Enhancing the academic internship learning experience for business education - A critical review and future directions

M. Gerken, B.C. Rienties, S.J.H. Giesbers, K.D. Konings

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterAcademic

Abstract

Academic internships represent an approach for professional development of student’s generic and specific skills and allow students to gain relevant work experience. Despite the growing popularity of internships, limited research has examined the potential benefits of internship supervision at a distance through computer-supported collaborative learning (cscl). This chapter combines the findings of a literature review with insights from a concept-mapping exercise with 22 experts from 15 business schools to identify what constitutes effective collaboration of the three stakeholders: students, company, and business school. Results reveal the inherent goals and expectations of internship supervision differ for companies and business schools. Therefore, the substantial benefits could be obtained through cscl by effective communication and collaboration between the three stakeholders during internships. Future research has to address whether the identified concept map of internships can be successfully implemented in practice.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationLearning at the Crossroads of Theory and Practice
EditorsP.G.C. van den Bossche, W.H. Gijselaers, R.G. Milter
Place of PublicationDordrecht
PublisherSpringer
Pages7-22
Number of pages249
ISBN (Print)978-94-007-2845-5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2012

Publication series

SeriesAdvances in Business Education and Training
Number4

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