Heidrun Allert, Christoph Richter, Christian Vogel, Eva Zöserl and Cornelia Mohorko, et al.
FH-OÖ Forschungs und Entwicklungs GmbH, Austria
November 12, 2006

Course name: Internship Seminar

Institution: University of Applied Sciences Hagenberg

Course instructor: Heidrun Allert

Scope:  Course implemented in July 2006

No. of participants: 13

Target population(s):

Students in the seventh semester of the diploma-program "Engineering for Computer-Based Learning"

Content areas/Disciplines:

Improve individual and collaborative reflection processes during internships carried out by the students

Duration of the Course: 1 semester (14 weeks)

No. of instructional hours:

• 3 face-to-face meetings at the University of Applied Sciences:
• At the start of the course (14.7.2006): 6 units à 50 minutes
• In the middle of the course (3.11.2006): 8 units à 50 minutes
• At the end of the course (26.1.2007): 8 units à 50 minutes

Additional background Information:

As part of the diploma-program "Engineering for Computer-Based Learning" at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, students have to carry out a 3 months internship in the seventh semester. In this time, students work in very different organizations and companies, ranging from universities and non-profit organizations, over companies specialized in the production of e-learning content and trainings, to industrial and business organizations, using computer-based systems for internal training as well as knowledge-management. During their internships, most of the students are enrolled in current projects carried out at the hosting organization or are asked to carry out smaller projects on their own. Students carry out their internships in Austria as well as abroad.

The aim of the internships for the students is to gain experiences in professional contexts and to deepen their knowledge and skills. The internships complement the practice-oriented education at the University of Applied Sciences. To foster the reflection of students’ in their professional internships, a new approach will be implemented during the winter-semester 2006/2007. The main objective is to make the students reflect on the relation between theory (knowledge gained at the University of Applied Sciences) and practice (professional context) and to engage in an inquiry of  current practices, challenges and trends in the domain of computer-supported learning.

Course description:

At the end of the summer-semester 2006, a preparatory face-to-face meeting at the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg takes place.  The aim of this meeting is to explain the overall objective of their assignment and to brief them regarding the respective tasks. The overall assignment is to explore the world of professional practice related to computer-based learning and to identify respective challenges and trends. Their task is to explicitly collect and discuss knowledge and experiences gained within their internships. The students are expected to produce a joint report on their findings both useful for succeeding generations of students as well for those in charge of refining and developing the diploma-program.

On an individual level, the assignment shall facilitate a deeper and profession related reflection. In order to support the reflection process the assignment is exemplified by a metaphor of being researchers. Furthermore, the fact that the outcome of this inquiry is of direct relevance for other students as well as the program staff shall increase the motivation to engage in observing and reflecting on professional practices.

The University of Applied Sciences puts an e-platform at the students’ disposal to support the research activities. It aims at supporting the mutual exchange of knowledge and experience, allows assistance and cooperation for problem solutions, and guides reflection processes. Three main functionalities are provided: (1) Every student has an own space to collect knowledge and experiences gained during the internship. The entries are arranged chronologically and can also be ordered thematically just like a Blog. Furthermore, a student is able to decide on his own if an entry should be published to be visible for colleagues. This part of the e-platform represents a research report of every single student. (2) Topic oriented forums serve as discussion space to support communication and mutual exchange between colleagues. Here the students are expected to discuss gained knowledge and experiences as well as proposed issues and structures for the final report. (3) The shared space also contains a Wiki which is divided into two areas. One area provides a space where the joint report is going to be produced by the students. The other area contains individual descriptions of the internships.

The intervention is divided into eight phases. The first two phases take place in the preparatory face-to-face meeting at the end of summer-semester 2006. The first phase encompasses the instructions of the internship-tutor. The overall objective of the student’s assignment and the respective tasks are explained. Furthermore the students are introduced to the expected usage of the e-platform. In the second phase the students are asked to describe their internships and expectations regarding their professional practice on pre-structured personal Wiki pages. The students shall estimate which knowledge and skills gained so far at the University of Applied Sciences they may need at their professional practice. Between mid-July and mid-October the students have to complement their personal Wiki pages by describing the organization or company in which they are employed as well as their tasks and activities.

This third phase has to be carried out within the first two weeks of the internship. Afterwards the students are asked to share and discuss their experiences and observations gained at the internship in the forums until the next face-to-face meeting takes place. Four forums with guiding questions regarding practices, challenges, trends and the relation between theory and practice shall facilitate the reflection process during this fourth phase. Additionally, a fifth forum exists in which the students are allowed to post any experiences and observations which are not directly related to the topics of the other forums. The internship-tutor can also intervene to foster and guide discussions.

At the end of October the fifth phase takes place in a face-to-face meeting, where the students have to identify and structure main issues of the previous discussions. The result represents the main structure of the joint report. Groups responsible for certain issues of the joint report are builded. After the face-to-face meeting each student has to deepen experiences and observations regarding the defined topics. These topic-related reflections on their professional practices shall be shared and discussed in the respective forums. The aim of this sixth phase is to collaboratively produce a joint report on the Wiki pages about the results of the discussions.

The seventh phase takes place between the end of the internship and the last face-to-face meeting. Every student is asked to update the personal Wiki pages and to create a personal presentation about the internship. Furthermore each group has to prepare a presentation on their findings. Finally, at the end of January, a face-to-face meeting takes place. It encompasses the individual presentations about the internships and the presentations in groups about the outcomes of the joint report.

Narrative:

Karen and Lisa are expecting to take on their internship soon. Karen has been accepted by a company close to the University’s campus. Lisa is going abroad to Australia for this term instead. As some students are already taking on their internships in the holidays before next term, a face to face lecture is inaugurated before the end of the current term.

There they receive essential information about the overall objective of their assignment, the respective tasks and the active use of the e-platform. The internship-tutor communicates the aims and the purpose as transparently as possible. In order to support the reflection process a metaphor of being researchers and exploring the world of professional practice is used. Furthermore, the internship-tutor introduces the students to the expected usage of the e-platform by directly using it. As the students already know forums and blogs, the main focus lies on how to create and link Wiki pages.

The first assignment is to fill out three pre-structured personal Wiki pages containing a space for expectations regarding the internship, for the description of devolved tasks and finally for the description of the organization or company in which the students are employed. Karen estimates which knowledge and skills gained so far at the University of Applied Sciences she may need and apply at her professional practice. After mature deliberation Karen describes her thoughts on her personal Wiki page. At the end of the face-to-face meeting the internship-tutor reminds the students of the next tasks.

Firstly, every student has to complete the descriptions of devolved tasks and the organization or company on the existing personal Wiki page of the e-platform within the first two weeks the internship is attended. In order to ensure a certain extent of both, interaction and communication, all students have to propose weekly in the e-platform’s forum. The students are expected to explicitly collect and discuss knowledge and experiences gained within the internships. In this process all contributions are written according to four general topics which on the one hand eases the starting off in the discussion, on the other hand various problems can be contemplated from a general point of view. The students are guided by the topics to explore the world of professional practice and to identify respective challenges and trends. Related experiences and observations shall be shared and discussed in the respective area of the forum.

Keeping a weblog is left to one student’s own discretion. In any case using a weblog is recommended. Its options e.g. supplying snapshots of the company’s everyday life is pointed out in the face-to-face lecture: Needful information and also various experiences can be reminded quite lively and much easier. The contributions can finally be used for discussions in the forum.

The e-platform is available for all students and is being supervised by an internship-tutor who keeps an eye on group processes, challenges, and occurring difficulties. The tutor gives inputs if necessary. Additionally every student has its own private space where only he or she is authorized to modify notes and private contributions. If required they can be deblocked for reading and commenting. On the one hand all different contributions on the e-platform shall inspire fellow students to reflect over ones own activity; on the other hand this information shall support them by solving their individual problems.

In the meantime Karen and Lisa have been accommodated in their companies. Since the face-to-face meeting at the end of last term, they have not been in touch with any fellow students and are now curiously looking forward to each other’s contributions on the e-platform. At the beginning of her internship Lisa obtains a PDA to support her work of implementing learning-games on mobile devices. She gets a field of activity on her own responsibility and is welcomed to the team-staff. In contrast Karen has to start-up with a literature research to get the most important information in detail for her tasks. She has to implement new learning software for internal employee trainings and therefore has to work out a concept first. Up to now Karen was used to a different working style as it is now exercised in her internship-company. Above all she has to cope with teething troubles concerning her tasks. Furthermore, the interaction with the staff members is a bit awkward and so she feels a bit left alone. When she composes her contribution for the e-platform she includes a description of her problems and hopes for some thought-provoking impulses. In the meantime, Lisa has incorporated well into her tasks and promptly uses the PDA for her contribution. At the beginning of the internship-term, even the last student has taken up the internship and the contributions on the e-platform increase. Karen curiously follows them and comes across a contribution dealing with a similar topic and refers it to her own problems. She reflects upon the statement and modifies it respectively. After a while, she gains recognition from her boss and immediately writes another contribution to the e-platform.

Lisa uses the PDA for audio notes daily. They help her remembering thoughts and already discussed topics throughout the entire internship. Furthermore, she uses them as inputs for writing her contributions. The e-platform is an important source of information, especially for her staying in Australia and not being able to exchange experiences nor information with fellow students otherwise. Karen regularly uses the private space for offhanded notes, which she points out later on before she provides them to her mates. The various commentaries help her along to consider her problems from a different point of view and finally lead to reflection.

At first Karen is not able to relate her teething troubles to a lack of support on the part of her company, or if a certain amount of distance is on purpose to prepare the internship-student for having sole responsibility on their own work. After a while some of the fellow students notice that they have received similar experiences and take up this matter of fact in a discussion on the e-platform. As a group, they now elaborate a solution on how to face future communication problems. The internship-tutor follows the contributions on the e-platform, notices group-actions, provides guidance and also thought-provoking impulses in terms of heuristics to lead the students to reflection. Due to the collaborative effort of all participants, a complex and manifold network composed of information, notes, suggestions and reflections has been created.

At the beginning of November, the students meet at a face-to-face lecture at the University of Applied sciences again. The internship-tutor instructs to identify and structure main issues of the previous discussions. The gained structure shall finally represent the table of content for the final report. Karen and Lisa both participate in the upcoming discussion and propose a certain structure of identified main issues. Not all colleagues have the same opinion. After a long discussion two main ideas are in conversation. It seems that the discussion does not come to any end. Consequently, the internship-tutor intervenes and guides the students to come to an end. They finally determine one of the two ways and accordingly create the structure of the Wiki pages. The next assignment encompasses the collaborative creation of the joint report by using the forum as discussion space and the Wiki as space for findings and results. Therefore, the students have to build groups responsible for the structure and content of a certain topic.

After the face-to-face meeting, the students deepen their knowledge and experiences regarding the defined main topics. From now on Karen focuses her observations mainly on these topics and shares her experiences in the respective forums. She acquires an interest in the discussions and learns from observations of other colleagues. Some of the contributions help her to reflect on her own professional practice. As every group is responsible for the structure and content of their topic, Karen begins to start a thread regarding her topic in which she proposes some findings of previous discussions to be part of the final report. Lisa and some other colleagues take part in the discussion and come finally to a joint agreement. One of the colleagues adds the findings to the Wiki pages to contribute to the joint report. As time goes by, more and more findings gained through the discussions in the forums are added. Finally Karen’s group is very confident about their collaboratively obtained result. After finishing the joint report, each group has to create a presentation about their findings.

After having finished the internships, the students have to update their personal Wiki page. In January all students return to the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg where the groups have to present their joint report under attendance of succeeding generations of students. Moreover, each student has to present his own internship.

Critical features/Requirements:

• Initiation of reflection processes by guiding the students with questions.
• Clear communication of the expected outcome and purpose of the assignment.
• Transparent structuring of the different phases and briefing on the tools to be used (i.e., showing them the usage of blog, forum and wiki by using an example).
• Balancing discussions and object-oriented work (e.g. smooth integration of discussions in forums and description of findings in Wiki-pages.
• Pre-structuring of the Wiki to facilitate the reflection processes.
• Despite the rare face-to-face meetings the students should be aware of being not alone and “sitting in the same boat with colleagues”. 
• Email reminder to participate in the reflection processes.

Technical Requirements:

• The development process of artifacts has to be comprehensible. Previous versions should be visible on demand.
• Visual representation of coherences and relations between artifacts.
• Metadata - Classification of artifacts and different visualization related to the associated classification.
• The system should support both, a predefined scheme and the definition of own schemes to apply it to the correspondent context.
• Visibleness of artifacts: status, visual form of representation, private/published, ...
• The software should automatically propose related artifacts.
• Support of blank pages and different templates for different pages.
• Users should be able to start their work by using blank pages (without any predefined internal structure). It should be possible to create an own structure afterwards or while working with the artefact.
• It should be possible that groups or single users are able to refine and associate predefined templates.
• Templates should be linked with semantic information.
• The system should call attention to human errors in reasoning (i.e. a group decides that artifact A is better than B, C is better than A and B is better than C - an error note should appear due to inconsistency).
• A document could consist of some different documents. Deep links should be supported.
• Support of private areas and group areas.
• Artifacts should be assignable to groups.
• Users should be able to search for artifacts related to certain groups.
• Email notifications when new artifacts are created or if there are any updates (possible with and without own subscription).
• Comparison of 2 different artifacts: both visible on the screen or links between the artifacts to simply switch to the an artifact? The connection with content and structure should be visible.
• Definition of own views should be possible.
• The user should be aware of the current working phase and the phases that have to be done.
• Chat tool:
• How is it ensured that all users have the same view to facilitate the conversation?
• It should be able to synchronize views. The view of every user should be tracked. By clicking on the user's name or on a picture near the username, the view of the choosen user will appear on the own screen. Every user should be able to lock this feature.
• Chat sessions should be saveable as artifacts (incl. deeplinks).

• Secure access, runable by different browsers and operating systems.

Notes especially for our Scenario:

• In our scenario it is important to consider that the KP-Lab spaces are used in very different organizations and companies that have own policies regarding the installation of new software and web players. Especially in companies, the installation of new software or web players is not always permitted or simple due to feared security risks. Therefore it is important not to use software components within KP-Lab that need many different players to run.

Long-term requirements:

• Support of different input and output devices
• Notification system via SMS (mobile phone)

Rationale:

• Students reflect on their internships (individual blog, discussion in forums).
• Individual and collective knowledge creation by discussion and creation of the joint report based on the discussions.

Research hypotheses:

• Does the intervention induce the expected student's activities?
• Do the student's activities take place in the expected manner and amount?
• In which way do the intervention variables (technical operability, assignment, prestructuring, encouraging, supervision) affect student's activities in the different intervention measures (creating individual wiki pages, blogging, using forum to discuss experiences, face to face discussion to gather topics for the collaborative report, using wiki & forum to work out the collaborative report)?

• Do the student's activities induce reflection processes? 
• To what extend are individual and collective reflection processes taking place in the described activities?
• In which way do the intervention measures (preparation, documentation, discussion, gathering topics, collaborative report) affect the different kinds of reflection (reflecting individually, divergent discussion, convergent discussion)?

• Do the technical means used support the student’s activities efficiently?

Open issues:

• How can reflection processes be initiated?
• Group's influence on reflection processes
• Webblog left to own discretion?
• Control of personal blogs by the internship-tutor?
• Rating?
• Support of sound and video inputs?
• SMS reminder for participation?
• How to coordinate the work in forums and wiki?

Related tools and artifacts:

We are in need of a shared space for personal reflection, communication, mutual exchange of reflections and collaborative work. Three main features are necessary:

• Student's personal area (e.g. Blog):
• To reflect on own experiences during the internship
• Represents an individual research report
• The student should decide whether he wants to publish a reflection on a certain experience or not.
• Published entries are visible for all participants
• Published area for discussions (e.g. Forum)
• Accessible by all participants
• To initiate and guide reflection processes and discuss reflections on certain topics (individually and in groups)
• Represents a space to collaboratively identify and discuss topics and their structure for the final report

·         Published area for final results and individual descriptions (e.g. Wiki):

• Accessible by all participants
• Space to create a final report about the defined topics gained in the forum
• Space to describe the individual internship (expectations, tasks, organization)