Funding request for two conference presentations/attendance

Dr. Wilson-Mah was granted Research and Professional Development funds to present, at conference, research on the effective learning of workplace skills supported through internship courses.

In internships, learning is primarily situated within a workplace, supported by an internship course, internship advisor, learning outcomes, readings, and assessments. An internship is a unique reflection of each student’s interests, capabilities and experience and the employer’s particular needs, operating environment and culture. Given the uniqueness of an internship, the internship course presents an interesting space to investigate authentic learning. The tasks, social context and physical context of learning are authentic as they take place in the real world work environment (Gulikers, Bastiaens & Krischner, 2004). Somewhat outside this authentic learning space are the assessments that are required for course completion. After over a decade supporting students in internships and co-operative education, the researcher sought to answer the question: Is the design of internship course assessments authentic? Furthermore, how can student perception and perspective inform the design of effective authentic assessments?