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Teaching in Engineering Education

Innovative Assessment

Assessing Internship and Industrial Placement

Please cite as follows: Chan, CKY (2015). "Assessing Internship and Industrial Placement", Engineering Education Enhancement and Research Asia (E3R Asia).

Introduction

Many universities organize internship and industrial placement for their engineering students as part of their undergraduate learning.

Internships and placements are work experience obtained during the undergraduate years. Generally, both internships and placements serve the purpose of providing students with work experience. However, one may wonder whether internship and placement are the same or different. In fact, a small number of universities distinguish between the two terms, whereas some others use the two terms interchangeably.

For example, The University of Hull (Goodhall, 2013) considers internship and placement to be the same, whereas at The University of South Australia in Adelaide (n.d.), internship and placement are categorized differently, in terms of the level of supervision, the duration, and the tasks undertaken.

For the purpose of our engineering education website, we will consider internship and placement to be the same.

Although the organizations of internships and placements are often administered by the university’s career services office, faculty, and department, students may also participate in organizing the internship and placement themselves. Both internship and placement provide students with the opportunity to gain valuable working experience in the field that they have chosen, and to enhance their prospects for future employment and career before their graduation.

There are various types of assessment that can be used to assess internship and industrial placement, and they are often used jointly to assess the learning outcomes of internships and placements.

  • Reflective Journal
  • Report
  • Viva Voce / Oral Presentation
  • Poster Presentation
  • Portfolio
  • Logbook
  • Learning Contract
  • Survey

In the following section, we will present and discuss each of these assessment methods with currently practiced examples.

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