Internship Guidelines

The term Intern will refer to the UW-Oshkosh student, Internor will refer to the organization where the internship is to occur, and Director will refer to the UW-Oshkosh Computer Science Department faculty member who is responsible for maintaining the relationship between the Intern, the Internor, and the department.

1. Eligibility to Enter Intern Pool

   Students eligible to participate as interns need to satisfy all of the following:

   • 75 or more credits toward graduation

   • 15 or more UW-Oshkosh credits

   • 2.75 or higher overall gpa

   • 2 or more UW-Oshkosh computer science courses numbered 300 or higher

   • 3.0 or higher gpa in Computer Science courses at or above the 200-level. Computer Science courses at the 100-level, and required Mathematics and Physics courses are excluded.

   • not restricted to majors

   • no restriction on emphases

   • return to campus for at least one semester after the internship is highly desirable

2. Eligibility of Internor

   Each internor needs to supply a profile or selection criterion for the type of student that they are interested in hiring. It is expected that they will interview and/or select an intern from the pool. The internor can request the CS Department to supply references and/or recommendations for particular students before making their selection.

   The internor must:

   • provide guidance and training for the student

   • assign an experienced supervisor with a Bachelors degree to supervise the intern

   • be an organization that employs other college graduates in the work environment

   • provide a letter to the internship director supplying the following information:

   1. description of the project or work assignment to be performed by intern
   2. description of training and/or orientation the intern will receive
   3. identification of the person who will be supervising the intern and the academic credentials and work experience of the supervisor
   4. description of the method and frequency of feedback that the intern will receive from the supervisor
   5. statement of the rate of pay for the intern

   • provide a letter at the end of the internship that evaluates the quality of work and recommends a grade.

3. Deadline for Approval

   The deadline for approval of a Computer Science internship for the Fall or Spring semester is the last day of the fourth week of that semester. The deadline for a Summer internship is the last day of the second week of the First Term of the Summer Semester.

4. Responsibilities of Student Intern

   The student intern must:

   • submit a monthly progress report to the internship director (at least three required)

   • revise drafts of progress reports until accepted by the director

   • a final report and an oral presentation based on the final report are mandatory. If the internship is completed in the Summer, the oral presentation must be given during the following Fall semester.

   • inform the director promptly whenever there is any difficulty in the internship

   • submit reports on time to the director. Note that a grade reduction will be imposed in the event that progress reports and/or the final report are submitted to the director after the due date. Due dates are the first of each month in the period when the internship is in progress, or may be set more specifically by the coordinator in a particular semester.

   • Remind your supervisor to send a letter to the CS Department chair that evaluates the work and recommends a grade.

   • Complete the internship survey form and an exit interview with the Internship Director.

5. Responsibilities of the Internship Director

   The director will:

   • have contact with the internor before the internship, monthly during the internship and again after the internship is completed

   • interview the intern before the internship

   • read, comment and promptly return drafts of progress reports and the final report

   • complete an exit interview with the intern

   Responsibilities of the Internor

   The internor must:

   • provide training/learning opportunities for intern

   • provide supervision of the intern

   • provide appropriate work opportunities

   • pay the intern an appropriate wage

6. Amount of credit

   • Generally internships are taken for three credits in a given semester.

   • Translation of hours of work/training to credit

   • Rule of thumb: hours of work per credit comparable to the one-hour-in-class-plus-three-hours-outside-class guideline used for one credit in a regular course. Over a 14 week term, a three-credit course turns out to be approximately 160-200 hours by this metric.

7. Required Work and Grades

   • one credit of the grade is based on written work done during the internship and the oral presentation.

   • the written assignments include: project progress reports and the final report

   • the written work will be submitted to the director for comments and revised until accepted by the director

Guidelines for Written Reports

• One credit of the total credits for the practicum/internship in Computer Science is allocated to writing. The practicum/internship coordinator will evaluate the effectiveness of your written communication. Thus these courses satisfy the Computer Science Department’s writing course requirement as specified by the College of Letters and Science “Writing Across the Curriculum” plan.

• The objective of the progress report is to describe the internship/practicum activities for the previous period. A period is a milestone for a practicum and generally one month for an internship.

• Minimum length: 1,200 words of original text. Graphs, diagrams, and the like may be included for clarity, but they don’t add to the word count. You may double space for readability.

• The format of the report is a paragraph form. Do not simply list activities item by item or day by day.

• The description should be free of misspellings and grammatical errors. Refer to co-workers formally, such as Mr. Smith or Ms. Jones; include their job titles and relationship to you in their first reference. The description should describe your work activities succinctly and clearly. Describe any difficulties, failures, and successes. If you encountered unforeseen problems, how did you resolve them, or how do you plan to deal with them? If this is an internship, include aspects that met or did not meet your expectations of the internship experience. If you were asked to do something that is not part of the job description, such as sweep floors, include that in the description.

• Reports are due to the Internship/Practicum Coordinator at the end of the period. It is the responsibility of the student to turn the reports in on time.

Final Reports

• The objective is to summarize the overall experience, including the work you accomplished and your assessment of it. What did you learn? For a practicum, did you complete the project as specified? If not, why not? Were there any additional features that were not included in the original proposal? For an internship: what you learned; your assessment of the value of the internship; whether you would recommend this organization to other students; which Computer Science/MIS courses were most helpful to you; are there computer courses that you believe would be valuable but are not offered now. The format is the same as for the progress reports. The minimum length is 2,500 words.