. I'm not sure that I want to spend the extra time and effort getting involved in the online discussions in the online course, especially as I am in Thailand so on the other side of the world to most of the other students!

[FallingWaters]

I'm an introvert and didn't feel the need to do online discussions, nor did I want my grade dependent on comments in a forum with others. I wanted it to be a reflection only of my writing.
Of course the drawback was that my mentor was non-communicative and didn't explain anything nor answer my questions, so I felt like I was floundering for a while until I understood what I was required to do.

[eileen]

Did you complete it? I saw some posts state that their instructor gave them sample papers.....nice. I'm already feeling like this is going to be tough and I signed up for the online class. I'm a little older than most college students so I'm panicking a bit.

[Outis]

Did you complete it? I saw some posts state that their instructor gave them sample papers.....nice. I'm already feeling like this is going to be tough and I signed up for the online class. I'm a little older than most college students so I'm panicking a bit.

I'm taking the guided study course at the moment, and I am very pleased with it compared to taking an online course. In an online course, you are typically expected to participate in forums, which in all of my experience, is simply fluff, a waste of time, and perhaps even a distraction from the actual learning process. The guided study is pretty straightforward: follow the syllabus, complete the work, and contact your mentor if you have questions or issues.

[Westerner]

I really liked that I had the interaction with other students in the discussion forums. They had ideas to help me out during the pick-your-topic phase. Also, it's nice to "share this journey" with others and learn about their topics and why they picked them.

And it's really not a big deal to participate in the forums, in this class. You post some of what you've written and comment on a couple other posts.

[thornja1987]

I just completed the Liberal Arts Capstone through the online course, and I was really quite happy with the class. Going into it, I was stressing myself out, and for the first few weeks it was tough. The hardest part was choosing a topic. I can tell you now, FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS that are given by your mentor, even when it seems to contradict everything you think you know about writing. My topic was, "How United States foreign policy affects the economic functioning of a nation: a comparison between Cuba and Vietnam."

Certain aspects of the course didn't seem to make sense, but I just followed the directions and kept writing. I ended up with a 98.79 as a final grade for the course, and a 58 page thesis that I fully intend to utilize later for a masters in International Relations. I was so worried, and it turns out the secret is to follow directions, and write, write, write. If you have made it this far, I don't think you will have any problem with the online course, but I can't speak for the guided study options.

[Hunter91]

Finished the guided study capstone a few days ago. Just waiting for it to be graded. I had trouble throughout this course, but I think I survived (fingers crossed lol). Mine came out to 64 pages total. Just follow the syllabus and review your 'writing the winning thesis' book for each assignment to get a good idea about what things you should write about for each sub-topic.