McKay School of Education > IP&T > Internship Guide

Internship Guide

Purpose

The internship is a "real world" work experience under the supervision of a qualified professional. The student performs work on a professional level for a client who may or may not be within the university community. The internship may or may not involve remuneration. These experiences allow students to reinforce skills and principles learned through their coursework as well as to develop additional practical expertise. Consequently both masters and doctoral students in the IP&T program are required to be involved in internships. The particulars of this requirement are described below.

Description

Internships should involve students in meaningful professional experiences. This means students should be included to some extent in the conceptualization or design of a project and not relegated exclusively to tasks that ordinarily could be assigned to a technician. The following examples illustrate what could be considered meaningful professional experiences.

Acceptable as Internships	Unacceptable as Internships
Helping design, produce and validate instructional materials	Only taking pictures that will be used in the instructional materials
Helping conduct an evaluation study. This could involve various aspects of designing the study, developing instruments, collecting and analyzing the data or writing the report.	Only tabulating and entering data in a spread sheet
Helping conduct a research study. This could involve doing a literature review, designing the study, writing a proposal, developing instruments, collecting and analyzing the data or writing the report.	Only editing the reports
Major responsibility for teaching a course.	Only grading papers and exams.

Credit Requirements

To obtain a wide variety of work experience, it is recommended that all IP&T graduate students become involved in some type of internship experience every semester they are in the program. Master's students are required to register for a minimum of three credit hours of internship, while Doctoral students are required to register for a minimum of 12 credit hours of internship.

To meet this requirement students may register for 1-3 credit hours of IP&T 599R during any semester or term. During Fall and Winter semesters students should plan on working approximately 3 hours per week for each hour of credit awarded. During Spring and Summer terms students will need to work approximately 20 hours per week to receive 3 hours of credit, or 6 hours per week for every hour of credit. Students may not register for more than 3 credit hours of internship per semester/term although they may work more than 10 hours per week on an internship. This requirement insures that students are involved in practicum experience throughout their stay in the program and not just during the first few semesters.

How to Find an Internship

Besides signing up for internship credit, it is students' responsibility to find and negotiate their own internship experience each semester. This can be done in several ways.

By subscribing to the IPTGrads listserv where internship announcements are posted regularly.
By consulting the IP&T web site under the Employment/Internships/View Current Internships link.
By consulting with the Chair of the IP&T Department.
By talking to IP&T faculty members who are working in areas in which the student is interested.
By asking other IP&T students, especially those who have been in the program for several years, if they are aware of possible internships.
By contacting some of the following organizations that have provided internships in the past:
- Department of Instructional Psychology & Technology
- BYU David O. McKay School of Education
- BYU Center for Instructional Design
- BYU Faculty Center
- BYU Independent Study
- BYU Center for Service and Learning
- BYU Technology-Assisted Language Learning (TALL)
- BYU Second Language Departments
- LDS Missionary Training Center
- LDS Church
- Western Governors University
- Allen Communications
- Utah Valley State College
- Novell
- NuSkin

During their graduate program, students should select a wide variety of internship experiences. Ideally, students should identify internship experiences in each of the major areas of the program: instructional design, evaluation, measurement, research and teaching. They should avoid doing all of their internship work with one organization or individual. In addition, they should consider internship experiences that relate to their career goals. Research and teaching internships are especially important for those interested in an academic career.

Registration, Supervision and Grading

Once an acceptable internship has been identified, students should meet with their internship supervisor to outline the work they will be asked to do during the internship experience.

To receive internship credit students should submit an Internship Contract Form [PDF | Word] to the Department Secretary and register for IP&T 599R using an Add/Drop card before the Add/Drop deadline at the beginning of a semester. The form should include a detailed description of the nature of the proposed internship experience including the students' role and level of involvement, their specific assignments and products to be produced. The internship supervisor and the chair of the advisory committee should sign it. The chair should also sign the Add/Drop card.

To receive a grade for your internship experience, students must submit an Internship Grade Form [PDF | Word], signed by the internship supervisor and the chair of the advisory committee, to the Department Secretary before the end of finals.

Pay for Internships

Although it is not necessary to receive pay for an internship, frequently student internships are funded. The University pay scale corresponds to the students' status in the program. Advancement in status is made when Ph.D. comprehensive projects are completed. Students working with outside agencies or organizations are free to negotiate their own pay scale.