amank2168-blog

[amank2168-blog]

Virtual internship

Group Members:

Shrikant, Aman, Nikhilesh, Anahat

Introduction

Virtual internships are web-based simulations that help students learn to think like scientists, scholars, artists, and workers in the real world do. They simulate not only the content that students are supposed to learn but also the ways of thinking—the epistemologies—that some groups of people use to solve problems.

What makes virtual internships different is that they don’t simply translate traditional pedagogical methods into the online environment. Unlike MOOCs – massively open online courses – and other popular online educational formats, virtual internships help students to learn by simulating authentic, realistic problems in an environment that combines instruction, learning, and assessment.

As with a MOOC, students can log into the simulation from anywhere they like – coffee shops, dorm rooms, libraries, or Wi-Fi-enabled airplanes. But in a virtual internship, students work in teams on challenging real-world problems that require innovative solutions. They conduct background research, interview clients, develop and test prototypes, and work with their peers to weigh the importance of technical, commercial, and ethical factors to propose a solution to a complex problem. Characters in the simulation, controlled by a combination of artificial intelligence and live mentors, interact with students as they work, giving feedback, asking probing questions, and showing students how creative problem solving works.

Virtual internships are thus a type of MACROSIM, or Massively Adaptive Complex Realistic Online Simulation with Interactive Mentoring. MACROSIMs are what a MOOC should be. Instead of sitting through lectures and tests, as they would in a traditional course or a MOOC, students learn by doing, and they are assisted not by lecture notes and text books but by the resources that professionals use and by an interactive human mentor, who can guide their individual learning processes. Instead of taking quizzes and tests, students are evaluated on all aspects of their participation in the simulation, giving a more detailed and more accurate assessment of their learning.

The result could be a real revolution in education: classes that have thousands of students, like MOOCs, but now thousands of people at a time learning more than just how to take good notes in a lecture and pass a traditional test.

Scope

Students at IIM-A are involved in FII projects. There is a potential of converting the FII projects into Virtual internships. However, as with FII projects the quality of the outcome of projects might be an issue. The improvement of quality is assumed to happen with an input of extra effort by the students and some external mentoring (consulting).

The industry interaction is assumed to be held constant during the course of the project/internship. No significant changes in the mode of interaction between the industry and students. The only changes introduced will be in the mode of interaction between students themselves and students mentors.

Research Problem

To study the factors affecting the retention and motivation of the students in completing the virtual internship during its course. Another expected outcome will be the acceptable range of various parameters which would drive these factors.

Methodology

We have defined various units of study, which will be used for conducting the survey and further analysis. The following are the two units as defined:

1.     PGP-II

2.     PGP-I

Secondary research and comparative analysis will be done to finalize the design of the surveys to be conducted. There will first be the survey from PGP-II students who have experience with the internships to understand the shortcomings/gaps in offerings during the internship. The feedback thus obtained would be used in designing the platform, which would then be offered to the PGP-I students with the idea of an virtual internship. This interaction would be in form of another survey. The output here would provide the relative importance of various factors affecting the motivation of the students in completing the work.

The objective of asking questions to pgp2 is to understand what factors made them motivated towards working in an internship. Comparing it with a fii project to determine what factors were lacking.

1. The factors such as- role of compensation,future PPO, role of peers, mentoring access to databases, requirement of initiative taking, deadlines, pressure from hierarchy, lack of knowledge for the problem at hand, amount of time involved, complexity of the problem, expectations of the type of problem(fit), how coveted the role was, the fact that it was an academic requirement.

2. Have students taken online courses. Why/why not? Feedback on the Capsim project. Strategic marketing course feedback. If external mentors are involved/if external consultants are involved. If are given access to external market research companies. If given money, of digital certificate or an academic credit for it

To understand what the pgp2’s hoped they were equipped for the internship

To ask PGP1’s about clarity of roles they have during internship. Their motives for doing FII. and how do they want an exposure of the academic concepts and how many hours are they willing to give it. How to make something more sought after by making it more selective-entrance tests/prestig expected 

Outcome

The following are the expected outcomes of the project:

1.     Factors affecting the motivation

2.     Features to be added/introduced in the platform

Primary Source

Primary source: PGP-I and PGP-II students, mode – one to one interaction via surveys

Secondary Source