ABSTRACT
Internships are an integral component of most undergraduate and graduate public administration programs. These learning opportunities allow students to get practical experience in a workplace setting before graduation and provide them with an opportunity to apply knowledge gained in the classroom to the "real world." But what are students, departments, and employers to do when circumstances--including major disruptions like the COVID-19 pandemic as well as situations unique to specific students--complicate or even prevent on-site internship experiences? This article outlines a variety of approaches to finding a solution to this problem, weighing the benefits and drawbacks of each.
ABSTRACT
In this manuscript, we highlight the virtual Future Ready Lab as one example of an innovative internship concept designed to increase the quantity of meaningful paid internship experiences available for students to participate in, prepare for further education, and be able to compete in the 21st Century workforce. The Lab's premise is to provide access to student populations (e.g., economically disadvantaged, Black, and Latinx students) who oftentimes are not afforded the opportunity to hone their 21st Century skills in a high-impact internship experience. The virtual nature of the Future Ready Labs provided opportunities for high school students to participate, despite transportation limitations, social distancing, emerging safety precautions, and requirements based on the COVID-19 pandemic. In this manuscript, we help fill gaps in existing literature concerning how schools support students' work-based learning experiences during times of crisis, particularly for diverse and economically disadvantaged learners. We conclude with recommendations for practice, and a broader work-based learning framework for how partnerships can be forged and sustained in high schools across the nation, as well as implications for educational policy, practice, and research. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Education & Urban Society is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
ABSTRACT
Purpose: This paper examined the evaluation of the virtual internship program for KAU IT students during the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 summer. Design/methodology/approach: A mixed-method survey was utilized for the data collection. Out of 164 enrolled students in the 2020 summer training program, 147 students opted to participate. This gives a response rate of 89.6% of the total students' number who could participate. In addition to collecting quantitative data, qualitative data were collected. The sources for qualitative data were survey open questions, weekly reflective writing and video recordings. Findings: The quantitative result showed that the students were satisfied with their virtual internship. These results were further qualitatively explored and discussed under five themes: information and knowledge, work experience, live interaction, the comfort of achieving tasks and soft skills. The outcomes showed that the plan which offered students opportunities to be trained online with real companies accomplishing real work tasks was the best in fulfilling the requirements of the internship. Thus, it emphasized the importance of a strong alliance with the industry to provide useful virtual internship opportunities. Research limitations/implications: Though this study made a novel contribution to the timely literature on the COVID-19 pandemic, it is not without its limitations. The difference in the three sample sizes makes it difficult to get in-depth comparative analysis. For future research, it is highly recommended to study the impact of online training with real existing companies on a relatively larger sample number. Practical implications: In order for a higher educational institute to successfully adopt the proposed plans for the virtual internship, here are the reflections and lessons learned from our three plans. (1) Emphasize your efforts on extending your partnership with the private sector and computing industry. (2) The MCIT training focuses on developing technical skills;therefore, it is great to be offered to students in the computing field as extracurricular activities but not as the fulfillment of the internship program. (3) Blackboard training sessions, which cover nontechnical skills, are good to be offered prior to the internship. Social implications: For governmental human resource agencies, it is highly recommended to further develop and invest in manpower to develop online platforms. In normal situations, these platforms act as an extra training resource. In abnormal situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic, they act as useful source for online training. For students, this sudden unexpected transition from normal to online training should enrich them with the ability to be flexible and adaptive, tune them with opportunities for independent and innovative creative work, encourage them to take risks and provide them with opportunities to do things differently. As an outcome, students will enhance their self-efficacy and capabilities. Originality/value: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, not only classes and internship programs have been done remotely but increasingly jobs have also gone in that direction. A virtual internship today might be good preparation for the virtual/remote work of tomorrow. For this reason, this study was conducted to add a novel contribution to the virtual internship literature. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
School psychologists and their interns were required to adapt their practices and the delivery of comprehensive school psychological services as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. With an already existing gap in the literature regarding supervision in school psychology, an even larger gap exists due to COVID-19. The present study aimed to promote a better understanding about how university training programs prepared school psychology interns during the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2020-2021 academic year to develop competency along the 10 domains of practice listed in the NASP (2020) Practice Model. Ten participants from NASP-approved school psychology training programs were interviewed using a semi-structured interview protocol to gain an understanding of the commonalities of how they prepared interns during the COVID-19 pandemic. A thematic analysis was conducted and revealed six overarching themes that, when put together, tell a story about COVID-19's effect on the school psychology internship. The themes are represented with direct quotes from participants: (1) "They had such an unusual and highly disrupted experience," (2) "We did whatever we needed to do to make it work," (3) "While very different, it still mimicked the original plan," (4) "We had to support them as they navigated these challenges," (5) "I think we're talking more than ever about mental health," and (6) "It's not all bad." This study adds to the literature on supervision in school psychology and is also one of the first studies to address the impact of COVID-19 on the school psychology internship. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic created challenges for students seeking clinical internships, and faculty have felt those obstacles trying to mentor students. The problem addressed in this study were the challenges child life specialist faculty at a local colleges face in supporting child life specialist candidates in locating internships upon degree completion. The purpose of this study was to understand the obstacles child life specialist faculty face in supporting child life specialist candidates in obtaining internships and what institutional support could be offered to alleviate those obstacles. The significance of this study was the necessity of child life specialist faculty to successfully mentor child life specialist candidates toward obtaining internships. The conceptual framework for this study was based on Kouzes and Posner's model of transformational leadership. Two research questions explored the obstacles child life specialist faculty face in supporting child life specialist candidates in obtaining internships and what institutional support could be offered to alleviate those obstacles. A basic qualitative design was used to interview 10 child life specialist faculty. Data were analyzed for common codes, categories, and themes from participant responses. From the data emerged six themes that provided a framework for the design of the project study. The Faculty Tool Kit is a 3-day workshop to enhance faculty skills and competency in mentoring students. The findings are supported by the transformational leadership model and provide a better understanding of the need for social change in the way child life specialist faculty support child life specialist candidates in their quest for internships. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
The effectiveness of a pre-graduation animal assisted therapy internship site was investigated through an ethnographic, phenomenological methodology with mixed-methods components. A total of 12 participants who fit into either the category of supervisor, intern, or administrator involved in the animal assisted therapy practice, were interviewed. A research team analyzed the qualitative interview data and researcher participant field notes and came to a consensus of eight major themes: ranch environment, ranch modalities, community impact, counselor development, relationships, partnership, sense of purpose, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Past historical client data were analyzed (n = 47) to investigate effectiveness of the AAT internship cite through the lens of the clients. Historical client data was divided into three categories, dependent on the client's age and the assessment taken: Adult Self Report (ASR), Youth Self Report (YSR), and Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). A paired t-test was run for each assessment group to compare the means of the pre-assessment scores and the means of the post assessment scores for the total problems scale and anxiety problems scale. There was a statistically significant decrease in anxiety problems for the CBCL group. There was a marginally statistically significant decrease in total problems for the CBCL group. There were no significant results found for the YSR or ASR data. Client demographic findings and the statistically significant findings are discussed in relation to the qualitative themes. Implications for future research and counselor education are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
Researchers and legislators are seeking ways to improve educational leadership programs to better prepare individuals to lead today's schools. Researchers have often focused these efforts on an objectivist research paradigm, examining program outcomes and perspectives of current leaders. As such, few studies have engaged students in conversations about their internship experience. The purpose of the present study is to examine graduate students' perceptions of their internship experience and preparation in the field upon completing a year-long internship grounded in Experiential Learning Theory and the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders. The study additionally examined whether gender differences existed in these perceptions. It is the theory of the current study that the use of this subjective research is a critical step in strengthening educational leadership programs. The overarching research question that guided this study was, Do graduate students believe their internships provided them with the experiences necessary to be future educational leaders? The researcher posed the following research questions to further guide this study: (a) To what extent do graduate student interns believe their internships provided them with the experiential learning necessary to be educational leaders? (b) To what extent do graduate student interns feel prepared to carry out leadership skills related to the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders upon completing their internship? (c) What experiences do graduate student interns identify as the most and least beneficial in the internship? (d) Do students' perceptions of their internships and feelings of preparation differ by gender? Data were collected and research questions were analyzed using surveys and individual interviews at a single university. Four results emerged across quantitative and qualitative results: (a) students believed their internships provided them with the experiential learning necessary to be educational leaders, (b) students expressed confidence in their leadership performances, while also discussing a desire for additional practice due to the COVID pandemic, (c) students placed a high value on relationships and experiential learning, while also identifying the COVID pandemic as the least beneficial experience, (d) gender differences persist in the field of educational leadership. Results of this study support prior literature on educational leadership, while offering new data on students' views of their internship experience. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in March 2020 resulted in hundreds of companies canceling internships for college students who had accepted offers for the summer. While colleges and companies were determining how to move forward, a team of recruiters and learning professionals at a global telecommunications company engaged thousands of students in a massive open online course (MOOC) that may have fulfilled internships for some students. This novel approach to learning provided students with access to an employer-developed curriculum utilizing an enterprise internship MOOC model. This study centered on understanding career services professionals' perspectives of an enterprise internship MOOC for supporting college students' career skills development. Employing constructivist grounded theory (CGT) and the product market fit pyramid, this qualitative research explored the enterprise internship MOOC's viability. Data collection and analysis consisted of semi-structured interviews with 11 career services professionals from higher education institutions (HEIs) in the United States. Five out of 11 participants had experience with the enterprise internship MOOC while the remaining participants learned about it during the study. The artifacts collected from the web included the enterprise internship MOOC's curricula, students' comments on LinkedIn about their experiences in the program, skills information from the digital badge, and the company's marketing materials for the program. To better understand career services professionals' experiences with MOOCs, participants answered questions through the lens of a conceptual framework that deconstructed the MOOC's dimensions, aligning academic MOOCs and the enterprise internship MOOC. Data analysis utilizing the CGT methodology yielded a grounded theory called the triad of stakeholder involvement. This grounded theory supports a focused approach to understand the HEI's career emphasis, employer skills needs, and student destination for career skills development leveraging an enterprise internship MOOC. Data analysis also led to the conclusion that the enterprise internship MOOC is a viable model, given the appropriate pedagogical and technological structure. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought chaos on education systems worldwide, affecting several billion students all over the world. This had far-reaching consequences in every part of our life. Traditional educational techniques have been considerably disrupted because of social alienation and restricting mobility policies. Innovation, implementation of alternative educational systems and evaluation methodologies are in demand. The COVID-19 outbreak has given us a chance to lay the groundwork for digital learning. The Army Educational Research Program (AEOP) is a summer internship program that allows students to do research in a real laboratory environment with the help of a professional STEM mentor and researcher. For the past 12 years, this program has been delivered as an in-person apprenticeship at Texas Tech University (TTU). Face-to-face apprenticeships were canceled and shifted online because of the pandemic, resulting in the emergence of online learning, which has allowed learners to complete their study. Students, instructors, administrators, and education leaders faced several issues because of the abrupt shift from face-to-face to online learning. This article aims to provide a comprehensive assessment on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the transition of the AEOP program from face-to-face to an online teaching mode at TTU. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
The study model structure so as to takes into explanation a changes to the hospitality as well as tourism trade due to COVID-19, consequent changes to trade learning mechanisms, along with the prospective implications in favour of work-integrated training internship placements on behalf of the upcoming generation of students, former students as well as trade experts, is offered. The configuration for future studies so as to evaluate COVID19 hospitality in addition to tourism business internship would-be approaches is projected in favour of conversation. The paper is an educational discussion which outlines showing analysis of virtual training, also online training, and internships during COVID19 in hospitality and tourism. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Pharmaceutical Negative Results is the property of ResearchTrentz and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
ABSTRACT
Recently, Covid-19 pandemic has introduced some disturbances in the transportation industry. As a result, some university students are now participating in online internship programs. In our laboratory, we proposed an online campus tour project where each foreign student teleoperates with a robot. The robot prepared is outfitted with a camera, laser range finder sensor, and a mobile monitor to represent the student's physical appearance. The robots and foreign students are connected through the university's internal network. During the tour, we found some flaws and improvements in the current system. Because of the time delay and other difficulties, some students are not able to follow the campus tour project at the same pace as the others. Consequently, a distributed module for automated following features with dynamic order is proposed. The following order is determined by the location of each robot. The proposed module combines ROS Navigation Stack and a novel method of robot formation. In this study, the proposed improvement is evaluated and discussed. © 2022 ICROS.
ABSTRACT
We describe strategies, designs, tools, and technologies that were part of a 9-week experimental virtual summer internship program conducted during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The goals for the program were to (1) recreate the in-person summer internship experience, (2) explore ways of getting people to help each other, and (3) develop a sense of community in a remote/virtual setting. We offer learnings gleaned by the team regarding building virtual communities that encourage collaboration and communication.
ABSTRACT
Researchers and legislators are seeking ways to improve educational leadership programs to better prepare individuals to lead today's schools. Researchers have often focused these efforts on an objectivist research paradigm, examining program outcomes and perspectives of current leaders. As such, few studies have engaged students in conversations about their internship experience. The purpose of the present study is to examine graduate students' perceptions of their internship experience and preparation in the field upon completing a year-long internship grounded in Experiential Learning Theory and the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders. The study additionally examined whether gender differences existed in these perceptions. It is the theory of the current study that the use of this subjective research is a critical step in strengthening educational leadership programs. The overarching research question that guided this study was, Do graduate students believe their internships provided them with the experiences necessary to be future educational leaders? The researcher posed the following research questions to further guide this study: (a) To what extent do graduate student interns believe their internships provided them with the experiential learning necessary to be educational leaders? (b) To what extent do graduate student interns feel prepared to carry out leadership skills related to the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders upon completing their internship? (c) What experiences do graduate student interns identify as the most and least beneficial in the internship? (d) Do students' perceptions of their internships and feelings of preparation differ by gender? Data were collected and research questions were analyzed using surveys and individual interviews at a single university. Four results emerged across quantitative and qualitative results: (a) students believed their internships provided them with the experiential learning necessary to be educational leaders, (b) students expressed confidence in their leadership performances, while also discussing a desire for additional practice due to the COVID pandemic, (c) students placed a high value on relationships and experiential learning, while also identifying the COVID pandemic as the least beneficial experience, (d) gender differences persist in the field of educational leadership. Results of this study support prior literature on educational leadership, while offering new data on students' views of their internship experience. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
The results of this study will help form guidelines for developing students' capacities for learning in authentic workplace settings to better prepare them to be effective and efficient in their chosen careers. This phenomenological study examined factors influencing practice-based learning and how participants learned from their practice. Six fourth-year students majoring in sports science who had recently returned from their internships took part in this study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was performed on the transcripts to characterize the participants' shared experiences, which yielded the following seven themes of factors influencing their practice-based learning: (a) clear career goals and identification of an appropriate internship facility;(b) self-efficacy;(c) reflective practice;(d) good workplace relationships;(e) organizational leaders as agents transferring knowledge;(f ) knowledge-sharing behavior;and (g) impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Internship students also learned to identify their weaknesses in this study, communication skills, group fitness instructor skills, and a professional exercise instructor image.
ABSTRACT
Internships help students connect what they have learned in the classroom to the real world, and students with access to internships are more likely to graduate and secure employment. However, many students are unable to find an internship by the time they graduate. This experience report describes a program where volunteer software engineers mentor students as they work on open-source projects in the summer, offered as an alternative to a traditional internship experience. We catalog the considerations involved in providing an experience similar to a traditional internship, describe our program's design, and provide two years' worth of participant evaluations and career outcomes as a measure of efficacy. The program served mostly undergraduates from non-R1 schools who are underrepresented in technology, and achieved similar educational outcomes to a traditional internship program. Most promisingly, mentors were willing to serve as a professional reference for 80% of students and the number of graduating seniors who secured full-time employment in technology was 7 points higher than average (despite occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic). © 2022 ACM.
ABSTRACT
Internships aim at transitioning students from the academic environment (academic learning at the university) to a professional work environment (industry practice). Our paper aims to objectively evaluate the alignment of learning with practice based on the internship program conducted in Term 1, 2020 (pre-Covid), for our undergraduate students at the College of Technology Innovation studying in the bachelor's program for Computer Science and Information Systems. In order to measure the alignment, from a theoretical perspective, we adopted the framework of Kirkpatrick, which provides a set of "consumptive metrics"for evaluating the learning resources consumed in education and training, using the constructs 'reaction' (how the learners feel, including their personal reactions to the internship training) and 'learning' (measuring the knowledge, skills, or attitudes acquired as a direct result of the training, including mapping to their courses). Using 36 internship student reports collected over a single semester (in which students spent 8 weeks onsite at various organizations in the United Arab Emirates) as a sample for this study, we measured internship results in terms of the learning resources consumed during the internship experience using consumptive metrics to observe its alignment with practice. The results of the study allow academics to reinforce strong areas and improve areas of concern to better align learning with practice. © 2021 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted life on campuses and around the world. During April 2020, the Student Engineers' Council (SEC) at Texas A&M University recognized that many students in the College of Engineering were notified their summer internships with companies had been cancelled. It was devastating to students who wondered how they were going to replace the professional development experience outside of the classroom. Reacting to this emergency, within three weeks, the President of SEC and Professors of the Practice from the engineering entrepreneurship program developed a summer instruction program which focused on professional skill development through a virtual implementation. All faculty involved had implemented internship programs in their companies and were convinced that a program could be offered, not to completely replace an internship at a company, but to build the professional skills students would need in their jobs. Ultimately, the virtual internship program involved over 350 students, almost 60 mentors, and seven faculty. It was divided into two 6-week phases - 1) professional skill training and 2) teamwork project implementation. Surveys were conducted pre- and post-training to assess the effectiveness of individual skill development and determine what elements of the program should be continued. A final survey was conducted of students and mentors to assess the effectiveness of teamwork development. Participants reported increases in development of individual skill areas over the course of the program. When rating their team performance, participants ratings were between somewhat agree and agree on the majority of the aspects of team performance assessed. Overall, participants had a positive view of their experience in the program. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
ABSTRACT
In March 2020, the pandemic brought significant changes to higher education modalities. This paper examines how family and consumer sciences (FCS) instructors in a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary department at a large 4-year university modified instruction and related activities as a response to the pandemic. Using the Family and Consumer Sciences Body of Knowledge as a framework, we illustrate approaches to meet students' basic needs and support their individual well-being during the crisis, and we provide a detailed description of changes in instructional strategies across different disciplines within the department. We highlight the lessons learned by instructors during the transition to fully online instruction and provide suggestions for other FCS programs moving forward.