Online education prides itself on preparing students for the workforce through a combination of academic exploration and industry-focused outcomes. By examining case studies of applied online graduate capstone projects, attendees will learn how authentic interactions between instructor and students, and industry representatives, can advance online student learning and career preparedness.

At the graduate level, advertising and public relations students have traditionally developed a thesis-based final project to show mastery of their curriculum. With a shifting online student dynamic featuring predominantly working professionals, an additional shift in the capstone requirement to a more applied, industry-focused project was needed to address the interests of that student group to help them progress in their respective careers. Though still solidly grounded in communication theories and methods, the pivot to a more tangible and directly applicable industry project has resulted in students developing instruments and potential findings ready to be implemented in numerous professional industries. These projects require online students to engage further with their academic curriculum in the initial stages, and springboards them into engaging further with other professionals in the field to address real-world industry problems. Though students do not collect primary data (IRB/time constraints), they leave the course with instruments that can then be deployed in their respective organizations. This presentation will begin by introducing the structure and purpose of the capstone course. Next, we will discuss the project outlines and topics from past students and the rationale for those choices. Finally, we will discuss the methods, outcomes, and potential implementation of these instruments in real-world practice for industry advancement in a variety of fields.