The document describes a two-semester capstone course for information systems and science majors, focusing on software development methodologies and delivery. Students engage in community-based learning projects with mentorship from industry professionals, bridging the academic-industry gap and enhancing workforce readiness. The program has led to positive outcomes, including student success in real-world projects and improved job satisfaction.

1. About the Course
Two-semester sequence capstone (CIS 4327 & 4328)
course for Information Systems and Information
Science majors. In the course, students learn about
processes behind software development.
 First semester focuses on software development
methodologies, gathering requirements, and
analyzing requirements.
 Second semester focuses on designing, developing,
and delivering the software.
Karthikeyan Umapathy | School of Computing, CCEC | University of North Florida
Service Learning Goals
“Balancing Client Needs, Student Learning Outcomes, and Workforce Expectations”
Make students into a professional
Mentorship provided by industry partners help in
bridging academic-industry gap.
Make students into an effective citizen
 Students learn how to become an effective citizen
by providing software development service to
nonprofit organizations.
 CBL projects are scoped to aid nonprofits mission
and match student skillsets.
 Students learn how to become a professional by
providing a service to a client.
 Community-based Learning projects provides an
opportunity for students to become a professional.
Make students workforce ready
 Mentors help students solve technical problems.
 Mentors help in ensuring success of the project.
 Mentors teach students tools used in industry to
improve quality of software delivered.
 In first five years, students have worked on 36
projects from 29 community organizations.
 Students have been mentored by 15 software
professionals from 5 software companies.
 Senior project graduates out perform their
counterparts from other universities in workforce
 Academic-industry gap has been considerably
reduced
 Students are able to scale knowledge gained and
work on complex projects in their workplace
 Personal impact: Job satisfaction. Overwhelming
positive response from students, nonprofits, and
industry partners.
 Be innovative to accommodate: You will need to make
tradeoffs to incorporate community into your course.
 Providing opportunity is not sufficient: Students need support
system to take full advantage of opportunity and to succeed.
 Conflicts are good: Learn how to manage conflicts. Most
conflicts are learning opportunity, however, if it is not handled
properly the project may fail.
 Grow your network: Building and sustaining partnership is key
for achieving service learning goals.
SummerSummer
• Identify nonprofits with computing
needs and formulate capstone
projects
• Identify industry partners as mentors
for student teams
• Organize summer camp for students
to address technical gaps
• Assign students and mentors to
project of their interest
Fall
• Organize panel discussions and guest
lectures to help students understand
workplace expectations
• Maintain communication with clients
and mentors
• Resolve conflicts, client issues, mentor
issues, team dysfunctions
• Monitor and address project scope
issues
Spring
• Organize product design and source
code review sessions
• Monitor and address client
infrastructure issues
• Aid software delivery and client
training
• Manage after deliver service
expectations
• Conduct project signoff
Student
• Maintain communication with client,
mentor, and instructor
• Observe operations at client
organization and gather software
requirements from client
• Demonstrate product prototypes
and obtain client feedback
• Develop finalized design solution and
obtain client feedback
• Deliver software product and
implement it in client infrastructure
• Train client to use the software
Mentor
• Maintain communication with
student, client, and instructor
• Reinforce concepts taught in
classroom
• Coach students on industry best
practices
• Meet with students once a month
• Conduct requirements review, design
review, and code review sessions
• Assist students with technical
troubleshooting
• Ensure quality of product developed
Client
• Maintain communication with
student, mentor, and instructor
• Meet with students once a month
• Provide necessary documentations
and access to resources to students
• Provide feedback on artifacts
delivered by students
• Assist students in product delivery
and user training