ITSC 2364 - Practicum – Practical general training and experience in the workplace.  The college, with the employer, develops and documents an individualized plan for the student. The plan relates the workplace training and experiences to the student’s general and technical course of study. The guided external experiences may be paid or unpaid.  This course may be repeated if topics and learning outcomes vary. Student Accident Insurance Fee $1.00 Prerequisites: Sophomore standing with B average. Course Type: W

Pre-requisite:  Sophomore standing with B average. 

Course Rationale:  Provides workforce training in the computing field. This course is included in the following degree plans including:

• Associate of Applied Science – Computer Programming
• Associate of Applied Science – Web Programming
• Associate of Applied Science – Local Area Network Administration
• Associate of Applied Science – User/Desktop Support
• Associate of Applied Science – Game programming
• Associate of Applied Science – Microcomputer Application Support

Components of the class/internship:

• Class attendance (16 weeks) – Attendance is REQUIRED and affects the student’s grade 
• The primary learning experience is your internship (up to 20 hours per week) to help you develop skills and resources to help further your success in the workplace
• You will need to be available to complete the entire internship based on the schedule that is set up between you and the employer (Housing Authority of Central Austin).
• Weekly Journals – Due at the end of each week (Saturday before 11:59 pm posted on blackboard)
• Weekly journals are a reflection what you learning during the week. Your reflections can be specific to what you learned about the job and the tasks you complete.
• Journal entries can be about yourself such as confidence you gain, or insight you gained.
• Journal entries can be both what you learned about the job and yourself. It is not uncommon for some students to realize that perhaps technology is not their true passion.
• Template is provided

• Performance Evaluation:
  • Final Evaluations will only be accepted from the organization.
  • Final Evaluation are due before your scheduled presentation.
  • You are encouraged to request a meeting prior to your final evaluation with the evaluator to ensure you are meeting the expectations.

• Internship Reflection Presentation:
  • Final Presentations will be given the last day of the class.
  • Classroom presentation describing your internship are mandatory.
  • Who/what company your internship was with and what type of work you were brought in to do.
  • Describe the work that you did.
  • Describe the work environment, who you worked with, were was this a large or small organization?
  • What did you learn? You should describe what you learned about the job/career as well as anything you learned which affected you personally such as “Is this the career path I want to pursue/”
  • Summary: Was the internship of value?  Why or why not?

Experiential Objective:   Real world experience with employers’ who do hire students out of this experience/opportunity. Their decisions are largely motivated by you and YOUR passion, dedication and commitment to your field of study.

Core Components of student final presentation:

1. Who/what company your internship was with and what type of work you were brought in to do.
2. Describe the work that you did.
3. Describe the work environment, who you worked with, were was this a large or small organization?
4. What did you learn? You should describe what you learned about the job/career as well as anything you learned which affected you personally such as “Is this the career path I want to pursue/”
5. Summary: Was the internship of value?  Why or why not?

Course Grading Guidelines and Consequences:

• If a situation develops between the student and workplace supervisor wherein the student is either fired or asked to leave the premise permanently, a failing grade is automatically assigned to the student.
• Unapproved absence from worksite or arriving late to scheduled classroom hours. “Unapproved” meaning without prior consent and approval from your site supervisor.  Late arrival means arriving past the start of classroom. Such incidents will have impact student’s grade. Repeatedly missing work whether excused or not, could result in failing the course. 

Course Objectives/Learning Outcomes:

The students will apply their knowledge and skills acquired through their major field of study in the work-force environment.  After successful completion of this course, students should be able to consistently:

1. Write/review and revise your resume.  
2. Apply interviewing techniques in order to interview effectively.
3. Enhance your chances for employment subsequent to completing the class successfully.
4. Communicate through written and oral media.

Class summary:

Unlike perhaps any other course you have taken, your grade is dependent on your ability to conduct yourself and work in an efficient and productive capacity with the employer in a real-time, real world environment.  The internship class follows a systematic approach of:

1. Preparing and/or improving the tools that will help you land a job. Specifically, you will be provided assistance in developing an effective resume and handling interview sessions more confidently.
2. The consequent internship will involve both hard and soft skill development. Your interaction with the employers and their staff are designed to be valuable learning experiences.  The goal of the internship is to help you transition from the classroom onto your career pathway.
3. Throughout the internship you will be responsible for weekly journals submitted to your instructor.  See above:  Weekly Journals – one per week due by 11:59 Saturdays.
4. Finally, a presentation of 8 to 10 minutes which describes the company your internship was with, what work/projects you were involved with and what you contributed to the team or company.

There is no textbook for this course.

Grading: 

Your grade is based on the following point scale:

Course/Class Policies:

Classroom attendance is required and missing the class impacts your grade – keep it to minimum. If you miss a required work, you will have an opportunity to submit it as a late work within 24 hours with 30% penalty.  Work submitted after 24 hours of its due date will not be accepted and will receive a grade of zero.

Academic Integrity

A student is expected to complete his or her own presentation.  Students are responsible for observing the policy on academic integrity as described in the current ACC Student Handbook, under “Student Discipline Policy, Section C”.

The penalty accessed will be in accordance with the current policy. 

Incomplete

The instructor has full discretion on awarding the incomplete grade. A student may receive a temporary grade of I” (Incomplete) at the end of the semester only if ALL the following conditions are satisfied:

1. The student is unable to complete the course during the semester due to circumstances beyond their control.
2. The student has met and discussed his/her grades with the instructor a week prior to the withdrawal date.
3. The student must have earned at least 70% of the grade points needed for a “C” by the end of the semester.
4. The request for the grade must be submitted to the instructor with the complete necessary documents.
5. To remove an “I”, the student must complete the course by two weeks before the withdrawal date of the following semester.  Failure to do so will result in the grade automatically reverting to an “F”.

 Freedom of Expression Policy

It is expected that faculty and students respect the views of others when expressed in classroom discussions.

Attendance / Withdrawal

Students are expected to work each week.  Regular work helps ensure satisfactorily progression towards completion of the course.  It is the student’s responsibility to complete a Withdrawal Form in the Admissions Office if they wish to withdraw from this class.  The instructor may withdraw students from this class if the student fails to stay current with the tests and lab projects.  The last date to withdraw for this semester is 4/24/2023.   It is not the responsibility of the instructor to withdraw the students from their class even though the instructor has the prerogative to do so under the above listed circumstances.  ALERT:  New state law for new students. No more than six course withdrawals throughout your undergraduate education, regardless of how many colleges you attend.  Students who entered college before fall 2007 are not affected.  Ask a counselor for details.

Student Files – Privacy (No labs required for this course.)

If you wish to use the Computer Studies labs to complete your lab projects, you will need to be assigned a separate login for those labs (see the lab staff on the campus you wish to use for more information).  The information that a student stores in his/her account in the Computer Studies Labs may be viewed, but not changed by his/her instructor for educational and academic reasons. Instructors have read-only access to the students’ files.

Students with Disabilities

Each ACC campus offers support services for students with documented physical or psychological disabilities.  Students with disabilities must request reasonable accommodations through the Student Accessibility Services Office on the campus where they expect to take the majority of their classes.  Students are encouraged to make this request three weeks before the start of the semester.  (Refer to the SAS Web Site for more information).

Communication

Instructors will use the ACC online Blackboard system http://acconline.austincc.edu and the ACC email accounts as the official communication system during this semester. Instructors can post lecture notes, handouts, changes to course schedule or assignments and your grades on Blackboard and can send all email communication via the ACC email accounts. Instructors will expect all students to check both Blackboard and their ACC email accounts on a regular basis. For information on how to log onto Blackboard and ACC email please visit the following sites:

http://irt.austincc.edu/blackboard/StudentSupport.php and 

http://www.austincc.edu/google/

Illness:

Any ACC student or employee with symptoms or exposure to the COVID-19 virus should inform their professor(s) or supervisor and complete the college’s self-reporting form:

https://cm.maxient.com/reportingform.php?AustinCC&layout_id=124

SCANS (Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills):

Refer to http://www.austincc.edu/cit/courses/scans.pdf for a complete definition and explanation of SCANS.  The following list summarizes the SCANS competencies addressed in this course:

ITSC 2364 Practicum

Tentative Course Schedule *

* Instructor will notify the students should any change to this schedule is deemed necessary.