1. Virtual or Regional Domains
Adaptive Internships
Allison P. Selby, MS
Asheville, NC

2. Adaptive Internships
5,452,100
Traditional: Student is in same geographic
region and works directly with internship team.
Virtual: Student is virtually connected to site
and works directly with internship team.
Total Distance Education Enrollments
US Department of Education, 2014

3. Distance Education Enrollments
Students enrolled exclusively in distance
education courses
Students enrolled in some but not all
distance education courses
Total: 2,642,158 Total: 2,809,942
Undergraduate: 2,002,815 Undergraduate: 2,582,475
Graduate: 639,343 Graduate: 227,467
Total distance enrollments: 5,452,100
Number and percentage of students enrolled at Title IV institutions, by distance education
enrollment status, student level, control and level of institution, and other selected
characteristics: United States, Fall 2012 (Table 1)
US Department of Education, 2014

4. Distance Education Enrollments
Undergraduate students
enrolled exclusively in distance
education courses
Located in the same state or
jurisdiction as institution
Not located in the same state
or jurisdiction as institution
In US: Outside US:
2,002,815 1,085,223 824,919 20,014
Number and percentage of students enrolled exclusively in distance education courses at
Title IV institutions, by student level, student location, and state or jurisdiction:
United States, Fall 2012 (Table 12)
US Department of Education, 2014

5. Online Student Profile
Online student profile: Sample of 1500 survey respondents
• 68% identify as female
• 60% of the students are between the ages of 21–39
• 48% indicated that they live in a suburban environment.
• 55% are married or partnered.
• 51% stated they had no children
Employment figures: Decline between 2012 to 2014.
• Full time employment for Undergraduates: 48% to 38%
• Unemployment for Undergraduates: 27% to 39%
Frequently cited reasons to enroll:
• 24% enter a new field
• 19% the accomplishment of completing degree plan
• 14% underemployed/unemployed and looking for new job
Online college students 2014: Comprehensive data on demands and preferences (2014)

6. New Student Profile: New Opportunities
Adaptive Internships
• Create virtual and regional location-based internships.
• Increases potential for business partnerships.
• Provides a cost-effective solution for international collaborations.
• Accommodates the work and family demands of adult students.
Benefits:
• Students to continue to gain access to workplace settings, network professionally and to
develop samples to share with future employers (O’Neill, 2010).
• Dorp (2008) states, “Through remote internship and academic talent, contemporary business
challenges are taken up and business value is created” (p. 175).
• Developing online experiential opportunities through critical inquiry and reflective practice
creates connections to participate in international collaboration and further develop
intercultural communication (Rintala & Schrader, 2011).

7. 1. Have you been involved in any virtual internship pilots or
limited course implementations?
2. Does your institution have a virtual internship program?
Current Programs?

8. Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities
APLU International Programs interns can be engaged in the following:
• Board for International Food and Agricultural Development, a Presidentially-
appointed advisory board to USAID that helps involve U.S. universities in USAID
programs and provides counsel to the USAID Administrator on selected topics.
• APLU’s Knowledge Center on Higher Education for African Development. The
mission of the Center is to gather, analyze, and disseminate knowledge about
capacity building of African higher education institutions and systems, with a
particular focus on partnerships as a capacity building instrument.
• Conducting research on various
topics.
• Assisting in the implementation
of grant-funded projects.
• Drafting and editing documents
and proposals for funding.
Interns may be involved in:
Association of Public and Land-grant Universities

9. Virtual Student Foreign Service Program
The Virtual Student Foreign Service (VSFS) program:
The State Department’s virtual eInternship program for U.S. college and graduate
students, which is administered by the Bureau of Information Resource
Management’s Office of eDiplomacy.
• 332 undergraduate and 179 graduate students accepted positions (2013).
• 203 universities with students from a variety of majors including, mechanical
engineering, geography, computer science, anthropology, music, graphic design,
mathematics, education policy and library sciences.
• 315 projects available this year (2014) include work in research, computer
programming, graphic design, journalism, data analysis, social media, finance,
blogging, STEM, food security, public diplomacy and law.
(Ballenstedt, 2013)
(Ballenstedt, 2014)
(Virtual Student Foreign Service, 2013)

10. Bureau of Information Resource Managements Office of eDiplomacy

11. Virtual Internship Programs & Courses
Columbia UniversitySan José State University UW Madison
School of Library and Information Science
Graduate and Post-Master's Certificate
• California Digital Library
• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library
• Creating content for the Open Source for
Student Learning initiative
• Social Media Intern at the Santa Clara
County Library District
Center for Career Education
Virtual Internship Program (VIP)
• Pre-program training
• Skills Development Workshops
• Social Media
• Microfinance
• International Development
• Legal Advocacy
College of Engineering
Interdisciplinary Engineering 111
• Computer simulations that help
students learn to think like professional
scientists and engineers.
• MACROSIM, or Massively Adaptive
Complex Realistic Online Simulation
with Interactive Mentoring.

12. Undergraduate Internship Program
 Program is adaptive to either virtual or regional internships.
 Program requires a ten hour per week commitment (100 hours total) on site plus additional research project.
 Site placements have included small web design agencies, large medical institutions, and IT firms.
 Program is designed to accommodate primarily adult student population.
 The placements have been based within the United States, with one exception of one project.
School of Information Technology

13. School of Information Technology

14. School of Information Technology
TRADITIONAL
VIRTUAL
INTERNAL
MILITARY

15. Regional Internship
“I feel that all of the different
scenarios that I was exposed to
during this short time frame
were more than I could have
dreamed of. I learned about
different roles and aspects of
for network engineering,
management, planning projects
for upgrades, and security
measures an enterprise
network in a Fortune 500
company.”
Student Profile:
 Department of Defense contractor.
 BSIT, Network Administration.
 Regional placement in Fort
Lauderdale, FL.
 Co-location company, global clients.
 Company provides network, archive
and disaster recovery services.
 Student provided tech support,
workstation upgrades, research
on disaster recovery and server
upgrades.
Network Administration student, BSIT,
January 2014

16. Virtual Internship
“Both the NGO members and the
students came to their own
moments of realization of what
they were truly learning/gaining
from the exchange. From the
point of view of the students,
I could see an opening of
understanding of how people
operate in different cultures.
From the point of view of the
NGO, they were amazed how
these young people were able
to transfer skills like working
with WordPress and SEO, from
across the world.”
Student Profile:
 Retail employment.
 BSIT, Web Development.
 Virtual placement, connecting to
Pro-Business Nord, an NGO, located
in Moldova and their Peace Corps
Volunteer.
 Student developed Wordpress site
to promote distance learning
program developed for local
population job training. Initiative
funded by USAID.
Julie Frieswyk, Peace Corps Volunteer,
May 2013

17. Internal Internship
"During my IT Internship with
the My IT Consultant project,
I gained more confidence in
myself and my abilities.
I learned how to better
communicate my opinions and
goals, as well as a little bit
about the marketing process.
I now understand what it takes
to troubleshoot IT related
problems and I am glad I could
help the small business owner
by doing the research for
them."
Student Profile:
 Stay at home Mom.
 BSIT, Network Administration.
 Virtual placement with internal
group, My IT Consultant.
 A free open-source system database
designed for small business owners
to search for IT solutions to common
problems.
 Student served as solution
developer researching topics and
translating technical content to non-
technical audience.
Network Administration student, BSIT,
May 2014

18. Military Internship
 Our mission is to connect students who are actively serving or
are military veterans with nonprofit organizations that serve
military members and their families.
 Our goal is to develop internship roles with your nonprofit
organization. Information technology students can serve a vital
role in aiding your business goals while applying their IT skills
and gaining professional experience. It’s a great way to commit
to a common cause and develop new capabilities for your
organization.
 Regional or virtual: The internship program has been designed
for regional and virtual internships. The virtual internships
provide more flexibility for our students as well as for some
sponsor groups.

19. Tools and Methods
Synchronous activities: Hold weekly team meetings were via
instant messengers, VOIP, hangouts and online conferencing tools.
Asynchronous communications: Facilitate through email, discussion
boards, and the faculty feedback on the weekly projects.
Reflection: Weekly journals and status updates.
File Exchange: Cloud-based dropboxes and server space.
Camtasia and Jing: Video recordings for student presentations,
tutorials and archive.

20. Virtual Internship Boards
• InternMatch
• Urban Interns
• Idealist
• Internships
Upload resume>
set up profile>
schedule daily or
have internship
matches sent to your
inbox.

21. Regional Internship Boards
• CareerBuilder
• Monster
• Dice
Upload resume>
set up profile>
schedule daily or
weekly alerts have
internship matches
sent to your inbox.

22. QUESTIONS?
Thank you for attending!

23. References
Ballenstedt, B. (2013, November 6). Federal agencies welcome more than 500 virtual interns. Retrieved from NextGov: http://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/wired-
workplace/2013/11/federal-agencies-welcome-more-500-virtual-interns/73319/
Ballenstedt, B. (2014, June 23). Twelve agencies seek to hire virtual interns this summer. Retrieved from NextGov: http://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/wired-
workplace/2014/06/twelve-agencies-post-virtual-internships-summer/86989/
Clinefelter, D. L., & Aslanian, C. B. (2014, June). Online college students 2014: Comprehensive data on demands and preferences. Retrieved from Learninghouse:
http://www.learninghouse.com/ocs2014-report/#report
Digest of Education Statistics. (2012). Retrieved from National Center for Educational Statistics: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/2012menu_tables.asp
Dorp, K.-J. v. (2008). A premier European platform for clearing e-internships. British Journal of Educational Technology, 175-179.
Education: Higher Education: Institutions and Enrollment. (2012, September). Retrieved from United States Census Bureau:
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/education/higher_education_institutions_and_enrollment.html
Kaplan University. (2014). IT Internship Program. Retrieved from Kaplan University: http://www.kaplanuniversity.edu/information-technology/internship.aspx
O’Neill, N. (2010). Internships as a High-Impact Practice: Some Reflections on Quality. Peer Review, 4-8.
Rintala, U., & Schrader, C. (2011). Scenarios for virtual and virtually supported work placements. Retrieved from Make it work! Integrating virtual mobility in international
work placements.: http://www.euvip.eu/EU-VIP/EU-VIP/about.html

24. References
San Jose State University, School of Library and Information Science. (2012). Virtual Internships . Retrieved from San Jose State University, School of Library and
Information Science: http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/current-students/courses/internships/virtual-internships
The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. (2013). CII Internship Program. Retrieved from The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities:
http://www.aplu.org/page.aspx?pid=2957
The Smithsonian Institute. (n.d.). Smithsonian Virtual Internships. Retrieved from The Smithsonian Institute Office of Fellowships and Internships:
http://www.smithsonianofi.com/smithsonian-virtual-internships/
University of Wisconsin-Madison. (2013, April 26). UW to offer new virtual internships to enhance women’s interest in engineering. Retrieved from University of Wisconsin-
Madison News: http://news.wisc.edu/21723
US Department of Education. (2014, June). Enrollment in distance education courses, by state: Fall 2012. Retrieved from National Center for Education Statistics:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2014023
Virtual Internship Program. (2013). Retrieved from Columbia University Center for Career Education: http://www.careereducation.columbia.edu/findajob/cce-internship/vip
Virtual Student Foreign Service. (2013). Retrieved from U.S. Department of State: http://www.state.gov/vsfs/

25. Webinar: July 23, 2014 - 2:00pm ET
International Collaboration with Virtual Internships
In this webinar the audience will gain information about the implementation and outcomes
of this virtual internship project which was also one of the Sloan-C 2013 Effective Practice
Award winners.
This webinar is about Project iNext that exemplified an institutional virtual partnership between
Kaplan University, Information Technology School and a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV), Julie
Frieswyk. It was implemented to connect Information Technology students with the Pro-
Business Nord (PBN), a non-governmental organization (NGO) located in the Republic of
Moldova. The project provided excellent opportunities for students to apply their knowledge,
skills and abilities in an authentic context.
http://sloanconsortium.org/institute/webinars/2014/7virtual-internships

26. Biography
Allison Selby has taught in higher education for the last ten years. She has taught various digital media
courses for many schools, including The University of the Arts, Drexel University and Chestnut Hill College,
Philadelphia. Currently, she serves as the Director of Internship Programs, for the School of Information
Technology in Kaplan University. She chairs the Leadership Professional Competency Committee.
Allison is a graduate of Chestnut Hill College, Masters of Science, Educational Technology. She recently
earned a Graduate Certificate in Service-Learning and Community-Based Learning in Postsecondary
Education from Portland State University. Her current interests focus on high-impact experiential
practices and particularly how they can be integrated in an online environment. Her primary focus is
extending service-learning and internship opportunities for adult students through virtual solutions.
www.linkedin.com/in/allisonselby * 828-318-5082
Allison P. Selby, MS.
Kaplan University
aselby@Kaplan.edu
http://www.aselby.com