YCN is a faculty-driven initiative funded by an AIF-1 (Academic Innovation Fund) grant to provide campus-wide support for professors who teach—or who want to teach—capstone courses.
YCN is comprised of three parts:
Over coffee and light refreshments, faculty, subject matter experts, and current capstone students, meet to discuss issues and develop resources to strengthen capstone experiences at York.
For professors and students alike, these resources can assist with proposing, developing, and improving experiences in capstone courses.
This unique, cross-faculty capstone experience allows students to work in multidisciplinary teams on “real-world” challenges over the whole school year.
What is a capstone course?
According to the most recent academic plan, capstone courses are a top priority for York University as a “finishing year” activity that sets students up for career success. Their mission is to consolidate students’ prior academic experience and enable them to scaffold it in meaningful ways after graduation.
There are many kinds of capstones, from “Learning-Integrated Work” and “Work-Integrated Learning” to collaborative, multidisciplinary projects aiming to solve real-world problems. They all facilitate student work-readiness with an emphasis on professionalization, career development, and experiential education.
The ultimate goal of all capstone courses is to help students recognize the learning journey that is coming to a close and reflect on where this journey may take them next.