[ home | read | learn | other | about ]

COMM490: Internship (Fall 2008)

Here are the general guidelines for COMM490. These change occasionally, so be sure to contact me (johndan@clarkson.edu) for the most recent version.

Projects

The project needs to be somehow communication and/or media related. We try to be open about the range of jobs but they are typically web and document development jobs for non-communication industry companies or jobs within media-related companies. Other types of organizations are fine, provided the work itself is communication and/or media related.

The project should take 3-4 hours per week per credit (so a three-credit internship should require around 9-12 hours per week, or approximately 150 hours for the full semester). You don't have to keep a worklog, but your supervisor will be asked to confirm that you seemed to have put in an appropriate amount of work.

Clients

You need to have a client to work for. This can be a paid or unpaid. We discourage students from doing an internship with a non-employer-based client that they're already deeply involved with. In other words, in order to make sure you learn important skills in working with clients (rather than friends or family members) we’d rather you didn't do a website for your campus club or a family member.

The client needs to correspond with me during the semester. I'll contact the client at the start of the semester to provide an overview of the basic guidelines for the internship. At the end of semester, I'll also ask the client complete a brief assessment form.

Various Reports

You have to file 3 formal reports on their project:

1. The first is a short proposal (in memo format) that outlines the project, how it will satisfy the internship requirements outlined above, and a rough timeline for work.
2. A mid-term progress report overviewing what work has been completed, what work remains to be completed, and some brief analysis of how things are going.
3. A final report is primarily a brief portfolio of examples of the student’s work accompanied by support material: summarize the work done during the internship and discuss what the student learned (including problems you ran into, how they were solved (or not), and what you would do differently in the future based on this experience).