Examining gains and pains of a new virtual internship design

Abstract

This study investigated how student effort and the course design influenced an online internship in China. A cohort of 95 postgraduate students became distance learners in a credit-bearing internship course due to COVID-19. The course leader applied the action learning framework to prompt student online collaboration and group inquiry. The framework assumes the importance of self-reliant learner autonomy in virtual internships. After the course, researchers analyzed the effects of self-directed learning with technology on a multidimensional community of inquiry in a virtual environment. The study also identified students’ narratives that explain how self-directed learning with technology interacted with three elements of virtual communities of inquiry: social, cognitive, and teaching. Findings explain how virtual internships can be facilitated through a community of inquiry model. Educators and practitioners may consider the model to demonstrate student-staff partnerships (Fitzgerald et al., 2020) to achieve quality transformation of internships from face-to-face mode to distance education.

Keywords:

• community of inquiry (CoI)
• self-directed learning
• virtual internship
• action learning

Acknowledgments

We thank the editors and the anonymous reviewers for providing constructive comments to strengthen the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was declared by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable written request.

Additional information

Funding

The study received funding support from the following: Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University Teaching Development Fund (TDF20/21-R22-152); and the Chinese Society for Technical and Vocational Education-New Vocational Education Institution of China: Development and Evaluation for International Microcredential of TVET (SZ22B04).

Notes on contributors

Qian Wang

Qian (Sarah) Wang is an assistant professor and the director of research at the Academy of Future Education, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. Her research focuses on technology-enhanced teaching, education leadership, and teacher professional development. She is interested in emotions and metacognition in learning, action learning, and organizational learning.

Jiyao Xun

Jiyao Xun is an associate professor at the School of Intelligent Finance and Business, and director of Shanghai-Taicang Research Institute, Entrepreneur College at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China. His research interests include marketing and strategy, structural equation modeling, and higher education management.

Na Li

Na Li is an associate professor, senior fellow of Advance HE, and deputy program director of the Digital Education Program at the Department of Educational Studies within the Academy of Future Education at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. Her main research interests include digital education, action learning, and their intersections.

Henk Huijser

Henk Huijser is an associate professor of curriculum and learning design at Queensland University of Technology. He is the co-author (with Megan Yih Chyn A. Kek) of Problem-based learning into the future (2017) and the lead editor on a volume called Student support services (2022).

Juming Shen

Juming Shen received his PhD in higher educational studies from Queensland University of Technology in 2013. He is currently an associate professor at Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University. His research interest is focused on digital education, educational semiotics, and educational policy studies.

Jian Chen

Jian Chen is the head of New Professional Education Division and an assistant professor at the Academy of Future Education. His research interests and management practice include international comparisons in vocational education and training, Sino-foreign cooperative education, industry-education integration, and teacher professional development.