RAPID: Investigating the impact of online internships in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic

RAPID：调查 COVID-19 大流行期间在线实习的影响

• 批准号: 2032122
• 负责人: Matthew Hora
• 金额: $ 14.5万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-06-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2032122&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Investigating; impact; online; internships

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions will partner with Parker Dewey to generate a robust mixed-methods dataset about the impact of online internships on student progression. Internships, mandated by many STEM academic programs, are a form of work-based learning that can lead to academic and workforce success for undergraduate and graduate students. Traditional face-to-face internships also can enhance students’ social networks and technical and transferrable professional skills. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has made face-to-face internships untenable for many workplaces, with stay-at-home orders and social distancing requirements, resulting in a large influx of college students to vendors such as Parker Dewey seeking these opportunities. However, there is little research on the quality of online or micro-internships, and higher education professionals have little knowledge about their students’ experiences with these new forms of work-based learning and their subsequent impact on students’ career and academic development. This study will fill this need by contributing both new empirical insights on online internships as well as actionable knowledge to inform faculty and career advisors’ decision making about students’ internship opportunities during and beyond the pandemic. The project will examine the following research questions: (1) What are the demographic characteristics of past (2015 to early 2020) and current online interns? (2) What types of tasks and mentoring are experienced by online interns? (3) What is the impact of an online internship on student career and academic development, professional networks, and transferable skills? and, (4) What are the prospects for online internships to adopt innovations in virtual simulations to enhance the internship experience? These questions will be answered through three distinct yet inter-related studies that include analyses of Parker Dewey’s past student participants (n=1,500), surveys (n=2,500) and interviews (n=50) with current Parker Dewey program participants, and interviews with employers in STEM-related fields (n=25) regarding the format of internship programs amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, the research leverages the strengths of large-scale survey data and the more fine-grained “insider” perspective of qualitative data. The study will be the first empirical study of online internships and represents a significant contribution to the fields of experiential learning and workforce development. Given the likelihood that online internships and some form of social distancing will continue, generating rapid scientifically rigorous findings on this topic is a time-sensitive concern for U.S. higher education. This RAPID award is made by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program in the Division of Graduate Education/Directorate of Education and Human Resources, using funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. ECR supports fundamental research focused on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校大学劳动力过渡研究中心的研究人员将与帕克·杜威合作，生成一个强大的混合方法数据集，研究在线实习对学生进步的影响。许多STEM学术项目规定的实习是一种以工作为基础的学习形式，可以为本科生和研究生带来学术和工作上的成功。传统的面对面实习还可以增强学生的社交网络以及技术和可转移的专业技能。然而，新冠肺炎的流行使得许多工作场所无法提供面对面的实习机会，因为有在家工作的订单和社交距离的要求，导致大量大学生涌入帕克·杜威这样的供应商寻求这些机会。然而，关于在线或微型实习质量的研究很少，高等教育专业人员对他们的学生使用这些新的基于工作的学习形式的经验及其随后对学生职业和学术发展的影响也知之甚少。这项研究将通过提供关于在线实习的新的经验性见解以及可操作的知识来满足这一需求，为教师和职业顾问提供有关疫情期间和之后学生实习机会的决策信息。该项目将考察以下研究问题：(1)过去(2015年至2020年初)和现在的在线实习生的人口统计特征是什么？(2)在线实习生经历了哪些类型的任务和指导？(3)在线实习对学生职业生涯和学术发展、专业网络和可转移技能有何影响？以及，(4)在线实习采用虚拟模拟的创新来提升实习体验的前景如何？这些问题将通过三项既不同又相互关联的研究来回答，其中包括对帕克·杜威过去的学生参与者(n=1,500)的分析，对当前帕克·杜威项目参与者的调查(n=2,500)和对当前帕克·杜威项目参与者的采访(n=50)，以及对STEM相关领域的雇主(n=25)的采访，内容涉及新冠肺炎疫情下的实习计划形式。因此，这项研究利用了大规模调查数据的优势和定性数据的更细粒度的“内幕”视角。这项研究将是对在线实习的第一次实证研究，并代表着对体验式学习和劳动力发展领域的重大贡献。鉴于在线实习和某种形式的社交疏远可能会继续下去，对美国高等教育来说，在这个问题上迅速产生科学上严格的发现是一个时间敏感的问题。这一快速奖励是由研究生教育司/教育和人力资源局的EHR核心研究(ECR)计划利用冠状病毒援助、救济和经济安全(CARE)法案的资金做出的。ECR支持专注于STEM学习和学习环境、扩大对STEM的参与以及STEM劳动力发展的基础研究。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。