Running online internship programs: successes and challenges

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

12:00pm PT | 1:00pm MT | 2:00pm CT | 3:00pm ET

Presenter

Kelsey Russo-Nixon, UNAVCO

Webinar Description

Click to view or download the webinar recording (MP4 Video 162.3MB Oct22 20).

As with many other activities, summer internship programs needed to turn to an online format to continue during pandemic shutdowns. This webinar will overview challenges encountered and successes achieved in three UNAVCO internship programs held online in summer 2020. The lessons learned can inform future efforts that use online or hybrid models.

UNAVCO redesigned their programs to successfully launch Geo-Launchpad, Research Experiences in the Solid Earth Sciences for Students (RESESS), and the UNAVCO Student Internship Program (USIP) to remote platforms, ensuring continued access to education, career advancement, monetary stipends, and community connections for the involved undergraduate and graduate students. This webinar will overview the online communication tools used, strategies for facilitating online programs, and the evidence-based outcomes assessed by an external evaluator. For well over a decade prior to 2020, these internships provided unique in-person opportunities for students from underrepresented populations to develop their technical and communication skills while aiming to broaden participation in the Earth Sciences.

Webinar Goals

In this webinar, participants will:

Be introduced to a variety of strategies for facilitating online internship programs, including fostering community and engaging mentors
Learn about successes, challenges, and recommendations for running multi-week programs using an online format

Logistics

Duration: 1 hour
Format: Presentations will take place through a Zoom Meeting screen-sharing session. The webinar will be recorded.
Accessing the Webinar: Instructions for joining the webinar will be email to participants the day before the event. Learn more about accessing the webinar.
Questions? Please contact Mitchell Bender-Awalt (mawalt@carleton.edu) if you have any questions about this event.

Resources

Running online internship programs: successes and challenges Presentation (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 27.1MB Oct21 20)

Show Ideas for online presentations for internships

Suggestion for poster session: Mozilla Hubs virtual reality. Can be used with headset or in browser. No software download, free, and fairly user friendly. Has an organic, interactive feel... much like a 'real' poster session.
We also struggled with trying to mimic the shorter "at the poster" conversations. After a lightning talk, we opened up for questions but it ended up just being the mentors/faculty interacting. We did have posters uploaded in advance and the interns pre-recorded their talks and they liked that
Our final presentations were moderated 12-min talks, done via Google Meet. They went really well and we saw a mix of parents and professors of our participants attending, which was really nice for our participants. Incidentally, my experience with a professional conference poster session in September was similar in low turn-out to breakout rooms.
We put each poster presenter in a zoom breakout room, and then let guests move from room to room for one-on-one interactions with the students.
Our final presentations were 12-15 min talks done similar to a webinar. We used the UCAR A/V team to help us. Students said their parents who were in other countries were able to attend and watch their presentations. Since it was a webinar (only participant mics/videos are shared), we didn't have to worry about those joining and their mics are unmuted.
We posted posters (pdf) and pre-recorded speed talks on website. In-person poster Q&A held with Zoom breakout rooms. Similar to Martin Snow's model but host moved people in and out of break out rooms. 3 sessions or 8-10 posters each (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution REU)