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Using Virtual Internships as an Innovative learning technique

Conference Paper · September 2015

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.3306.9286

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Using Virtual Internships as an Innovative learning
technique
Ana Rita Medeiros, Deniz Ìcen, Elia Alessandro Morciano, Marta Cortesão
Board of European Students of Technology
eliasalessandro.morciano@gmail.com
Abstract— Internships have become an important system to bring
students, companies and universities closer. It has also become one
of the first preferences of students when it comes to complementing
their education. However, in a globally connected world, mobility is
a great value, being required by most of the professionals. In this
way, the concept of virtual internships is being developed as an
innovative approach to improve European Engineering Education
(EEE). Board of European Students of Technology (BEST) has been
playing an active role since 2009 in the establishment and
improvement of virtual internships in Europe. This has been
happening mainly by two ways: i) the organization of Events on
Education (EoEs), each gathering the opinions of approximately 20
European students of technology on educational matters; ii) the
participation in both Enterprise-University Virtual Placements (EU-
VIP) and Promoting Virtual Mobility in Placements (PROVIP)
thematic networks, under the Lifelong Learning Programme of the
European Commission. Thus, we present the outcomes of several
EoEs in EEE conferences, disclosing the students’ point of view
regarding two main ideas: the concept and implications of virtual
internships in Europe, and a set of guidelines for the communication
between stakeholders during virtual internships.
Keywords— Virtual Internships; Board of European Students of
Technology; BEST; PROVIP; Distance Education
I. INTRODUCTION
As the job market becomes more competitive, attending
internships is more important than ever, as they help young
graduates to take the first steps in their career in a challenging
economic environment [1]. By providing the opportunity for
students to develop both technical and soft skills, internships
play a crucial role in bridging the gap between University and
Industry [2] ensuring the self-development of students during
their studies. Traditionally, internship programs offer in-
person opportunities to familiarize students with their work.
However, financial, geographical, and time constraints can
limit student attendance. With the advancement of technology,
students can make an immediate and measurable impact for
companies without physically being in the office, meaning
interns can work remotely from home just with internet
connection [3]. That is when traditional internships give the
way to virtual internships.
Since the first virtual internships in the 1990’s, the concept
has become more and more common among various fields
such as software development, journalism, engineering, or
fashion [3]. Virtual internships do not represent a great
978-1-4799-1908-6/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE 18-20 March 2015, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia
2015 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)
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opportunity only for students. On the contrary, it gives
flexibility both to employer and employee in the planning of
an intern program, providing students with practical
knowledge and employers with the benefit of results without
facing any office space cost [4-5].
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) around Europe tackle the
topic of distance education, where cooperation between
students, teachers, company representatives and even software
developers is essential [5-6] the same way as in virtual
internships. It has been seen as an opportunity to support
teaching in meeting learning goals and in homework tasks [7-
8] or to facilitate the communication between stakeholders [9].
BEST is a constantly growing non-profit and non-political
students organization that helps European Engineering
students to develop themselves, to become more
internationally minded and to connect a given standard
education to a self-development path, which could broad their
experience and their skills [10]. Since 1995 BEST has been
playing a key-role in involving students in the development of
EEE, mainly by organizing EoEs. These events aim to gather
students input on educational matters, which are then
transmitted to HEIs and other entities related to EEE. Several
Events on Education have happened throughout the years in
collaboration with PROVIP (PROmoting VIrtual mobility in
Placements) [11] where the students’ perspective was
analyzed and new input gathered. BEST has thus been one of
the few NGOs actively involved in the development of virtual
internships in Europe, addressing the opinions of technology
students as potential virtual interns.
In this paper an overview of the outcomes of several EoEs is
provided, disclosing the students’ point of view regarding two
main ideas: the concept and implications of virtual internships
in Europe, and a set of guidelines for the communication
between stakeholders during virtual internships.
II. METHODS
To bring the development of EEE closer to students, EoEs
have been organized throughout the years [12]. There are two
types of EoEs. One is BEST Symposium on Education
whereas the other is BEST Academics and Companies Forum
(BACo). Both usually last 7 days and involve 20-25 students,
BEST members, representatives from European educational
projects and representatives from universities. Unlike
Symposiums on Education, BACos additionally contain a
dynamic collaboration with companies, approaching the
perspectives of the three stakeholders in education (students,
companies and universities) through the continuous exchange
of opinions and experience. Within this framework, BEST has
organized several events on education throughout the years:
2005 in Rome [13]; 2006 in Istanbul [14], 2010 in Sofia [15],
2013 in Timisoara [16], 2014 in Gdansk [17].
In order to improve students’ involvement in EoEs and
consequently gather their valuable input, several facilitation
methods have been used. Most of the discussion sessions have
been performed in-group, giving the opportunity for both
individual and group brainstorming [18-19]. The Open Space
Technology (OST) has been used adapted from Owen et al.
2008 [20]. The “Learning Café” or “World Café” discussion
For that, in our EoEs students from the following countries:
Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany,
Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania,
Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, and Turkey, were asked about
their study programs and how internships are integrated.
Although data is not representative of the study programs of
all Universities, it can be seen as the trend of each country to
involve internship experiences in the students’ academic
curriculum. It was found that opportunities for internships are
not the same around Europe, depending on the university as it
is demonstrated on table 1, as most of the participants of our
EoEs don’t have internships integrated in their study
programs.
TABLE 1 INTEGRATION OF INTERNSHIPS IN THE STUDY PROGRAM OF THE
INQUIRED STUDENTS’ COUNTRIES.

facilitation methods have also been used to tackle problems

Integrated in Mandatory in
from different perspectives, adapted from Brown et al. 1999 the study some study No
[21]. Country program programs information
III. STUDENTS’ POINT OF VIEW ON THE CONCEPT AND
IMPLICATIONS OF VIRTUAL INTERNSHIPS IN EUROPE Spain X

The overall outcomes of the above stated EoEs have provided

Estonia X
BEST with the insight of students’ opinion on the
development of EEE and the establishment of virtual
Internships in Europe, identifying them as a way to close the Germany X
gap between university knowledge and the skills needed in
company environments. Turkey X
Initially students have also pointed out that grades are not
always indicative of the level of knowledge or ability to act as Hungary X
an engineer and most of the times the diploma is not enough to
assure employability. Extra-curricular activities are thus Italy X
perceived by students as an important and positive element in
their careers, since it is a way to obtain the soft skills that Portugal X
employers look for and that students believe are indispensable
for the profile of every engineer. Students strongly suggested France X
that companies should be more involved in the university
study programs, making it easier to identify what employers Slovakia X
expect from future engineers, and to have access to activities
capable of filling the gap between universities’ and
Russia X
companies’ needs [13-14].
Internships were identified as the most appealing extra- Austria X
curricular activities to the students, representing a good
opportunity to turn the freshly acquired theoretical knowledge Macedonia X
into a practical experience [22]. In fact, on EoE Sofia 2012 it
was asked from the students what they believed were the
Croatia X
benefits of attending internships [15]. The most referred points
were: practical experience in the field of studies; networking
opportunities; learning industrial working-methods; getting Poland X
insights into the corporation; adaptation of the students’ mind-
set to something closer to their future needs; profit (in case the Czech
internship is remunerated) and acquirement of new soft skills, Republic X
such as Time Management.
Romania X
As students seem willing to embrace the concept of virtual
internships as a bridge to the corporate world, it was relevant
to ask whether internships were integrated in study programs. Serbia X

978-1-4799-1908-6/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE 18-20 March 2015, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia
2015 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)
Page 263
Besides that, students showed that internship characteristics
differ in each country. For instance, the student in France
would do 3 internships with different lengths for up to six
months [15]. In Romania internships would usually last for
one year [17] whereas in Turkey they would last for sixty days
[15]. In situations where internships are not part of the study
program, students admitted the need to search for practical
experience, which demands a big effort but can reflect in
student’s performance in the university [15].
It is clear how internship opportunities are not equally
distributed among Europeans, hence new strategies and
methods are being developed to tackle this problem. Distance
education is one of these strategies, being approached in this
paper mainly as virtual internships.
In the search for the concept for virtual internships in the
students’ perspective, BACo Timisoara 2013 and BACo
Gdansk 2014 were organized. Students stated their perception
of virtual internships represented by its advantages and
disadvantages [16-17]. Results are shown in table 2. The
interest from students’ side was clearly presented during the
event, along with the need for a greater collaboration between
the company and the university.
TABLE 2. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF VIRTUAL INTERNSHIPS
Advantages Disadvantages
Mobility
Self-organization
Flexibility (special conditions) Lack of physical access (intranet,
equipment)
Different countries, and
economies Lack of social interaction
Access to university resources
Different time zones
No extra costs for intern
Limited subjects
Autonomy
Communication problems and
Company saves resources misunderstandings
IV. GUIDELINES FOR THE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN
STAKEHOLDERS DURING VIRTUAL INTERNSHIPS
In [16-17] both constant communication and feedback
between the students, companies, and universities were
identified by students as the key for the success of virtual
internships. In this way students were asked to explain how
the three stakeholders should communicate and what were
their expectations (Figure 1), as well as the importance and
impact of interns feedback. They expressed that feedback
should be as a service and that students should see the result of
their feedback
implemented during the internship. It is also a way to raise
awareness among companies about the needs and values of
students. Companies should present what they implemented
from students’ feedback to encourage students to continue to
do so,
as they should make direct speeches with practical examples
to show that their opinion actually matters [17].
These outcomes are consistent with previous studies, where
the use of students’ feedback has been reported as a mean to
benefit teacher professional development [23]. In fact,
research studies have frequently confirmed a strong
correlation between learning and teaching environments and
levels of satisfaction [24].
Using the communication model suggested by PROVIP for
the stakeholders’ interaction in a virtual internship (Figure 1),
students presented their expectations towards the different
aspects of this interaction. The following mentioned outcomes
can be set up as student guidelines for a successful
communication between stakeholders during virtual
internships.

Enhanced creativity by Limited resources

choosing workspace
Empowered diversity for
company
More place are available and
more students can apply
English
Learning opportunity
Building up interns professional
network
Fig. 1: PROVIP model of stakeholder face-to-face and ICT supported
interactions. A: students-university face-to-face interaction. B: students-
Slow process
companies ICT supported interaction. C: companies-university ICT supported
and face-to-face interaction [1].
Information breach In Fig.1.A, which represents university-students interaction,
the most referenced issues were: the high demand for
Low attachment promoting virtual internships among students; the need for
compulsory communication; the establishment of deadlines.
Participants also concluded that virtual internships should be a
Difficult knowledge transfer
part of the study program with the right to have a scholarship.
They believed that a professor–student close relationship
would be the best for the success of virtual internships.

978-1-4799-1908-6/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE 18-20 March 2015, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia
2015 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)
Page 264
In students-companies interaction (Fig.1.B), the relevant
factors were: the students’ connection with their mentor inside
the company; constant communication by e-mail, phone,
Skype; weekly meetings and on demand; clear communication
about tasks, problems, progress, reports, ideas, schedules and
the management of expectations towards each other to ensure
effective, friendly atmosphere. Finally, in Fig.1.C, company-
university interaction students though companies should send
offers to universities and those universities should look for
certain positions and specific programs. Participants also
believe that companies should provide feedback about
students’ knowledge and universities should ask about the
performance of the student. Moreover, it was said that a more
specific way of communication between the two was needed,
perhaps including specific people such as a mentor/teacher.
Students also concluded that universities should send
requirements of the internship program and transmit the
student complaints [16].
V. CONCLUSION
The presented work shows that virtual internships are
perceived by European students as an important and
innovative approach in the development of EEE by offering an
effective way of applying students’ academic knowledge in a
modern corporate environment, regardless of the intern
physical or financial limitations. It also became evident that
both students’ access to internships and their integration in
study-programs is not consistent throughout Europe.
Although students believe the requirements of virtual
internships would not be very different from the ones of a
real-life internship, there are two main suggestions drawn
from students regarding the well-maintenance of a virtual
internship. These are constant communication and regular
feedback between company-intern-university. In this way, a
successful communication strategy can be based on PROVIP
model of stakeholder face-to-face and ICT supported
interactions, which will facilitate the flow of knowledge and
allow constant evaluation of the stakeholders’ performance
during a virtual internship.
The collaboration between NGOs and market
research might play a key-role in the progress of EEE, as it
can help defining the stakeholder’s needs and facilitate the
establishment of strategies aligned with the globalization
vision [25], such as virtual internships.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
BEST would like to thank all the members involved in the
organization of EoEs as well as all the participants, partners,
professors and thematic network representatives.
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978-1-4799-1908-6/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE 18-20 March 2015, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia
2015 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)
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