Senior Capstone Project

Where can I find information about the steps to complete a capstone, including links to the webform and requirements for different steps?

On the “Project Timeline" on the Capstone Project webpage.

How do I register for credit for a senior project (HNRS 490)?

Fill out the Honors Senior Capstone Project webform and send it to your advisor to sign. After your advisor sends the form to Honors, you’ll receive an override that will allow you to register for HNRS 490.

How do I get information about signing up for a presentation, creating a poster, filing my work on CEDAR, and other capstone resources?

The Honors Senior Capstone Project webform! Once you’ve filed your form, you’ll be put on the email list for information about completing your project. Be sure to check your email regularly, especially during the quarter you complete your project.

Is it okay to use a project from my major as my Honors Senior Project?

Yes! You can use a capstone project from another program as an Honors Senior Project if approved by Honors. If you do this, your project will be credited through the other program, but you must still complete the required Capstone steps, including filing your webform, presenting your work to the public, and publishing your results on CEDAR. Please contact capstone coordinator Julie Dugger (duggerj2@wwu.edu) to discuss your project plans.

What if my major capstone is a group project? Will that still count as a capstone?

Honors Senior Projects require original, independent work. If the capstone for your other program is a group project, you can count it toward Honors by presenting on your individual contributions to the group project—that is, what aspects of the project were you most responsible for? Alternately, you can supplement your group project with individual work: for example, writing a reflective journal or filming a documentary of your group project, or completing an additional body of research related to your group work. Please discuss your plans with capstone coordinator Julie Dugger (duggerj2@wwu.edu).

Where can I apply for funding to pay expenses associated with my senior project?

Students can apply for the WWU Undergraduate Research and Creative Opportunities Grant.

The Honors College also offers limited funding specifically for Honors students: watch your email for announcements about available funds and when to apply for them.

I need some help with research. Where can I go?

In addition to talking with your advisor, you can contact one of the subject librarians at WWU for specialized assistance: library.wwu.edu/staffdirectory/subject-librarians

My project isn’t working out and I don’t know how to fix it.

You are not the first! Some people you can reach out to for help: your capstone advisor, the capstone coordinator (duggerj2@wwu.edu), or another advisor in Honors (we all enjoy talking with students about their capstone work!).

Find a faculty member who will serve as advisor to your project. Remember that if you wish to work with an Instructor, Senior Instructor, or Visiting Professor, you must obtain permission from the Honors College. Please work with Dr. Linneman or Dr. Goldman to initiate this process.

If you don’t have an advisor lined up who is an exact match for your project, try these backup strategies: 

• Consider an advisor in an adjacent field. For example, if your project was to write a children’s book about trauma, you might consider an advisor in psychology, creative writing, or education. 
• Think back over your college classes, work out which course work put you in a position to complete this project, and consider the professors from those classes as prospective advisors. 
• You can also ask the advisor who won’t be available if they can recommend someone who will.

Good things to establish in your initial conversations with your advisor include:         

• How many credits will you take, and when do you plan to complete your project? 
• How often will you meet with your advisor? 
• When and how will you and your advisor exchange work and feedback? 
• What do you expect to complete as a finished project?

With your advisor, decide on the subject, form, and credit allotment for your project. Credits should be based on the scope of the project, the space you have in your schedule, and the number of quarters that you plan to work on your project. Remember you may take 1-4 credits in a single quarter, repeatable until you have reached the maximum number of credits allowed (8 credits total).

If your capstone project is doubling as your departmental thesis/project, your home department may require you to enroll in departmental research credits instead of HNRS 490, and you must obtain approval from the Honors College before completing your webform. Please work with Dr. Dugger to initiate this process.

Posters must be in portrait orientation, 8 ½” x 11”, and both a pdf AND jpeg of your poster need to be submitted.

Poster must include the following information:

• Your name 
• Presentation title
• Short description (optional, but encouraged) 
• Date 
• Time 
• Location
• Advisor name 
• “For disability accommodations please email honors@wwu.edu”

Download more info about poster creation here.

In addition to your poster, you must also send accompanying alternative text. Alt text serves several functions, but a HUGE one is that it is read by screen readers in place of images allowing the content of the image to be accessible. Remember that the more complicated poster design = lengthier alt text. Learn more about alt text.

Example:

An orange and blue poster with two fish depicted of differing lengths and a genome sequencing. The text reads "Interdisciplinary Study of Genetically Modified Salmon and their Effects on the Environment and Indigenous Communities. By Victoria Fair and Kaydee Mittleider. Advised by M.J. Mosher. Thursday, March 17th, 2022. 9:00 AM. OM 330C and on Zoom. For disability accommodations, please email honors@wwu.edu"

Presentations are for a general audience! This is an opportunity to gain experience sharing your work with a non-expert public. Avoid jargon and technical terms unless they’re necessary for your presentation, in which case you’ll want to define and explain them. You’ll also need to explain specialist practices or knowledge you mastered along the way.   

Presentations can take a variety of forms: think about the best way to communicate what you’ve learned. While a standard academic PowerPoint presentation is perfectly acceptable, don’t be afraid to be creative if you’re so inclined! Past presentations have included: 

• a live reading at which the audience was asked to read different parts in a screenplay 
• music performance 
• video screening 
• commissioned fan art to illustrate a final project  
• a mathematical lesson plan taught during the presentation, with the audience as students 
• a before-and-after slide comparing a poem at the draft stage and after revision 

Recommended rather than required: although there are exceptions, keep in mind it’s more difficult for an audience to follow content when it’s read aloud than when it’s spoken. You’re welcome to bring any memory aid you like, but when possible it’s better to work from notes than to read out a fully-written paper. Similarly, audiences love hearing creative work read aloud, but consider keeping excerpts short or displaying your reading on slides so the audience can follow along while you read. Some students also intersperse reading selections with spoken commentary. 

Your advisor’s sign-off ensures that your work meets disciplinary standards for student work. Honors will check for the following before signing off: 

• Your work should meet the project standards you indicated in your proposal (or an appropriate alternative, since most projects do change along the way). 

• Your work should stand on its own. While projects may take many forms, the final product you publish on CEDAR should be independently accessible to an audience. For example, a research paper, a novella, or a curated collection of visual images with an artist’s statement would be considered independently accessible. A science poster or a slide presentation that required explanation from the researcher or author would not; neither would a series of visual images with no context. 

• Projects should be attachments, not links to a drive: for example, don't submit share-links to OneDrive or Google Docs documents. Instead, download your file to your computer before you attach and send it as your final product.

• Projects must meet CEDAR accessibility standards. You can find current standards on the capstone Canvas page, which you'll be enrolled in after you file your capstone webform.

Remember that CEDAR capstone publications are student work. They are not expected to meet professional standards (although some do), and you don’t need to surpass the goals set by you and your advisor. 

That depends! Publication is a requirement for the capstone project, but some projects need special handling. Please contact Julie Dugger (duggerj2@wwu.edu) to discuss your options. These may include: 

• If your project involves proprietary or confidential information that can’t be published, we can come up with an alternative product for you to publish—for example a product with redacted information, a partial version of your product, or a reflection on your product and process.  
• If you don’t want to publish your project on CEDAR because you plan to publish it elsewhere in the future, you can request the Campus-only Access option to file your project. Your project will still be on the CEDAR website, but rather than being published, it will only be available privately to people with a WWU login.