An Internship Program at a Computer Science Department –Theoretical Foundation and Overall Coordination

Internship courses, unlike others, are multi-pronged because they require coordination at different levels. Typically, a faculty coordinates the communication and implementation at these multiple levels to lead the completion of internship courses. We call the position that this faculty holds and does all this communication/coordination the “internship coordinator”. For the work of the internship coordinator to be successful, he/she must synchronize the work of the internship with all parties involved. Failure to coordinate at one level or another may affect the work of other parties involved in completing the internship for the students. This paper explains the experience of an internship program at the computer science department (COSC) at Indiana University Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). We focus on the work on the internship coordinator for this program and his work to communicate and coordinate to successfully implement the internship experience for the students. We first present in this paper the theoretical foundation that has led to the development of internship programs in academia. We also elaborate at the multiple levels and their role in completing the internship experience for the students. A revised version of this paper was published in the journal Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology Volume 12, 2015