Internships integrate accredited academic coursework with periods of supervised, relevant experiences in the workplace. Internships not only provide students with an opportunity to practice and apply knowledge in a field of study but also provide a learning scaffold for real-world workplace issues such as morality and ethics, spirituality, diversity, values-based leadership, managing conflict, change management and leadership.

Strategies and Resources

• Employ online asynchronous discussion forums - Student schedules vary; create online forums for sharing and community-building as well as for more formal academic discussions.
• Encourage shared learning - employ theoretical readings or resources as a lens through which to review and reflect upon their workplace experiences.
• Create assignments that build the student's career portfolio and develop career skills such as writing a resume and interviewing for a job.
• Sample assignments from the University Internship Program.

Additional Readings

Moon, Jennifer (2004). A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning: Theory and Practice. 2004 New York: Routledgefalmer

Experiential learning articles and critiques of David Kolb's theory. From the Active Reviewing Guide, a website on active learning and reviewing (debriefing). United Kingdom.

University Internship Program
Contact the director, Lynne Copp, for more information.

• Through four courses, combines workplace experience with workplace learning
• Fulfills experiential learning requirement