On-Campus Electronic Internships: Implementation and Experience 1

Wm. Benjamin Martz, Jr., Tara Repka, Jeanette Kramer Frank Reale
California State University, Chico

Abstract

One goal of education should be to continuously improve the methods by which it educates. This is especially true in considering the traditional internship and co-op models. California State University-Chico (CSUC) and Fireman's Fund Insurance Company (FFIC) have partnered to create a new on-campus internship model that proves more responsive to student needs by combining the positive characteristics of both the traditional internship and the off-campus co-op models. This paper summarizes the first year's experiences with the new type of internship and presents key factors for others considering this cooperative education model.

Porter and McKibbin (1988) have raised criticisms of today's business school curricula. Differences between "skills obtained" by graduating seniors and those skills sought by recruiters have been documented and exist as a real area of concern for business schools (Newman, 1994) . These concerns are echoed by our own focus groups with industry representatives from companies which recruit heavily within the management information systems field including Andersen Consulting, Chevron, Cisco, Foundation Health Systems, Fireman's Fund Insurance Company (FFIC), Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Intel, along with others.

Currently, researchers in the education industry use two models which enable students to gain work experience: the internship, where students work part or full-time for a short period of time between semesters or for one semester; and co-op, where students work for multiple semesters part or full-time, and may defer their graduation for a semester or more. The on-campus electronic internship presented in this paper is another strategy to address these concerns.

change, especially in the information technology area, educators have the opportunity to re-think the use of traditional internships and co-ops where students must choose between their academic environment and their "work experience" environment. Just as telecommuting is practical in some instances for employees to tie family and work lives together, telecommuting is also practical for students to tie academic and work experience together. By taking advantage of current telecommunications capabilities, educators can construct a new model by which students may gain work experience.

The Student Learning Environment

In this paper, the authors describe a new model of internship-an electronic internship that is enabled because of the telecommunications capabilities found in today's business world. Fundamentally, the electronic internship incorporates the major advantages of a co-op model and an internship model. In addition, the on-campus, electronic internship creates a three-way, mutually beneficial environment for the students, the sponsoring organization and the business program curriculum. One such environment exists between California State University-Chico and Fireman's Fund Insurance Company.

The electronic internship work is performed in a small, converted classroom. It has IO networked personal computers, a server, a printer, a phone and answering machine, and a second dedicated phone line for dial-up access to FFIC communications network. In addition, the room is outfitted with chairs, a microwave, a small refrigerator and worktables. Access to the room is limited to the students enrolled in the program.

In many ways, the room operates as a telecommuting office for the students. Students schedule their own time in the room. Each intern is provided with a PC and the software necessary for their particular projects. Students work directly with assigned mentors from FFTC. They log into the FFIC communications network to check their email. Lotus Notes email is used to report and receive project work. Student teams use the room for their weekly management meetings.

The key philosophical components of the electronic internship revolve around improving learning by applying the concepts of participation and facilitation. The importance of these concepts is introduced and remains constant throughout reviews of the literature concerning learning-centered education (Chickering & Gamson, 1987; AAHE, 1996; Bilimoria & Wheeler, 1995). Extending these concepts to our model, all three parties, the students, the faculty, and the sponsor, must participate in the internship and must facilitate the internship environment.

h2 Student Interest in On-Campus Internships

A survey was conducted to identify the extent of student interest in and to gain feedback regarding the on-campus internship concept. The survey was administered to 91 students in upper-division Management Information Systems courses at California State University-Chico. The ultimate purpose of the survey was to obtain information that would guide the successful implementation of the internship program. The following is selected summary information from the survey.

General Interest: Many students were interested in doing internships for various reasons. The main concerns raised by the students in regard to taking traditional internships were training, housing and length of internship. Interestingly, student wage expectations for on-campus internships were 27 percent below those of traditional internships.

The majority of students surveyed (85 percent) were seniors. Sixty-eight students (76 percent) were interested in doing an internship, while 22 (24%) of those surveyed were not interested. Thirty-four percent (34%) of those students surveyed have experienced internships already, and so provide some added credibility to the survey.

Up to 48 percent of the students surveyed were interested in doing on-campus internships. In fact, eight percent of students surveyed were interested only in this type of internship. Fifty-two percent (52%) of students surveyed said they were most interested in doing a traditional internship at the company.

Length of Internship: Different students have different timelines for graduation. Many work to support themselves or families, while others have longer periods of time to devote to school and internships. Survey responses show that summer internships are the most popular. An internship during the intersession-the winter break between semesters-was also very popular. It is significant that neither of these timeframes, summer nor intersession, interfere with a student's graduation plans.

While over 80 percent of the students were interested in a summer or intersession internship, the level of interest fell to only 50 percent when the internship required leaving school for a semester, as is the custom with a traditional co-op, encompassing the spring semester and summer or summer and fall semester.

Housing: Sixty-four percent of the students reported they would need help with housing if they took an on-site internship (co-op) with a company. Of these 58 students in our survey, 41 (71 %) said they would be willing to live with a sponsor family or company employee.

Training: Training is one of the key expectations students listed for undertaking an internship. With regard to which training areas produced the most interest, student responses show significant interest in networking, database development and business analysis. Between 81 percent and 84.5 percent of all students surveyed were interested in these areas. In addition, students listed the following technical areas of interest; UNIX, JAVA, C++, HTML SQL, Lotus Notes, COBOL and non-technical areas of interest; business ethics, dealing with people, how to be professional, business etiquette.

Student Employment Expectations; Students were queried as to their likelihood of taking a job with a company if they had completed an internship with that company. (One note of caution however; many students prefaced their responses with "of course it depends on the experience at the internship." If the internship is a bad experience a student will be less likely to work for the company.) Fifty-four of the 73 students (80%) felt they would be very likely to accept a job offer if they had completed a successful internship with the company.

The Sponsor

The main "community player" or sponsor of the electronic internship described here is Fireman's Fund Insurance Company. William Holdredge founded FFIC in San Francisco in 1863. The moniker, Fireman's Fund, is derived from the philanthropic policy implemented by the company whereby a percentage of FFIC's profits was paid to the widows and orphans of firefighters. The company continues to explore new products and possibilities for the insurance industry such as wedding and kidnap insurance along with special event coverage. In this complex environment, FFIC reports a 96 percent customer satisfaction level. Today, FFIC has over 8,000 employees, most of whom are stationed at their headquarters facility in Novato, California.

As a result of their strategic planning process in 1997, FFIC identified the need for a more substantial and state-of-the-art information systems infrastructure. In this quest, FFIC is migrating their 8,000-station network from OS/2 to Windows NT and implementing PeopleSoft enterprise-wide software. As the scope of this undertaking expanded, the need for additional well-trained employees became more apparent. To address this need, FFIC undertook a strategy to revitalize its recruitment of new employees directly from college campuses. California State University-Chico was selected as a candidate.

Electronic Internship Time Line

The time line below describes the key events and interactions occurring between FFIC and CSUC in relation to the electronic internship.

March 1997: The concept of on-campus internships was proposed to the Management Information Systems (MINS) faculty by Dan Liberatore of Fireman's Fund Insurance Company (FFIC). The initial discussions revolved around FFIC providing Chico students with real-world programming work such as COBOL maintenance and Year 2000 work.

July 1997: A five-week pilot project was proposed to help determine the feasibility and to provide "proof-of-concept" for sending real work to campus-based students. The overriding purpose in creating the on-campus internships for students was to determine whether or not on-campus internships could provide a better way for FFIC to recruit new employees.

August 1997A five-week, pilot program was initiated with three students who were identified and recruited for the end-of-summer project. Temporary space was located at the university with equipment and training provided by FFIC. As a fundamental quality check, programs that had already been completed by FFIC were provided to the students for rework. Managers at FFIC determined the quality of the work done to be satisfactory.

Speptember 1997: 1997: The project was approved including funds for ten student salaries and operational support. A 15' x 15' room was identified on campus and designated as the Fireman's Fund Internship lab. FFIC provided office and computer equipment for the lab. The MINS student population was advised of the availability of on-campus internships and applications were solicited. Eighteen applications were received and reviewed with seven new students selected (all three original members remained). The student assignments revolved around COBOL maintenance

December 1997: Three students opted to undertake additional work for academic credit. The additional work included: establishing a webpage for the project(http://www.csuchico.edu/acms/ffic/) surveying the students regarding the impression of the internship program for FFIC management, documenting the lab procedures, and providing network administration support for the lab equipment.

January 1998: One student, who was continuing in the project, was hired by FFIC for an intersession internship for three weeks of full-time work. During this intersession internship, the student received training pertinent to the upcoming projects. In addition to two carry-over students, eight new students were selected for internships and divided into two teams. Tasks assigned to the student groups included a Lotus Notes development project and a COBOL debugging maintenance project.

March 1998: An onsite visit by the student interns to FFlC headquarters in Novato, California was arranged. A tour of FFIC was provided and each student met with an assigned mentor. The group had lunch with the Chief Information Officer (CIO), the corporate Vice-President funding the project and the FFIC Director administering the project.

May 1998: The semester projects became core assignments for student interns continuing with FFIC for the summer. In addition, two of the six possible students (defined as those students who were in the program and who had graduated) have signed on with FFIC as full-time employees and six of the eight possible students (defined as those students from the Spring semester who were eligible for summer internships) signed with FFIC for the summer of 1998. All eight of the students returning for the fall semester of 1998 have reapplied for the on-campus internships.

Current Status: A typical day in the FFIC lab consists of several students working both individually and as a team. Students communicate with FFlC mentors and support staff in Novato via email and Lotus Notes. While the students are required to work only 10 hours a week and can schedule their own hours, there are some constraints. They must schedule to meet with the whole group for a weekly one-hour meeting and with their team for a three-hour work session. Funding for the program has been approved through December 1999.

Discussion - Results from the Field

The electronic internship provides a new model for a cooperative learning experience in undergraduate education. A list of observations and experiences taken from the first year of the electronic internship's implementation is presented. Some are simply positive experiences while others are guidelines for those considering implementing this model.

Assessment of Outcomes: We believe that the program is viewed as successful by each of its partners as indicated in Table 1.

Table 1
Indicators of Program Success

For Students:

For FFIC:

For CSUC

The real value to students however, may be the more intangible benefits an experience like this provides. The students gain more experience with the inherent complexities found in small project teams that dominate the business world today. In addition, this model includes relational learning, self-directed learning and reshaping authority in the classroom, three key characteristics of Bilimoria and Wheeler's (1995) Learning Centered Classroom.

Responsiveness to Expressed Student Concerns: The on-campus internship responds directly to the issues raised in the student survey. For example, the housing issue is removed completely as students are able to use their school housing. The length of internship as a factor which causes the extension of a student's graduation date is minimized. The level of training remains an issue, but can be alleviated with a concerted effort.

It also follows that a good way to attract students to an internship program is to offer projects in which they are interested. In this case, over 80 percent of all students surveyed were interested in networking, database development and business analysis. Armed with this information, these were the projects targeted in the second semester.

Communication: Communication between all parties is vital to the success of any partnership. This is true in the electronic internship as well. Clear assignments and communication between the sponsor and student teams is very important. Several methods are used with varying degrees of success including an email system, an electronic group decision support system classroom, mandatory weekly meetings, whiteboards, and message boards.

Training: As the survey results show, the need for training is another important factor of an internship. Done well, training helps guarantee success by addressing student expectations, insuring quality work for the sponsor and helping the faculty identify potential weaknesses in the curriculum. Three training areas have proven to be critical to the success of training: 1) a mentor program, 2) student trainers and 3) commitment to ongoing training.

As early as possible, students should be assigned to and meet with a contact person-a mentor-at the sponsoring company. This helps form a sense of connection between the student and the company. Furthermore, this relationship becomes an additional route for students to ask questions when needed. Students who have been in the program for more than one semester, or who have been onsite at the sponsor company for training or an onsite internship, represent a practical source of training.

Each semester should start with an intensive training course for all new and continuing interns. Demonstrations of email and special programs should be reviewed and unique characteristics should be documented. Work procedures should be established. Passwords and login names should be handed out. The expectations for the student work should be discussed.

In addition to the formal survey, the interns from the first year were polled and helped to create the checklist of training recommendations shown in Table 2.

Continuous Improvement: Apply the practice of continuous improvement to help improve the project. At the end of the semester, debrief the students

Table 2
Training Recommendations Checklist

regarding all aspects of the internship and have them rate how well the training prepared them for the work they needed to do. Based on this input, the training, along with the rest of program, can be evaluated and improved on a continuous basis.

The electronic internship was successful because of the close interaction of the students, FFIC managers and CSUC faculty. Each participant in the interchange contributes to and receives value from the program in different ways as shown in Figure 1.

Summary

This paper has proposed a new model for cooperative internships that provides a three-way, mutually beneficial environment for students, organizations and universities: universities defer expenses; organizations gain campus presence; students obtain real-world experiences. While demand grows for graduates with work experience, traditional co-ops and internships may not continue to provide an adequate supply. The model proposed here between Fireman's Fund Insurance Company (FFIC) and California State University-Chico (CSUC) is an on-campus, partnership model. It provides a means to garner long-term experience without compromising graduation schedules. Finally, the article reports the experiences and observations from the first year of one such electronic internship for those interested in implementing a similar cooperative education program.

Figure 1
Partner Benefit Exchange

Partner Benefit Exchange Chart