Designing Journalism Capstone Units That Demonstrate Student Skills.

What Are Capstone Units?Internationally, the term "capstone" has most commonly been used in the United States, where a capstone often takes the form of a "senior seminar." As a graduation requirement, this may comprise a service or workplace experience and project, a significant paper, or a series of culminating activities in a major or an interdisciplinary area. In the simplest terms, capstones are substantial culminating learning experiences that take place in the final stage of an educational course, offering closure and a focus for the sense of achievement that comes with completion. From a quality assurance point of view, capstones can also provide a means of demonstrating course-level learning outcomes (Krause et al., 2014; Rasul et al., 2009).The terminology is relatively new in Australia, and appears to have come into common usage gradually over the past decade or so although there is clear evidence of capstone-like activities occurring for a much longer period. It is certainly the case that a significant integrative project in final year has long been a common feature of undergraduate courses in many disciplines in Australia and elsewhere, particularly engineering, information communications technology and design (Rasul et al., 2009). A cursory glance at the course offerings of Australian higher education institutions suggests there is increasing adoption of capstones in a variety of formats. A recent Australian audit of business courses found a similar prevalence of capstones, at 82% (Bailey, Acker, & Fyffe, 2013).Capstones have been described as a possible source of evidence for many of these processes. Indeed, Krause et al. (2014) observe that "capstones are being increasingly used as a device to put whole-of-course learning together to assess whether graduates are work ready in their chosen disciplines" (p. 74). But as Kift et al. (2013) argue, "it is unlikely that a single capstone subject will be able to bear the burden of assuring the entirety of a particular course's learning outcomes" (p. 63).Regardless of these challenges, and given the potential benefits to students and their capacity to provide a focus for evaluation, there are indications that capstones will play a key role in establishing and assessing course-level learning outcomes in Australia. Reflecting findings elsewhere (Hauhart & Grahe, 2015), the most common capstone curriculum models are project or problem-based (89%).Background to Journalism Programs in AustraliaA close look at tertiary journalism programs in Australia reveals a wide degree of discrepancy in content and the measurement of graduate capabilities. The author discovered this when undertaking an audit of all undergraduate journalism degrees and majors in Australian universities which was part of an Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) 2014 Innovation and Development Grant report into graduate qualities and journalism curriculum renewal. The study revealed not only a wide diversity of units on offer (17 in all) but also differences in content, emphasis, and delivery. Some courses were more focused on theory-based units while others opted for mainly practical skills building units (Cullen, 2014). Currently, it is difficult for news editors to measure a skill set from a graduate's journalism degree or major, and for graduates to demonstrate evidence they have acquired skills and competencies for employment.Yet, in a tertiary journalism curriculum, there should be a way to identify the minimum standards and test capabilities to be met by a graduate from a bachelor-level degree or who is enrolled in a major in the field of journalism. This was partially attempted in 2011 with a Special Initiative OLT Grant titled Discipline Network: Journalism, Media and Communication. One aim was to develop systemic discipline standards for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Australia, which encompassed journalism, public relations, media and communication studies, and thereby provide some form of benchmarking across the universities in Australia. …