The internship lets you apply what you've learned in your classes to performance issues in the larger community--under the supervision of an experienced site-based mentor. You'll use the experience to acquire practical understanding of organizations (or agencies) that develop or employ educational or informational technologies---and benefit from constructive guidance on work habits, communication and collaboration skills, and professional demeanor.
While a wide range of situations may constitute an internship, some key elements must be in place:
Setting:
The site organization or unit should be
- in the business of education or training.
- involved with solving significant problems or realizing opportunities via education, training or information support.
There should be a core of people at the site whose primary task is to design, deliver, or evaluate human performance interventions. You, of course, cannot be the most astute person at the site in this regard.
Mentor:
Leadership at the site must be willing to assign an experienced/senior person to mentor you. A mentor is an individual highly familiar with the organization and significantly more skilled and knowledgeable than you regarding tasks or responsibilities to which you're assigned. A mentor should be enthusiastic about the supervision role.
Commitment:
While you may be assigned to one primary project or team, the site must commit to exposing you to its ongoing business, e.g., departmental or planning meetings, briefings on the site's organizational structure and mission, and/or overviews of current projects that illustrate diversity in scope, purpose, and investment. You are expected to spend a minimum of 180 hours onsite or significantly engaged with the people, customers, and processes associated with the business.
Location:
The EDTEC Department recognizes that more and more people are conducting their work from home; however, we believe that an internship is about exposing students to the context of an organization--something that home-based and (primarily) independent assignments may not. You may therefore carry out some small portion of your effort from home, but you're expected to become very familiar with the people, customers and processes associated with the business. To exemplify:
- No 775 credit may be earned for an experience in which you, under contract with XYZ Corporation a) work independently to complete a series of tasks; b) email reports, research, prototypes, or other documents to a contact at XYZ; and then c) receive feedback from that contact which you then independently incorporate into revisions or modifications.
- On the other hand, 775 credit may be earned by your a) working full-time at XYZ for three weeks (120 hours)--where you're exposed to a variety of activities and work groups; b) returning to San Diego to complete efforts on tasks that include electronic feedback discussions with members of one or more work teams; and then c) returning to XYZ for a few days to present results and recommendations.
NOTE: You cannnot receive internship credit for working in your "usual" place of business unless the effort is conducted in a division, sector, or department other than the one in which you're normally based. The purpose of the internship is to carry out the work that we do in a new context, one that has not been dulled or blurred by history.
Pay:
The internship may be a paid experience. Compensation should reflect 180 hours of effort typically devoted to general job responsibilities and duties; it should not be tied to a single specific deliverable or task.
Assessment:
The Department uses several sources of information to evaluate intern performance:
- A personal log, journal or blog (routinely updated) that your faculty advisor frequently reviews (and communicates with you about). Individual entries are thoughts about or reactions to your day-to-experiences---with an eye to a) what you're learning; b) how the opportunity builds on experiences in courses you've already completed; and c) ways you're likely to integrate what you've experienced into your own professional practice.
- Feedback from the site supervisor, provided online and solicitated periodically throughout the internship.
- Products and actions that result from the intern experience, with quality criteria that you negotiate with your client and faculty advisor.
While you're welcome to work with a individual faculty to seek a suitable site, you must also forward a request for placement and a current resume to the graduate advisor/department chair during the semester before the internship is to begin. The graduate advisor/department chair is the person who approves the internship; you cannot begin work nor can you formally register for the course without that approval. Note that part of the approval process is completion of the Internship Contract--which, when signed, is filed with the EDTEC office.
Note: Having ED775 listed on the official program of study does not constitute the Department's commitment to place you in an internship.