Note: This reflection has been sent to Margo Lukens, Jon Ippolitio, Gene Felice, and Ownen Smith at the time of this posting.
I’m not certain that I deserve to pass Capstone. When I look at other majors, or even the other half of students in New Media who took capstone with a different instructor: In addition to actually developing a project, those students had to formally defend and prove that their project or thesis was worth the accumulative time and effort that they had spent. During this formal defense, great risk is involved as poor planning, poor research and poor presentation can lead to detrimental grades or even in the worst cases, failure. For the past 3 weeks I had been led to envision that Capstone Night was this kind of defense. It was not.
This reflection is much more than just Capstone Night, much of it highlights the importance of relaying accurate information to students, as I had made uncountable important decisions revolving around both my capstone project and my future career, based on misinformation and my own incorrect assumptions. My capstone feels unproven and unworthy as a consequence of both mine, and other persons’ actions.
I don’t know what kind of outcome I would’ve desired. I don’t know if I would’ve wanted a better grade. I don’t know if I would’ve wanted a worse grade. I don’t know if I would’ve wanted to take an extra semester. I would rather not hold people responsible and instead turn that attention towards ensuring that these kinds of circumstances don’t happen again.
Capstone Beginning and Final Semester
Much of the points I’m trying to make in this section will sound obvious and have the possibility of detracting from my reputation as a responsible student. Despite this, I have decided to include them so that I can tell my story in the most complete sense.
I paid another UMO student to help bring my capstone to actuality. This is one of the reasons why I feel unsatisfied in being unable to defend or prove my Capstone. I comparatively have little I can claim from my capstone besides the having original idea and making design decisions during the planning stages.
I will attempt to defend many of my decisions by stating I was taking five classes, an additional sixth class outside university credits, and had a typically 20 hour week job as Maine EPSCoR’s student media assistant. Because my time was already limited as it was, I thought it would be advantageous in my case to take Jon Ippolito and Joline Blais’ capstone class instead of Mikes, as I had heard in the past that students who took Mike’s class ended up having to do more work for him.
I had believed that my capstone project was interesting enough to warrant continued development and my project being selected for CUGR was proof enough for me of outside persons’ interests.
In the first semester I didn’t even know how to begin coding my Capstone, I had worked in php, html, python, etc in the past, but those languages were nowhere near robust enough for my needs. I will admit that I didn’t place much faith in my Capstone instructor at the time Jon Ippolito, because he stated in our classes that he receives so many emails in the day that we would need to follow a specific rubric down to the letter, or else he wouldn’t even read our messages. Coupling this with around 20 students at the time potentially gunning for his assistance is what led me to continue development by myself. Learning that my project had been selected to be featured in CUGR served as an example that I used to justify to myself that continuing development in a vacuum was a good idea. I ended up using part of winter break to only plan out user features of my capstone which was careless.
In February I learned Mike Scott’s ASAP student group were offering assistance to any students who came in on Fridays. This was a wonderful program that I wish had started earlier in my academic career, as it only debuted during my final semester. Thanks to them, I was able to learn of the kind of programming language that I would’ve needed for my website, (Ajax) but looked like it was well beyond my skill level and I began looking for more experienced coders that I could pay using my CUGR budget. In late March I managed to find my coder, but the search had taken too long and I began mentally preparing myself for the possibility of taking another semester, which would’ve supported the additional time I would’ve needed to present a more compelling product. From my first few presentations at the CUGR showcase, I understood that I needed to make further strides in making my product more understandable and poignant to audiences. At first, I thought I would be able to to make those kind of improvements during the final presentation New Media student had to give, timed at 20-30 minutes. By doing so I would’ve been able to take ownership of just one more aspect of my Capstone besides coming up with the the original idea; Then I learned from the other New Media students at CUGR that they weren’t preparing for a final presentation, because our class wouldn’t have a final presentation.
Capstone Night vs. Capstone Presentation
I had known that students enrolled in Mike Scott’s class would have to do more work than the those enrolled in Jon/Joline’s class, but I didn’t foresee our class not having a 20 minute to 30 minute presentation or equivalent final assessment. It wasn’t so much the fact that our class didn’t have a final assessment that bothered me, but that our class, or just myself was being led to believe we would have one. It’s a definite possibility that we were told several times in capstone class of the remaining assignments we would have left to complete and this aforementioned presentation was absent from that list, but it never raised any alarms for me because I always thought Capstone Night could’ve very well served as our final assessment, given the rubric we were asked to follow.
See Attachment A
The students who were enrolled in Mike Scott’s Capstone class probably came out of Capstone Night with more information about their project’s current state and its potential future, than our class did because Capstone Night is no substitute for a final assessment. Unlike Mike’s final presentations, there are no consequences or risks of bad grades or even failing the class if you mess up; Every gain and loss is made purely at the students own personal benefit. These are aspects that I don’t think I wouldn’t have minded so much if I, and other students were accurately informed of Capstone Night’s overall importance. If Capstone Night exists so that students can be graded, it must not be a terribly impactful affair as evidenced from my experiences with the event.
Synopsis of May 1, 2015 Capstone Night From the Perspective of New Media Senior Thomas Fouchereaux
I would prefer not to blame groups or individuals and focus on ensuring that this level of disorganization for any event that is originally perceived as being significant to undergraduates, never happens again.
9:20: Brandon Poli and I arrive at the IMRC, ready to begin setting our presentation spaces up so that we can be approved by our Capstone instructor Joline as soon as possible so we can go home, change, and be back before 3PM. According to our capstone class, we were told to arrive after 9AM, where as we could begin setting up our presentation spaces in our reserved rooms. We assumed that the faculty who were there at 9:20AM would be able to let us into our reserved rooms so we could begin setting up. Talking to the other classmates who were present at 9:20AM, revealed that wasn’t the case. Fortunately, my room 108 is unlocked so I begin setting up; I almost don’t even notice that two graduate students are using the 109 editing suite.
Circle indicates the 109 editing suite’s relation to 108
picture taken later in the day at 11:47AM
By 9:45 faculty with keys have arrived, so students are able to unlock their rooms to begin setting up their presentation spaces. Around this time I and three other classmates hear from a faculty member that tells us that students need to be ready by 1PM instead of 3PM. This makes myself and the other recipients of this update frantic, as two out of our available hours to prepare have just disappeared. I try to rush getting set up so that when Joline arrives to approve of my presentation space, I’m able to leave the IMRC immediately so I can go back home, change/eat, and be ready to arrive back at the IMRC by 12:30PM. It becomes apparent that we won’t be able to leave as quickly as we envisioned, as Brandon manages to prepare everything he needs to present, save for a projector. One of the equipment room managers is in the IMRC but refuses to unlock the room because their normal business hours don’t start until after 10AM. This refusal strikes me as unreasonable as we were asked to reserve the equipment we needed for our presentation spaces weeks before Capstone Night. A different equipment room manger is the one who ultimately unlocks the room for Capstone Night students so they can obtain their equipment.
Setup is straight forward 10 AM-10:30AM. One instance where I step back into room 108 I’m stopped by a faculty member who asks me if I can help them in stapling capstone posters to the wall because of my physical height. It bears mentioning that these posters were turned in weeks ago as part of an assignment, and were never hung any day before Capstone Night, which mostly defeats their purpose to advertise students capstones. Because I’m still trying to set up my Capstone space and I’m operating off of lesser than perceived time, I decline providing assistance.
By 11:30AM my presentation space is as set up as it can be, given that I have forgotten important equipment at home. I wait for Joline to show up and approve my space so I can retrieve my forgotten equipment at home, I can’t find her when I look around and I end up having to leave the IMRC before her approval, so that I can be ready to return to the IMRC before 1PM.
I arrive at the IMRC around 12:30PM. John Carney helps me set up more of my additional equipment. It isn’t until around 12:50PM do I finally see Joline who asks me if I’m set up, hands me a teacher evaluation paper, and leaves the room. With myself presuming I have 10 minutes left to make sure everything works, I leave the paper in my bag as I try to rehearse the opening lines to my presentation. It’s at this point that I’m growing increasingly aware of the occupants in the 109 editing suite as they are listening to their footage playback quite loudly.
1 AM I wait for a solid 15 minutes for capstone evaluators to show up. By 1:25 a classmates comes in, asking for assistance in a matter that takes the majority of the hour for me to complete. Even though I’m helping this student I’m able to remain in 108, so if a capstone evaluator does come in while I’m helping, I can very quickly switch gears.
By 2PM no evaluators have shown up. I use this time to address several major errors in the code for my capstone, which takes until 2:20PM to solve. By this time I also fill out the student teacher evaluation for Joline. With everything fixed I try to practice my capstone presentation, but for some godawful reason, the occupants of the 109 editing suite are now laughingly showing people their finished product, which prominently features “Funkytown by Lipps INC” as background audio. It’s blaring, disruptive, and creates enough of a distraction that I’m forced to relocate to more quiet location outside 108. The act of reserving 108 as my presentation space has officially become detrimental to my capstone.
See Attachment B
or
I’ll note that I was less upset at both of them editing loudly, (as they were there before me, so I shouldn’t have the right to ask them to leave) and more annoyed with the fact that their request to use 109 was approved, despite 108 being reserved to me. At the time, I still think Capstone Night will both hugely impact my final grade and give me a chance to own more of my project, and I’m unable to comprehend that someone has the ability to share my Capstone Presentation space for comparatively less important reasons that could probably wait for another day. If evaluators had shown up at 1PM, (like a faculty member had mentioned earlier) barring all coding issues on my end, I doubt I would’ve been able to give a quality presentation with such such a distraction being present. I’ll note that 108 was not one of the two spaces I asked to be reserved for my capstone space and being moved to a room that is too vital to other students for the room to be exclusively reserved, has severely detracted from my ability to accurately present my project’s results, and limited my degree of preparation for my presentations.
I return back to 108 around 3PM, and finally the occupants of 109 have left. A few evaluators come and go throughout the hour. They test out my project, ask me questions, give me feedback, but there’s no real need for me to defend my capstone, my ideas, or my decisions I made during development. Even the more harsh evaluators don’t really seem to care that much when my project outright breaks right in front of them, forcing me to feign ignorance and ask them to try another option. I realize that if I was legitimately presenting, if my grades were actually on the line, I would’ve probably failed or at least received a low grade right then and there, but because Capstone Night isn’t a final assessment, nobody cares.
My earlier perception of Capstone Night being Joline’s classes’ equivalent of a final assessment, has all but vanished and I’m left feeling unfinished and unsatisfied, like I hadn’t actually accomplished anything in the year long reach this project has occupied. There are so many problems with the presentation of my capstone project that I abandon any pretenses of using my premade script, which inadvertently leads to me giving long pauses in between thoughts and having questionable sentence structure for the duration of presentations that I give during Capstone night. All 7 of those presentations.
If I had been given a different room I would’ve found the time to fix some of the glaring issues that would’ve made my capstone presentation better, but I don’t think it would’ve changed the outcome at the end of the day because Capstone Night isn’t a final assessment, it’s a celebration. Everything that could’ve gone wrong did, and I’m still able to squeak by because it has such little hold on my final grade. If Capstone night is going to remain a celebration it should be clearly referred to as an one and not built up in the curriculum as a stand in for a final assessment.
End
I feel like my idea for capstone, the work of my programmer and the support of John Carney was underutilized, all victims of poor planning and misinformation. I consider myself fortunate to have the opportunity to at least present to CUGR and to have my work both judged at a cross disciplinary level and presented to more than 7 people.
I don’t think I want a worse grade, I don’t think I want a better grade, I don’t know if I want to take another semester. I don’t know know if I deserve to benefit from this or if I even want to benefit from this.
I don’t want to hold people responsible, I just want to what I can to limit the possibility of similar circumstances occurring to future students during capstone semesters and Capstone Night.
Given my limited availability I still don’t know whether I would’ve preferred a final assessment akin to Mike Scott’s class, but I know I would’ve wanted to have been accurately informed; I would’ve wanted to know the truth of what was actually going to be asked of me.
- Thomas Fouchereaux
An Unrelated Addition
This reflection was written 2 days before my class’ reflective article rubric was posted on the Capstone blog. I don’t understand why our class’ reflective rubric was posted only a day before it was due (May 4th) and not Friday of Capstone Night (May 1st). Immediately after Capstone Night students have managed to accumulate fresh information that they’ve gained about their projects and they have nothing to do with that information except to sit on it and wait for the rubric to appear. When the reflective rubric is posted and students find themselves having to write about their project, the information they received during Capstone Night isn’t nearly as poignant as it so previously was and the reflective article isn’t nearly as informative as it could’ve been. The other outcome is that the students themselves begin writing reflections for a completely different purpose, starting the hour after Capstone Night ends and by some degree luck, the content that is featured in this separate reflection, matches the reflective rubric that is posted. if I am correct in understanding that informational gain is the desired end result of reflective articles, posting the reflective article rubric so late after Capstone Night neither benefits the students who are asked draw upon their own experiences or the instructors who wish to learn from those drawn upon experiences. To put it bluntly, It benefits capstone students and teachers if the reflective article rubric is posted Capstone Night, at the very latest.
