ASSESSMENT PLAN
All Journalism and Mass Communication students completing internships are required to
write a final paper describing their experience. The intern supervisor at the site is
requested to summarize the student's abilities and progress. |
1997-98 ASSESSMENT
Numerous students (n = 19) have completed internships since the last assessment review.
Unlike past years, nearly all of these students would probably be considered by the
faculty to be very high achievers. For this to have occurred this year may be an anomaly
or it could be the result of the additional rigor introduced into the program in 1994.
There are at least two possible explanations - weaker students have exited the program due
to the rigor and therefore can't take an internship or only the strong students opt to
complete one. The quantitative
data are from fall 1997 and spring 1998 internship evaluations. A summary of the on-site
supervisors' evaluations follows. The items are based on a 1 - 4 scale with 1 being
"below average" and 4 being "Superior."
The highest-rated factors concerning
interns were Ability to Work with Others (3.74), Quality of Work Produced (3.63), Ability
to Organize (3.57), Professional Attitude (3.53), Promptness (3.52) and Interest in Job
(3.52). The three lowest rated factors were Amount of Work Produced (3.26), Possessed
Necessary Skills (3.31), Resourcefulness (3.32) and Appearance (3.32). What is interesting
is that two of the factors rated lowest by intern supervisors in 1996 - 1997 became two of
the highest rated in 1997 - 1998. These were Quality of Work Produced and Ability to
Organize. In fact, 11 of the 14 factors rated by internship supervisors for the 19
students in 1997 - 1998 were higher than scores awarded in 1996 - 1997 by internship
supervisors.
The difference between the highest and
lowest 1997 - 1998 ratings was a rating of .5 and this is encouraging. The unit was able
to provide good quality students to regional organizations and the students were, for the
most part, successful.
The data do continue to suggest that
students may be willing to take on career related responsibilities but they may not be
mature enough, at the time, to do so. Evidence of this criticism can be found when
reviewing the lowest rated items. This is a common problem inherent in any learning
situation when the evaluator (media professional/merchant) has the same expectations of
students as he or she might have for a new employee. |
1996-97
ASSESSMENT
Numerous students (n = 11) have completed internships since the last assessment review.
The quantitative data are from fall 1996 and spring 1997 internships. A summary of the
on-site supervisors' evaluations follows. The items are based on a 1 - 4 scale with 1
being "below average" and 4 being "Superior." The three highest-rated factors concerning interns
were Ability to Work Independently (3.7), Acceptance and Constructive Use of Criticism
(3.5) and Resourcefulness (3.4). The lowest rated items were Comparison with Previous
Interns (2.9), Quality of Work Produced (2.9) and Ability to Organize (2.9).
This continues to suggest that students
may be willing to take on career-related responsibilities but they may not be mature
enough, at the time, to do so. These are common problems inherent in any learning
situation when the evaluator (media professional) has the same expectations of students as
he or she might have for a new employee. |
1995-96
ASSESSMENT
Numerous students (n = 21) have completed internships since the last assessment review.
The quantitative data are from fall 1995, spring 1996 and summer 1996 internships. A
summary of the on-site supervisors' evaluations follows and the results are very similar
to last year. The items are based on a 1 - 4 scale with 1 being "below average"
and 4 being "Superior." The
five highest-rated factors concerning interns were Interest in the Job (3.6), Ability to
Work with Others (3.5), Appearance (3.5), Ability to Work Independently (3.4) and
Professional Attitude (3.4). The seven lowest rated items, although still above a 3.0
("Good" category), were Comparison with Previous Interns (3.1), Resourcefulness
(3.1), Acceptance and Constructive Use of Criticism (3.2), Ability to Work Under Deadline
(3.2), Amount of Work Produced (3.2), Promptness (3.2) and Possessed Necessary Skills
(3.2).
This continues to suggest that students
may be willing to take on career-related responsibilities but they may not be mature
enough, at the time, to do so. These are common problems inherent in any learning
situation when the evaluator (media professional) has the same expectations of students as
he or she might have for a new employee. |
1994-95
ASSESSMENT
Numerous students (n = 41) have completed internships since the last assessment review. A
summary of the on-site supervisors' evaluations follows. The items are based on a I - 4
scale with I being "below average" and 4 being "Superior." The four
highest- rated factors concerning interns were Interest in the Job (3.57), Promptness
(3.46), Ability to Work Independently (3.41) and Professional Attitude (3.39). The five
lowest rated items, although still above a 3.0 ("Good" category), were
Comparison with Previous Interns (3.05), Ability to Organize (3.08), Ability to Work Under
Deadline (3.12), Amount of Work Produced (3.20) and Possessed Necessary Skills (3.20). Just as last year this appears to suggest that
students may be willing to take on career-related responsibilities, but they may not be
mature enough, at the time, to do so. These are common problems inherent in any learning
situation when the evaluator (media professional) has the same expectations of students as
he or she might have for a new employee. |
1993-94
ASSESSMENT
The most recent internship evaluations that have been returned suggest that employers are
pleased with the quality of students that they have supervised. The attitudes and
abilities of most of the students were ranked as "Superior" to "Good."
A majority of the supervisors (87%) indicated that they would hire the student if an
opening existed. A review of the most recent evaluations indicates that internship
supervisors rate JMC interns high (approximately 3.58 on a 4.0 scale) on 3 important
factors: Ability to work with others, acceptance and constructive use of criticism, and
interest in the job. The lowest rated areas, although still 3.10-3.15, were: ability to
organize, quality of work produced, and amount of work produced. This suggests JMC interns
may be willing to take on the responsibilities associated with their career but they may
not be completely prepared for their career, at least, in the eyes of their evaluators.
These are problems inherent in any learning experience particularly when dealing with
professionals who always have high expectations for new staff. This information will be
presented to JMC faculty and discussed. Program adjustments may be warranted but it does
not appear to be a significant problem at this time. Internship standards have recently been approved by the JMC
faculty and internship evaluations will continue to be completed by on-site supervisors. |
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17 May 2005
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