Each class is composed of several assessments of learning. Of the five courses I've taken to date, the classes have four to five assessments of learning (I've read of at least one class -
BSN FP 4017 Collaborative Group Process Nursing having six assessments). In each assessment of learning, you are presented with one of several scenarios to address. For example, in my Nursing Leadership and Management, the one assessment involved picking three scenarios out of five where I had to write about change theory, leadership styles, professional and legal standards, and measurement of outcomes. Most of the classes include one assessment that involves creating a presentation with speaker notes. All the writing must be in APA 6
th edition format with the primary reference requirements being peer-reviewed, scholarly, references that are within five years of age except for sentinel works where the age of the reference is not relevant. All assessments have a scoring guide (rubric) to help guide the student as to what matters to pass the assessment.
Faculty grades submitted assessments within two business days where portions of the paper (based on the rubric) can receive one of three grades: non-performance (failed to meet the criteria; zero/F), basic (just met the criteria: C), proficient (met the criteria: B), and distinguished (above and beyond: A). The word-based grades are translated into actual grades upon request as well as through a computer-generated form students can run on demand to submit to employers or for one's knowledge. There's a
Competency Map per class where students can see their progress and decide to re-submit an assessment in hopes of improving one's grade. An assessment can be revised (students are encouraged to highlight the changes) and re-submitted two additional times for a total of three submissions.
There are times the instructions and scoring guide for a given assessment are vague, and that's where the Capella
RN to
BSN Facebook group and tutors come in handy. Tutors are available via email and through scheduled one-to-one sessions for each class. The tutors are typically
MSN and
DNP students, fellow nurses, who usually collaborate with those asking for help to assist in learning. In addition to tutors, students have access to
SmartThinking, a tutorial group where papers can be reviewed.
Capella University, like many other universities that require APA-based material, uses a service called Turnitin. Before submitting an assessment of learning for review by faculty, students must submit their paper/presentation to Turnitin via an easy-to-use web-based interface. Turnitin then grades the paper regarding the percentage of originality regarding the potential for plagiarism. The lower the percentage, the more original the work. Most faculties want an originality score of 20% or less. In my experience, it's easy to be under 10% by following three simple rules: 1) paraphrase often vs. quoting, 2) cite correctly using APA standards, and 3) remove the title and reference page(s) before submission. One can also use filters within TurnItIn to take care of number three for you, but I've found that to be hit and miss even though I do recommend using TurnItIn filters even when doing the three steps mentioned
