Virtual or Regional DomainsAdaptive Internships

Allison P. Selby, MSAsheville, NC

Adaptive Internships

5,452,100

Traditional: Student is in same geographic region and works directly with internship team.

Virtual: Student is virtually connected to site and works directly with internship team.

Total Distance Education EnrollmentsUS Department of Education, 2014

Distance Education Enrollments

Students enrolled exclusively in distance education courses

Students enrolled in some but not all distance education courses

Total: 2,642,158 Total: 2,809,942Undergraduate: 2,002,815 Undergraduate: 2,582,475Graduate: 639,343 Graduate: 227,467

Total distance enrollments: 5,452,100

Number and percentage of students enrolled at Title IV institutions, by distance education enrollment status, student level, control and level of institution, and other selected

characteristics: United States, Fall 2012 (Table 1)

US Department of Education, 2014

Distance Education Enrollments

Undergraduate students enrolled exclusively in distance

education courses

Located in the same state or jurisdiction as institution

Not located in the same state or jurisdiction as institution

In US: Outside US:

2,002,815 1,085,223 824,919 20,014

Number and percentage of students enrolled exclusively in distance education courses at Title IV institutions, by student level, student location, and state or jurisdiction:

United States, Fall 2012 (Table 12)

US Department of Education, 2014

Online Student ProfileOnline student profile: Sample of 1500 survey respondents• 68% identify as female• 60% of the students are between the ages of 21–39• 48% indicated that they live in a suburban environment.• 55% are married or partnered.• 51% stated they had no children

Employment figures: Decline between 2012 to 2014.• Full time employment for Undergraduates: 48% to 38%• Unemployment for Undergraduates: 27% to 39%

Frequently cited reasons to enroll: • 24% enter a new field• 19% the accomplishment of completing degree plan• 14% underemployed/unemployed and looking for new job

Online college students 2014: Comprehensive data on demands and preferences (2014)

New Student Profile: New Opportunities

Adaptive Internships• Create virtual and regional location-based internships. • Increases potential for business partnerships.• Provides a cost-effective solution for international collaborations. • Accommodates the work and family demands of adult students.

Benefits:• Students to continue to gain access to workplace settings, network professionally and to

develop samples to share with future employers (O’Neill, 2010). • Dorp (2008) states, “Through remote internship and academic talent, contemporary business

challenges are taken up and business value is created” (p. 175). • Developing online experiential opportunities through critical inquiry and reflective practice

creates connections to participate in international collaboration and further develop intercultural communication (Rintala & Schrader, 2011).

1. Have you been involved in any virtual internship pilots or

limited course implementations?

2. Does your institution have a virtual internship program?

Current Programs?

Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities

APLU International Programs interns can be engaged in the following:

• Board for International Food and Agricultural Development, a Presidentially-appointed advisory board to USAID that helps involve U.S. universities in USAID programs and provides counsel to the USAID Administrator on selected topics.

• APLU’s Knowledge Center on Higher Education for African Development. The mission of the Center is to gather, analyze, and disseminate knowledge about capacity building of African higher education institutions and systems, with a particular focus on partnerships as a capacity building instrument.

• Conducting research on various topics.

• Assisting in the implementation of grant-funded projects.

• Drafting and editing documents and proposals for funding.

Interns may be involved in:

Association of Public and Land-grant Universities

Virtual Student Foreign Service ProgramThe Virtual Student Foreign Service (VSFS) program:

The State Department’s virtual eInternship program for U.S. college and graduate students, which is administered by the Bureau of Information Resource Management’s Office of eDiplomacy.

• 332 undergraduate and 179 graduate students accepted positions (2013).

• 203 universities with students from a variety of majors including, mechanical engineering, geography, computer science, anthropology, music, graphic design, mathematics, education policy and library sciences.

• 315 projects available this year (2014) include work in research, computer programming, graphic design, journalism, data analysis, social media, finance, blogging, STEM, food security, public diplomacy and law.

(Ballenstedt, 2013)(Ballenstedt, 2014)

(Virtual Student Foreign Service, 2013)

Bureau of Information Resource Managements Office of eDiplomacy

Virtual Internship Programs & Courses

Columbia UniversitySan José State University UW MadisonSchool of Library and Information Science Graduate and Post-Master's Certificate• California Digital Library• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library• Creating content for the Open Source for

Student Learning initiative• Social Media Intern at the Santa Clara

County Library District

Center for Career EducationVirtual Internship Program (VIP)• Pre-program training• Skills Development Workshops• Social Media • Microfinance• International Development • Legal Advocacy

College of EngineeringInterdisciplinary Engineering 111• Computer simulations that help

students learn to think like professional scientists and engineers.

• MACROSIM, or Massively Adaptive Complex Realistic Online Simulation with Interactive Mentoring.

Undergraduate Internship Program Program is adaptive to either virtual or regional internships. Program requires a ten hour per week commitment (100 hours total) on site plus additional research project. Site placements have included small web design agencies, large medical institutions, and IT firms. Program is designed to accommodate primarily adult student population. The placements have been based within the United States, with one exception of one project.

School of Information Technology

School of Information Technology

School of Information Technology

TRADITIONAL

VIRTUAL

INTERNAL

MILITARY

Regional Internship

“I feel that all of the different scenarios that I was exposed to during this short time frame were more than I could have dreamed of. I learned about different roles and aspects of for network engineering, management, planning projects for upgrades, and security measures an enterprise network in a Fortune 500 company.”

Student Profile: Department of Defense contractor. BSIT, Network Administration. Regional placement in Fort

Lauderdale, FL. Co-location company, global clients. Company provides network, archive

and disaster recovery services. Student provided tech support,

workstation upgrades, research on disaster recovery and server upgrades.

Network Administration student, BSIT, January 2014

Virtual Internship

“Both the NGO members and the students came to their own moments of realization of what they were truly learning/gaining from the exchange. From the point of view of the students, I could see an opening of understanding of how people operate in different cultures.

From the point of view of the NGO, they were amazed how these young people were able to transfer skills like working with WordPress and SEO, from across the world.”

Student Profile: Retail employment. BSIT, Web Development. Virtual placement, connecting to

Pro-Business Nord, an NGO, located in Moldova and their Peace Corps Volunteer.

Student developed Wordpress site to promote distance learning program developed for local population job training. Initiative funded by USAID.

Julie Frieswyk, Peace Corps Volunteer, May 2013

Internal Internship

"During my IT Internship with the My IT Consultant project,I gained more confidence in myself and my abilities. I learned how to better communicate my opinions and goals, as well as a little bit about the marketing process. I now understand what it takes to troubleshoot IT related problems and I am glad I could help the small business owner by doing the research for them."

Student Profile: Stay at home Mom. BSIT, Network Administration. Virtual placement with internal

group, My IT Consultant. A free open-source system database

designed for small business owners to search for IT solutions to common problems.

Student served as solution developer researching topics and translating technical content to non-technical audience.

Network Administration student, BSIT, May 2014

Military Internship

Our mission is to connect students who are actively serving or are military veterans with nonprofit organizations that serve military members and their families.

Our goal is to develop internship roles with your nonprofit organization. Information technology students can serve a vital role in aiding your business goals while applying their IT skills and gaining professional experience. It’s a great way to commit to a common cause and develop new capabilities for your organization.

Regional or virtual: The internship program has been designed for regional and virtual internships. The virtual internships provide more flexibility for our students as well as for some sponsor groups.

Tools and Methods

Synchronous activities: Hold weekly team meetings were via instant messengers, VOIP, hangouts and online conferencing tools.Asynchronous communications: Facilitate through email, discussion boards, and the faculty feedback on the weekly projects.Reflection: Weekly journals and status updates. File Exchange: Cloud-based dropboxes and server space.Camtasia and Jing: Video recordings for student presentations, tutorials and archive.

Virtual Internship Boards

• InternMatch• Urban Interns• Idealist• Internships

Upload resume>set up profile>schedule daily or have internship matches sent to your inbox.

Regional Internship Boards

• CareerBuilder• Monster• Dice

Upload resume>set up profile>schedule daily or weekly alerts have internship matches sent to your inbox.

QUESTIONS?

Thank you for attending!

ReferencesBallenstedt, B. (2013, November 6). Federal agencies welcome more than 500 virtual interns. Retrieved from NextGov: http://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/wired-

workplace/2013/11/federal-agencies-welcome-more-500-virtual-interns/73319/

Ballenstedt, B. (2014, June 23). Twelve agencies seek to hire virtual interns this summer. Retrieved from NextGov: http://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/wired-

workplace/2014/06/twelve-agencies-post-virtual-internships-summer/86989/

Clinefelter, D. L., & Aslanian, C. B. (2014, June). Online college students 2014: Comprehensive data on demands and preferences. Retrieved from Learninghouse:

http://www.learninghouse.com/ocs2014-report/#report

Digest of Education Statistics. (2012). Retrieved from National Center for Educational Statistics: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/2012menu_tables.asp

Dorp, K.-J. v. (2008). A premier European platform for clearing e-internships. British Journal of Educational Technology, 175-179.

Education: Higher Education: Institutions and Enrollment. (2012, September). Retrieved from United States Census Bureau:

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/education/higher_education_institutions_and_enrollment.html

Kaplan University. (2014). IT Internship Program. Retrieved from Kaplan University: http://www.kaplanuniversity.edu/information-technology/internship.aspx

O’Neill, N. (2010). Internships as a High-Impact Practice: Some Reflections on Quality. Peer Review, 4-8.

Rintala, U., & Schrader, C. (2011). Scenarios for virtual and virtually supported work placements. Retrieved from Make it work! Integrating virtual mobility in international

work placements.: http://www.euvip.eu/EU-VIP/EU-VIP/about.html

References

San Jose State University, School of Library and Information Science. (2012). Virtual Internships . Retrieved from San Jose State University, School of Library and

Information Science: http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/current-students/courses/internships/virtual-internships

The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. (2013). CII Internship Program. Retrieved from The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities:

http://www.aplu.org/page.aspx?pid=2957

The Smithsonian Institute. (n.d.). Smithsonian Virtual Internships. Retrieved from The Smithsonian Institute Office of Fellowships and Internships:

http://www.smithsonianofi.com/smithsonian-virtual-internships/

University of Wisconsin-Madison. (2013, April 26). UW to offer new virtual internships to enhance women’s interest in engineering. Retrieved from University of Wisconsin-

Madison News: http://news.wisc.edu/21723

US Department of Education. (2014, June). Enrollment in distance education courses, by state: Fall 2012. Retrieved from National Center for Education Statistics:

http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2014023

Virtual Internship Program. (2013). Retrieved from Columbia University Center for Career Education: http://www.careereducation.columbia.edu/findajob/cce-internship/vip

Virtual Student Foreign Service. (2013). Retrieved from U.S. Department of State: http://www.state.gov/vsfs/

Webinar: July 23, 2014 - 2:00pm ET

International Collaboration with Virtual InternshipsIn this webinar the audience will gain information about the implementation and outcomes of this virtual internship project which was also one of the Sloan-C 2013 Effective Practice Award winners.This webinar is about Project iNext that exemplified an institutional virtual partnership between Kaplan University, Information Technology School and a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV), Julie Frieswyk. It was implemented to connect Information Technology students with the Pro-Business Nord (PBN), a non-governmental organization (NGO) located in the Republic of Moldova. The project provided excellent opportunities for students to apply their knowledge, skills and abilities in an authentic context.http://sloanconsortium.org/institute/webinars/2014/7virtual-internships

Biography

Allison Selby has taught in higher education for the last ten years. She has taught various digital media courses for many schools, including The University of the Arts, Drexel University and Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia. Currently, she serves as the Director of Internship Programs, for the School of Information Technology in Kaplan University. She chairs the Leadership Professional Competency Committee.

Allison is a graduate of Chestnut Hill College, Masters of Science, Educational Technology. She recently earned a Graduate Certificate in Service-Learning and Community-Based Learning in Postsecondary Education from Portland State University. Her current interests focus on high-impact experiential practices and particularly how they can be integrated in an online environment. Her primary focus is extending service-learning and internship opportunities for adult students through virtual solutions.

www.linkedin.com/in/allisonselby * 828-318-5082

Allison P. Selby, MS.

Kaplan University

aselby@Kaplan.edu

http://www.aselby.com