An internship or cooperative work experience could be taken toward the end of the undergraduates' program of study. Supervision of this 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, student interns will be assigned special projects or work as interns under the direction of professionals in the IT area. 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 (see sample) 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.

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:
 

INTERNSHIP EVALUATION FORM EXAMPLE (this is done at the end of the internship and, possibly, at the middle):

To be returned by:____________
 

GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY

CIS DEPARTMENT, ROBINSON COLLEGE OF BUSINESS

WORK SITE SUPERVISOR'S EVALUATION OF STUDENT INTERN

Name of Student:                                                    Panther #:

Cooperating Organization:

Internship Work Site Supervisor:                                                                   Title:

Phone:                               Period of Report:       From:                         To:

This evaluation has been discussed with student:     Yes     No
 

Please evaluate the student intern in the following categories.

Please circle your response on the following Lickert scale.

1-2: Needs Attention     3: Average     4-5: Outstanding and N/A: Not Applicable

Information-Related Skills

a) Knowledge level of tasks to be performed                         1              2              3              4              5              N/A

b) Knowledge level of concept related to job performance   1              2              3              4              5              N/A
c) Ability to make decisions, if necessary                               1              2              3              4              5              N/A

d) Ability to use equipment/tools skillfully                              1              2              3              4              5              N/A

e) Ability to use complete software applications                    1              2              3              4              5              N/A
 

Communication-Related Skills

a) In relationship to supervisor                  1              2              3              4              5               N/A

b) In cooperation with other employees    1              2              3              4              5               N/A

c) In quality of written communication      1              2              3              4              5               N/A

d) In speaking ability                                 1              2              3              4              5               N/A

e) In listening ability                                  1              2              3              4              5               N/A
 

Attitude/Performance-Related Skills

a) Interest in performing assigned tasks     1              2              3              4              5               N/A

b) Initiates/suggests ideas                          1              2              3              4              5               N/A

c) Willingness to learn new tasks               1              2              3              4              5               N/A

d) Willingness to follow instructions           1              2              3              4              5               N/A
 

_______________________________________________________
(Student Signature)                                                                  (Date)

_______________________________________________________
(Work Site Supervisor Signature)                                         (Date)

Any additional comments by student or work site supervisor may be provided on the back.

This form is designed so you can print it and use it to evaluate your intern.