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CAN YOU PROVIDE EXAMPLES OF CREATIVE WORKS THAT STUDENTS HAVE COMPLETED FOR THEIR CAPSTONE PROJECTS

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One student who was studying digital media created an interactive virtual art exhibit that could be experienced through virtual reality headsets. The art exhibit featured 10 different virtual art installations that visitors could walk through and interact with. Some of the installations included virtual sculptures that changed shape when touched, paintings where the brush strokes were generated by the visitor’s movements, and an environment made of light particles that reacted to sound. The student learned skills in 3D modeling, animation, programming interactive elements, and virtual environment design to create this immersive virtual art experience.

Another creative capstone was a documentary film produced by a student majoring in film. The 80-minute long documentary told the story of a small traveling circus through the eyes of three generations of a family who owned and performed in the circus. The student conducted extensive interviews with family members, located historical footage and photos from the circus’s 50 year history, learned cinematography and editing skills to shoot additional footage at the circus’s current performances, and compiled it all into a film that captured both the artistic skills of the performances as well as the personal histories of the family struggling to keep their tradition alive. The documentary provided an intimate look at a unique American institution and the relationships that held it together.

A graphic design student created an illustrated children’s book as their capstone project. They came up with an original story about a group of forest animals discovering their individual strengths during a snowstorm. The student hand-drew all of the illustrations combining ink drawings with watercolors. They also designed the layout for each page, the cover, and additional promotional materials. Through the process, the student strengthened their illustration and page composition abilities as well as learning self-publishing and book production skills. Several local elementary schools and libraries now have copies of the book to share with students.

A musical theater major composed music and lyrics to produce an original one-act musical play for their capstone. They wrote the story, six original songs, and worked with other student directors, choreographers, actors and designers to stage a full production. Through collaborating with other theater students and completing every step from initial conception to final performance, the student demonstrated comprehensive skills in musical theater creation, production and performance. The short play received positive feedback and interest from those who saw it about the student’s potential for future musical theater work.

As part of a community health science degree, one student identified a need for more accessible athletic opportunities for disabled youth in her community. She created an adaptive sports program for kids ages 8-16 with physical disabilities. Through extensive research, grant writing, collaboration with local organizations and volunteers, she launched a six-week long pilot program. It included lesson plans, skill progressions, and rules modifications for sports like swimming, boccia, wheelchair basketball and sled hockey. Program evaluations demonstrated improvements in the kids’ confidence, socialization and mobility skills. The success of the pilot program helped the student advocate for ongoing funding and institutional support to establish the program long-term through her county department of parks and recreation. Her capstone showed initiative in identifying a community health issue and implementing a sustainable solution.

These are just a few examples of the diverse types of creative works students across various disciplines have produced for their capstone or culminating projects. Through generative thinking, research, technical skill building and collaborative efforts, these projects allowed students to demonstrate comprehensive understanding, innovation and professional potential within their fields of study. The process of conceiving and completing singular works that combine theory and practice exemplifies the purpose of a capstone experience to showcase learning, growth and preparation for post-graduate work or research.

WHAT ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF COMPANIES THAT HAVE SUCCESSFULLY IMPLEMENTED THESE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES

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Google is widely known for their strong employee engagement culture. They implement comprehensive strategies like rewarding innovation, having flexible work schedules, providing great benefits, and fostering a fun work environment. Employees are encouraged to spend 20% of their time working on passion projects. This has led to the creation of many new successful Google products and keeps employees motivated. They also offer generous parental leave, on-site services like dry cleaning and fitness classes, free food and snacks, and the opportunity to work with cutting-edge technologies. As a result, Google consistently ranks among the best places to work and has little turnover amongst their workforce.

Another company with renowned employee engagement is Southwest Airlines. They have created a very people-centric culture where employees feel valued and engaged. Southwest leaders foster an atmosphere of teamwork, humility, and heart. Employees are constantly recognized through thank you notes and rewards for going above and beyond for customers. They also encourage spontaneous celebrations and fun through dress-up days and dance competitions at work. Southwest benefits include profit sharing, discounted flights, tuition reimbursement, and health plans. There is also an emphasis on work-life balance with flexible schedules. As a result, Southwest has some of the highest employee satisfaction ratings in the airline industry and people tend to stay with the company for many years.

Salesforce is another standout in terms of keeping employees engaged and motivated. They implement strategies aligned with their core values like trust, customer success, innovation, and equality. Employees are empowered to be their most innovative and have autonomy in their roles. Leadership promotes a culture of recognition through personal acknowledgment and monetary rewards for a job well done. People also feel cared for through benefits like 21 days of paid vacation, 16 weeks paid parental leave, health plans, and personal development funds. The open workspaces and amenities on campus like massages, gyms, and laundry services also enhance employee experience. As a result, Salesforce is frequently ranked among the best companies to work for and experience little turnover despite being in a competitive industry.

Microsoft has made tremendous strides in increasing employee engagement over the years. They place a strong emphasis on professional growth by providing internal job opportunities anywhere in the 250,000+ person company. Leadership development programs and educational reimbursement allow people to continuously develop new skills. Microsoft also understands the importance of work-life integration. They encourage employees to maintain balance through unlimited paid time off within reason, parental leave, and flexible schedules. The campus environments foster innovation and collaboration through features like free food, fitness centers, and on-site childcare. Microsoft’s engagement scores have significantly risen due to these strategies and morale remains high despite the large and worldwide workforce.

Amazon is transitioning to a stronger employee engagement culture than their reputation in previous years. They are now offering minimum wages of $15 or more per hour including benefits from day one. New parents also receive 26 weeks fully paid leave. Amazon also engages employees through their mission of being earth’s most customer-centric company. People feel motivated to innovate and provide the best customer experience possible. Leadership is making stronger efforts to recognize employee contributions and connect personal roles to business success. Amazon understands retention is critical given their large 350,000+ person workforce. If implemented successfully long-term, these evolving strategies have potential to significantly boost employee experience, satisfaction, and engagement at Amazon.

Companies like Google, Southwest Airlines, Salesforce, Microsoft, and increasingly Amazon, have demonstrated that strong employee engagement strategies can significantly boost morale, retention, and productivity when done authentically. They understand engagement is a continual journey that requires embedding the right cultural values, empowering employees, promoting growth, recognizing contributions, fostering well-being, and aligning personal success with business success. Assessing engagement scores and continuously improving based on employee feedback also helps sustain high levels of motivation and satisfaction within diverse workforces.

WHAT ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF VIRTUAL REALITY SIMULATIONS THAT HAVE BEEN USED IN NURSING EDUCATION

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Virtual and augmented reality simulations are increasingly being used in nursing education programs to expose students to high-risk, low-frequency clinical scenarios in a safe environment. Some key VR simulations that have been developed and integrated into nursing curriculums include:

Labor and delivery simulations: These VR simulations allow nursing students to experience the process of labor and delivery from beginning to end without risk to real patients. Students can practice skills like fetal heart rate monitoring, assisting with delivery, and newborn care on virtual patients. Some programs have developed VR simulations that allow students to experience complications during delivery like shoulder dystocia, bleeding, or emergency c-sections to prepare them for handling high-pressure situations.

Post-operative patient care simulations: Virtual patients have been created to simulate caring for patients in the immediate postoperative period, allowing students to practice vital sign monitoring, pain management, ambulation assistance, and identifying/responding to post-op complications. Some simulations include augmented reality so students receive real-time feedback as they assess the virtual patient’s condition and intervene accordingly. Common post-op scenarios modeled include bowel resection, total joint replacement, and vascular surgery.

Pediatric simulations: Nursing students can practice pediatric-specific skills like infant examinations, pediatric medication administration, identifying abnormalities, and caring for children with conditions like asthma exacerbations through virtual pediatric patients of varying ages. Simulations of caring for hospitalized children integrate psychosocial components so students learn to communicate effectively with young patients and distressed family members.

Mental health simulations: To allow exposure to mental health conditions in a safe environment, VR simulations have been developed depicting interactions with virtual patients experiencing symptoms of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, suicidal ideation, and more. Students can practice therapeutic communication skills, behavioral de-escalation techniques, and monitoring for signs of deterioration through multiple virtual scenarios.

Acute neurological events: Simulations have been created to depict patients experiencing medical emergencies like stroke, seizure, intracranial hemorrhage, and meningitis. Students gain experience in rapidly assessing neurological status, intervening to stabilize airway/breathing/circulation, implementing acute treatments, and monitoring for complications and treatment responses of these types of events.

Palliative & end-of-life care simulations: Through immersive VR scenarios, nursing students can care for virtual patients at various stages of terminal illness while addressing complex psychosocial and spiritual needs of patients and families. Students practice skills like pain and symptom assessment, implementing comfort measures, engaging in difficult conversations about prognosis/goals of care, and providing bereavement support.

Inter-professional simulations: Some nursing programs have integrated VR into interprofessional education activities in partnership with other health programs. Complex virtual patient cases requiring combined nursing, physician, respiratory therapy, and pharmacist interventions provide an opportunity for different disciplines to communicate, problem-solve, and coordinate care together in a realistic simulated setting. This helps students begin practicing essential team-based care competencies early in their education.

Preliminary research evaluating the impact of VR simulation use in nursing education programs shows it provides a very effective experiential learning approach compared to traditional clinical experiences alone. Students report high satisfaction with VR and feeling better prepared for real clinical situations after virtual exposure. Educators also appreciate the ability for all students to participate in rare/irregular patient cases that may not occur frequently in clinical settings. As VR technology continues advancing, its applications in healthcare training will likely expand further to strengthen competency-based, experiential learning for nursing students.

WHAT ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF CYBER NORMS AND CONFIDENCE BUILDING MEASURES THAT HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED

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One of the early efforts to develop cyber norms and confidence-building measures was the 2015 Report of the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts on Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security. This report established some consensus around the applicability of international law to state behavior in cyberspace. It affirmed that states should not conduct or knowingly support cyber operations that intentionally damage critical infrastructure or otherwise harm civilians. The report helped lay the groundwork for further international discussions on expanding norms of responsible state behavior in cyberspace.

Since that initial 2015 report, there have been ongoing multilateral efforts through forums like the UN Open-Ended Working Group, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and other bodies to develop new and strengthen existing cyber norms. Some of the cyber norms that have emerged through these discussions and begun to gain widespread acceptance include calls for states to: refrain from cyber operations that intentionally damage critical infrastructure or disrupt the public emergency response; protect electoral and political processes from cyber interference; uphold principles of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states; and consider the likelihood of collateral damage when conducting cyber operations.

In addition to norms, states have also sought to establish confidence-building measures that can reduce risks and misperceptions between states regarding cyber threats and state-sponsored activity. An early cyber CBM proposal came from the US and Russia in 2013, which suggested measures like inviting foreign experts to observe national cyber defense exercises, notifying other states of impending tests or network scans, and establishing communication channels for managing incidents or addressing vulnerabilities. While that initial US-Russia CBM proposal did not gain traction, the ideas have influenced subsequent discussions.

One notable confidence-building effort has been an ongoing series of cyber talks between the US and China since 2013. Through these discussions, the two powers have implemented practical CBMs like establishing a cybersecurity working group and hotline for managing crises, notifying each other of major cyber incidents, and hosting annual roundtables to increase transparency and discuss their national cyber policies. Observers see these US-China talks as helping to limit further escalation between the two countries in cyberspace, even as tensions remain high in other geostrategic issues.

On a broader scale, the UN has worked to develop a consensus set of global CBMs through the Open-Ended Working Group process. In 2021, the OEWG finalized 11 non-binding UN CBMs for countries to voluntarily adopt, covering areas like information exchanges on national cyber policies, building partnerships on cybercrime, cooperating on tracking and attributing cyber operations, establishing contacts for managing crises, and participating in international capacity building efforts. While these CBMs lack an enforcement mechanism, supporters argue they can promote stability if adopted widely.

Meanwhile, some regional blocs have also attempted tailored CBM frameworks. For instance, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe established a comprehensive set of cybersecurity CBMs in 2016 that 55 OSCE participating states can implement on a voluntary basis. These CBMs include transparency measures like exchanging details on national cyber strategies, creating points of contacts, and hosting consultations to reduce tensions. The ASEAN Regional Forum has also floated some modest CBM proposals focused more on norms of state behavior and cooperation on cybercrime.

While significant challenges remain, there has been progress in developing a basic framework of cyber norms and confidence-building measures through multilateral forums. Widespread adoption of existing CBM proposals could help improve stability between states by increasing transparency, managing risks, and lowering the probability of escalation from misunderstandings in cyberspace. As malicious cyber activities continue rising globally, further strengthening international consensus on responsible state behavior and trust-building will remain a high priority.

WHAT ARE SOME OTHER AREAS OF STUDY THAT WALDEN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS HAVE FOCUSED ON FOR THEIR CAPSTONE PROJECTS

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Business Administration – Common topics within the School of Management & Technology at Walden include researching best practices for leadership development, strategic planning, operations management, financial management, and marketing efforts at organizations. Sample projects analyze change management strategies during mergers or restructurings, evaluate return on investment of new technologies/process improvements, compare performance metrics at competitor companies, and recommend plans for international expansion.

Education – Education majors often develop teacher training programs, curriculum designs, or professional development workshops as part of their capstone research. Examples are developing online course modules on classroom management techniques, analyzing the impact of tutoring interventions for at-risk students, proposing multi-tiered systems of supports for special education programs, and evaluating methods for integrating technology into lesson plans across subject areas.

Health Sciences – Public health, healthcare administration, and nursing students regularly conduct needs assessments of community health issues or evaluate patient outcomes at clinical sites. Representative topics include exploring barriers to preventive care in underserved regions, comparing rural vs urban access to substance abuse treatment, assessing hospital readmission rates after implementing chronic disease management programs, and proposing staff wellness initiatives to reduce nurse burnout.

Criminal Justice – Research in forensic psychology, criminal justice leadership/management, or homeland security fields may estimate costs of recidivism and recommend re-entry programs, critique community policing strategies, propose cybersecurity preparedness frameworks for critical infrastructure, or analyze systemic racism within the criminal legal system. Recent capstones have proposed novel approaches like restorative justice courts, anti-human trafficking task forces, or community supervision models for juvenile offenders.

Clinical Psychology – The psychology programs draw from research methodology, counseling theories, and assessment/intervention courses. Representative examples involve developing evidence-based protocols for treating conditions such as PTSD, depression, or eating disorders using modalities like CBT, DBT, or art/play therapy. Others design multicultural competency training for practitioners,instruments for recognizing abuse/neglect of vulnerable populations, or advocacy programs promoting mental health screening/referrals.

Information Technology – IT administration and cybersecurity students routinely secure approval to collaborate with outside organizations on project-based learning. Recent capstones have addressed topics such as designing a small business’s disaster recovery plan, proposing an enterprise resource planning system conversion, conducting a network security audit with recommendations, developing a business continuity plan for a law firm, or researching emerging technologies like blockchain for specific industry applications.

Social Work – Mirroring real world practice, social work capstones often target micro, mezzo, or macro level social issues through program development or policy analysis. Examples address teen pregnancy reduction, re-entry challenges of formerly incarcerated individuals, foster care instability, substance abuse and homelessness, affordable housing shortages, food insecurity, access to healthcare, domestic violence, or immigrant/refugee services.

Public Policy & Administration – Students investigate the formation, implementation, or impact of legislation and regulations. Recent projects analyzed lobbyist influence on environmental standards, proposed reforms for immigration courts/detention policies, evaluated opioid intervention strategies across states, compared local economic development incentives, assessed emergency preparedness of rural communities, and recommended improvements to foster care/adoption systems.

Walden University capstone projects offer substantive scholarly research opportunities across academic disciplines, with real-world applicability and organization-focused learning goals providing an engaging educational experience for students. The topics reviewed here represent only a sampling of study areas and subject matters that learners have chosen to explore in completing their graduate degree requirements through rigorous applied research projects.