This course is designed to the Master’s student with an opportunity to assist the planning and implementation of computing technologies in an approved on-campus site or an approved off-campus site. Students may perform information systems trainer, consultant and/or end-user support duties. Students will meet periodically with a mentoring instructor to discuss problems and issues relevant to the area of implementing computer information systems. Compensation may or may not be granted for the internship/practicum. Prior to registering for this course, the student must obtain (1) CIS Approval of the work-site from the CIS-appointed internship coordinator, (2) Approval of the work site supervisor, (3) Approval of an academic supervisor.

Course Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:

Develop career goals and specific objectives in his/her chosen profession
Establish an understanding of the roles of an employee and how they fit into these roles.
Integrate knowledge from CIS and other business courses into innovative problem resolution strategies.
Relate experiences that surface in work-related activities including: dealing with problems (technical and/or organizational), criticism, individual differences, and cultural biases. The student will maintain a written journal of these experiences during the term.
Compile a professional portfolio. The internship portfolio will typically include the following items: a current resume, a piece of literature from the employing company, an organizational chart of the company or department, a picture of the physical setting, any diplomas or certificates earned, two letters of reference, and examples of completed work such as a self-designed computer printout or training manual.

Course Approach

An internship or cooperative work experience could be offered at any time during a Master’s degree program. Supervision of this experiential course is performed by an academic supervisor who is responsible for the academic content of this course and the awarding of the final grade, as well as a work site supervisor who oversees the on-site work activities of the student. This combined course-work experience provides an opportunity for students to gain practical experience in IT environments. Ideally, graduate interns should be assigned projects assisting and under the direction of mid- to high-level IT management. The nature of the internship should be outlined at the outset of the students' work site supervisor. Projects may include, but are not limited to the areas of programming, systems analysis and design, database management systems, network communications (including wireless and ubiquitous computing), management of the I.S. function, project management, security and privacy, and Internet application development. To provide a quality experiential learning arrangement, the following guidelines for the internship employment arrangement are suggested:

Students should work a minimum of ten hours a week in an approved setting during the regular semester, or a minimum of 20 hours a week during the summer term.
Students should work for a minimum 15-week period during the two regular semesters or a minimum 7-week period during the summer semester.
Recognizing that business schedules do not exactly match semester schedules, a academic supervisor may assign a grade of in-progress (IP) for students whose work assignments overlap from one semester to another. Upon satisfactory completion of the field study, the academic supervisor will change the IP to an appropriate grade.
Students should work under the immediate supervision of a person who is familiar with the area of information technology, end-user computing support, training, desktop or server technologies and/or other related information system areas (the work site supervisor).
Periodic class meetings--on campus--should be scheduled for information exchange. Students should be evaluated by both their academic and work site supervisors during the semester in which they are enrolled. The performance evaluation should be based upon planned experiences, job responsibilities, expected results and established measurement criteria.

REQUIREMENTS:

1. The student is required to complete internship objectives prior to beginning the internship.

a. The CIS Department internship coordinator, is responsible for identifying a suitable occupational internship site and for negotiating the structure and terms of the internship. This includes the internship location, assigned duties and responsibilities, work hours, objectives, and (if applicable) employee salary and benefits. After this has been satisfactorily arranged, the student will be given a document stating he/she has completed this phase, and can now begin approaching faculty to act as an academic supervisor.

b. The academic supervisor is responsible for ensuring that the approved internship is consistent with the student’s capabilities and career goals, as well as the CIS Department’s academic program. Internships must provide the student with an opportunity to apply skills gained in the academic setting to real work situations; must be directly related to the student’s academic and career objectives; and are expected to serve as a supplemental source of learning.

2. Prior to the internship experience, the student and the academic supervisor must communicate, preferably in person, with the work site supervisor and must jointly complete an internship agreement form developed specifically for a particular internship experience. Additionally, a clear set of objectives should be developed between the sponsoring company (the work site supervisor), the internship coordinator, the academic supervisor and the student. The agreed upon objectives must be signed by the student, the academic supervisor, the CIS Department Chair or Academic Program Director, and the work site supervisor.

3. The student must maintain a Weekly Internship Journal (see attached example) during the time of the internship to record experiences that surface in work-related activities during the term, citing specific experiences dealing with problems (technical and/or organizational), criticism, individual differences, cultural biases, hours worked, tasks, and objectives accomplished. The student and the work site supervisor must sign all journal pages.

4. The student must provide the work site supervisor with copies of the Internship Evaluation forms. The original signed evaluation forms must be returned to the academic supervisor. The number of evaluations and their due dates are to be determined by the internship coordinator in consultation with the work site supervisor.

5. The student must contact the academic supervisor at the following intervals:

a. If a student is completing the internship requirement away from the Atlanta area then he/she is expected to contact the academic supervisor, via e-mail or fax, once a week, forwarding weekly journal entries so that the student’s progress can be monitored. The student must speak with the academic supervisor by phone at a minimum once at the mid-point of the field study.

b. If a student is completing the internship requirement in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area, then he/she is expected to contact their academic supervisor, via e-mail or fax, once a week, or may they choose to deliver the weekly journal entries to the academic supervisor’s mailbox so that the student’s progress can be monitored. In addition, the student is to meet with the faculty mentor in person at a minimum, once at the mid-point of the field study.

6. Prior to the end of the 15-week field study, the student must provide the academic supervisor with originals of all of the following:

a. The signed evaluation forms.

b. Signed weekly journal pages.

c. A typed final report completed in the format of under the section: WRITTEN REPORT

WRITTEN REPORT: At the end of the internship, the student will prepare a written report documenting the learning experience. The report must address the following points and should be a minimum of eight and a maximum of sixteen double-spaced pages with the following major section headings:

Page 1: Internship Company Information. On the first page of the report, provide the name of the internship company, the name of the department, the name of the supervisor, and the title of the position held as an intern. Provide information that will enable the internship coordinator the ability to contact the supervisor if there are questions about the completion of the internship.
Page 2: Responsibilities and Tasks/Projects. List (preferably in bullet format) the responsibilities and/or tasks and projects fulfilled or completed while working as an intern.

Pages 3 through 8 (to 16): Lessons Learned. Beginning with page 2, provide a narrative discussion of the lessons learned while working as an intern. The narrative should be in the format of a journal with periodic (every few days) entries that discuss the lessons learned for that period. At a minimum, entries should be made on a weekly basis. Link the lessons learned to the CIS Department coursework taken by the student. At times there may be tasks that require the student to learn about and assimilate the use of new information technologies that were not taught as part of the CIS Department’s course work. If this occurs, the student should provide a journal entry with an assessment as to the usefulness of these new technologies and how an extension of the CIS Department’s degree program might have helped in using the new technologies. This provides the Department feedback that may assist us in improving our curriculum to better meet industry demands.

WEEKLY INTERNSHIP JOURNAL EXAMPLE:

GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY

CIS DEPARTMENT, ROBINSON COLLEGE OF BUSINESS

WEEKLY JOURNAL FOR INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE

Name of Student: ________________________ Panther #: __________________

Student Signature:_______________________ Date: _________________

Name of Internship Work Site Supervisor: ____________________________

Supervisor's Signature:____________________ Date: ______________

FORMAT:

I. DATE (Week covered by journal entries)

II. ANNOTATED DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ACTIVITIES PER DAY*

III. AMOUNT OF TIME DEVOTED TO EACH ACTIVITY PER DAY

IV. TOTAL HOURS WORKED PER THE DAY AND WEEK

*Use action verbs and write multiple statements—see example below

Examples:

January 20-24, XXXX		10 hours
Conducted systems analysis of ________.	Will present to ______.	4 hours
Prepared a presentation of __________.	Used ____________.	2 hours
Completed form for ________.	Meeting next week with _______.	½ hour
Wrote the procedures to ___________.	Supervisor will critique _______.	2 hours
Assisted user to learn _________.	Conducted presentation of ______.	1½hours