Chapter 8. The Accelerate Capstone: Your Next-Step Plan

Chapter 8. The Accelerate Capstone: Your Next-Step Plan

The capstone is not a second exam. It is a one-page plan that shows you can use the first seven chapters. You will not upload the plan for a grade. You will use it, and the exam will ask whether you know what a complete plan contains. Write it before you open the exam.

Six lines the plan must have

1. Goal. One sentence: what you want from the next 8 to 12 weeks of study. If you later choose a paid degree, name that interest. If you only wanted this free course, say what skill you will keep using.
2. Time. Two weekly blocks you can actually defend, with days and hours.
3. Place and load. Where you will study, and which notifications you will turn off.
4. Sources. How you will decide that a page is citable: author, year, title, location, and the five tests from Chapter 4.
5. Integrity. A sentence that says you will write your own exam answers, mark pasted notes, and not present this certificate as semester credit.
6. Wellness and contact. Your break rule, and the name of one person or the support channel you will write to if you stall for more than seven days.

What this certificate is

When you pass the open-book exam at 70 percent or higher, the site marks the course complete and shows the electronic certificate immediately. The title is Certificate of Completion — Self-Study (Non-Credit). The certificate states that the course was self-study, was not proctored, and does not award semester credit. Keep the certificate for your own record. Do not describe it to an employer or another school as college credit.

If you want credit later

Paid programs at this university are a separate application. They have their own English-proficiency rules, registration fee, and credit policy. Finishing ACE 100 does not waive those rules and does not place you into a degree. It does mean you have practiced the habits those courses assume: a calendar, careful messages, source judgment, citation, a paragraph with a limit, and a sustainable week.

Before you take the exam

Reread any self-check you missed. You may keep these chapters open during the exam. Answer from your own reading. There is no time limit and no proctor. If you do not reach 70 percent, the page shows the items you missed and you may try again after you reread. A passing score is final; you do not need to take the exam again to keep the certificate.

Self-check

1. How many ideas must the one-page plan include? Answer: Six: goal, time, place and load, sources, integrity, and wellness plus a contact.
2. What score issues the certificate? Answer: At least 70 percent on the open-book exam.
3. Does this certificate award semester credit? Answer: No.