[three_fourth]Introduction
Since its creation, the State University of New York (SUNY) Empire State College has believed in the cross-border accessibility of education and has operated an International Program initiative in a number of Central American and European countries. These programs utilize a transnational approach, in which alliances are formed with local universities with SUNY Empire State College setting curriculum, supervising the quality of instruction, and awarding the degree. This case study considers the capstone experience offered by the SUNY Empire State College flagship international program in Prague, Czech Republic.

Baccalaureate degrees in Prague are awarded after four years of study during which students must earn 124 academic credits. A number of majors are offered, but the most popular is Business Administration. Students have predominantly been drawn from the Czech Republic and Slovakia; however, enrolment demographics have changed over the last five years with increasing numbers of students coming from Russia, the Central Asian counties of the former USSR, and China. The International Programs of SUNY Empire State College require students to successfully complete a capstone experience in order to graduate. It is important to note that the college believes the capstone experience to be a significant part of the undergraduate degree, reflecting the educational philosophy of Ernest Boyer (1928-1995), the former Chancellor of SUNY and a prime mover in the creation of Empire State College in 1971.

The capstone experience is offered across two semesters in the student’s final year, carries 5 academic credits (equivalent to one-sixth FTE), and takes the form of an undergraduate dissertation. In the first semester the student is required to select and explore a research question that will be addressed in the following semester. The capstone experience allows the student to review and integrate prior learning and to demonstrate creativity and innovation in investigating a new issue. It serves as a demonstration of knowledge integration, exploration, and reflection. It requires a breadth of understanding and also the ability to focus on a specific issue, presenting findings in a high-quality scholarly work.

Delivery format
The capstone experience lasts for the entire academic year, but is broken into two sections that are completed in the fall and spring semester respectively. Each student is assigned a mentor and in the fall semester (13 weeks) student and mentor work together to define a research question. Working at a distance (e-mentoring) the mentor continues to engage with the student, providing study modules and assignments that deal with the attributes and assessment of scholarly works and the appropriate citation and referencing of sources. Normally the outline of the dissertation and the introductory chapter are completed during this semester. The following semester (13 week) is devoted to writing the dissertation, again with active and ongoing e-mentoring support.

Active mentoring is a critical component of the successful capstone experience; it provides support, motivation, and a sense of involvement for students. Due to logistical and budgetary constraints, most of the mentoring is conducted at a distance (e-mentoring); however, recognizing the critical nature of the mentoring process, a SUNY Empire State College mentoring team visits the Prague campus at the beginning of each semester. They meet with their assigned students over the course of two weeks to solidify relational bonds, negotiate academic and research questions, and initiate the beginning phase of the capstone experience.

Feedback and assessment
Continuous feedback is provided by the student’s mentor. Mentors have a great degree of flexibility in working with students and in designing assessment and feedback strategies. Many mentors ask their students to work through a series of modules (such as academic writing, citation and referencing formats, etc.) that have designated weights in the final assessment; however, assessment tends to be holistic in nature and negotiated individually with the students. The design phase of the capstone experience (fall semester) is considered complete when: (a) the student has identified a viable research question; (b) written a two-page justification of the question and how research will contribute to a greater understanding of the issue; (c) provided a synopsis of the areas to be explored (including a proposed timeline); and (d) completed a tentative outline of the final dissertation. Currently successful completing of this phase of the capstone carries 2 academic credits, but this may be reduced to 1 in the future.

Students write the dissertation in the spring semester and again receive continuous feedback from mentors. Assessment of the final product is holistic, although mentors also provide students with a set of criteria (and weightings) that they consider critical. Although the dissertation is written in English, most students are not native-English speakers. Assessment does consider the quality of English language use, but places more weight on the quality of the academic research, innovative ideas and conceptualizations, and communication of knowledge. Currently successful completing of this final phase of the capstone experience carries 3 academic credits, but this may be increased to 4 in the future.

An interesting situation arises in Prague in that students who graduate with the SUNY Empire State College degree can also separately earn a fully-accredited Czech degree with our educational partner, a private Czech university. To receive this second degree, students must submit their capstone dissertation, undertake an extensive oral examination, and defend their work before representatives of the Czech Examination Board. The double-degree option is very popular with students since it provides them with multiple professional and vocational advantages. Although the degrees are not technically connected, SUNY Empire State College has always tried to accommodate the requirements of the Czech Examination Board, especially in the design, length, and quality of the capstone dissertation. One ramification of this policy is that SUNY Empire State College no longer accepts a dissertation based exclusively on student internship experiences. Students, however, are encouraged to use such experiences and to engage in active corporate field-work to support their research. Most students completing their business administration degrees have completed one or more separate, non-credit bearing internships in Europe or North America.

Resourcing
The Prague site is the flagship of SUNY Empire State College’s International Program and the model used there relies heavily on dedicated mentors. This model brings mentors on-site twice a year for two-week sessions. At that time, mentors engage in multiple tasks: establishing relational bonds with their students, leading student workshops, beginning blended (hybrid) courses that will be completed online, and offering development sessions for local faculty. In other locations, resident program directors and locally-hired adjuncts provide the mentoring support. The high quality of capstone outcomes in Prague indicates the value of this personalized face-to-face mentoring approach.

The downside, in administrative and budgetary terms, is that this model is expensive: most mentors are brought in from North America. The college is presently considering other models that might better integrate its mentoring faculty throughout the whole of the college’s international presence. The concern is that diminished face-to-face opportunities for mentors to meet and engage with their students might significantly reduce the quality of the capstone process and work product. From a national-culture perspective, it should also be noted that many European students (particularly those from Central Europe) consider online education negatively: a much reduced, or minimalized, form of traditional face-to-face instruction. The on-site visit by mentoring faculty provides reassurance and a personally negotiated bridge towards subsequent online work. No additional equipment or administrative resources are required other than those already in place in the program.

Outcomes
The capstone experience results in multiple outcomes. At one level there is the physical production of a substantial dissertation that showcases the student’s integration of knowledge and ability to apply novel and innovative approaches to solving a significant problem in economics or business areas. This serves students well. In Central Europe “dissertation work” is highly regarded and is the focus of the final (fifth) year in most local programs, which typically award a master’s degree as the first academic qualification. The final dissertation is often requested by potential employers and used by graduate schools in their acceptance process. Students in the SUNY Empire State College program are thereby able to conform to regional academic norms.

Additional (certainly with economics and business administration students), capstone experiences often revolve around real-world business problems and concerns. Students are actively advised to include corporate fieldwork in their research program, interview local managers, and conduct surveys that may have direct utility for employers. In formulating their research fieldwork, many students make corporate contacts, demonstrate their analytical companies, and are subsequently hired by the organization in which they conducted their research: a truly bridging aspect of this capstone experience.

Related Material and Publications
Starr-Glass, D. (2014). Servant mentors and transnational mentees. In R. Selladurai and S. Carraher (Eds.), Servant leadership: Research and practice, a volume in the Advances in Human Resources Management and Organizational Development book series, (pp. 92-113). Hershey, PA: IGI-Global. http://www.igi-global.com/chapter/servant-mentors-and-transnational-mentees/106107

Starr-Glass, D. (2014). Three degrees of separation: Strategies for mentoring distanced transnational learners. In F. J. García-Peñalvo and A. M. Seoane-Pardo (Eds.), Online tutor 2.0: Methodologies and case studies for successful learning, a volume in the Advances in Educational Technologies and Instructional Design book series, (pp. 176-200). Hershey, PA: IGI-Global. http://www.igi-global.com/chapter/three-degrees-of-separation/102438

Starr-Glass, D. (2013). Threshold work: Sustaining liminality in mentoring international students. International Journal for Mentoring and Coaching in Education, 2(2), 109-121. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJMCE-11-2012-0073

Starr-Glass, D., & Ali, T. (2011). Double standards: When an undergraduate dissertation becomes the object of two different assessment approaches. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 37(2), 179-192. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2010.515016

Starr-Glass, D. (2010) Reconsidering the International Business capstone: Capping, bridging, or both? Journal of Teaching International Business, 21(4), 329-345. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08975930.2010.526031

Starr-Glass, D. (2006). Enhancing the transformative potential of business internships. Managing Global Transitions International Research Journal, 4(4), 285-297. Available at http://www.fm-kp.si/zalozba/ISSN/1581-6311/4_285-297.pdf

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Key characteristics
Research/inquiry-based project; international; two semesters duration; 0.6FTE.
Negotiated outcomes; research dissertation (10,000 words), holistic assessment.
Student numbers – 45-60

Contacts
David Starr-Glass, Senior Mentor, Empire State College, International Programs, Prague Unit [email_link email=”David.Starr-Glass@esc.edu”]Email David [/email_link]
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