CEWIL Resource Hub: Field Placement at Brock University

Before each placement, the internship coordinator meets with each student to gauge their interests and set appropriate expectations for the placement. Students may enter this meeting with an idea for their placement or an interest in working for specific companies, though the internship coordinator may also encourage them to consider different placements based on their skills, interests, and needs. The internship coordinator ultimately completes the student-partner match.

From a program-level perspective, the IASC and GAME programs are designed to blend theory and practice, and to give students skills they can apply to any career. Students are encouraged to think about how theory can inform and improve design and production practices, and partners report that these guiding principles are evident in students’ work. 

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Key success factors

  • The placement’s strong focus on relationship building and management yields positive results for students, partners, and the institution.  
  • 80 hours is an ideal placement length because it strikes a balance between accessibility for students and value for both the student and the partner. The hours students spend with their partners are impactful without necessitating a full-time immersion into the partner’s organization, which is riskier and demands more resources.  
  • Regular consultation with partners about the industry’s changing needs and student interests allows for tailored placements that are more successful than they would be otherwise. 

Unique characteristics

  • This placement is situated within a program that’s focused on peering into the future, anticipating what might lie ahead for digital media, and understanding its impact on people’s lives. It involves teaching formal practices in a domain that’s changing as it’s being taught, so the need to keep up with trends in industry and pedagogy to stay relevant is more pressing than it might be in other disciplines. 
  • The placement cross-threads with other courses in which industry experts are featured. This means that students have greater access and exposure to placement opportunities. 

Challenges

  • Managing the placements is very labour-intensive, and there’s no replacement for active management of the program. Funding for additional support of program administration is difficult to secure. 
  • Encouraging students to manage aspects of the placement themselves and giving them room to navigate yields better results than simply directing them. 
  • It’s important to suggest cross-disciplinary, tangentially related placement options to students. It’s also crucial to encourage and source “expert” placements, where students are sharing their knowledge/skill rather than coming in and simply receiving knowledge/skill from others. 

Resources

Key characteristics

  • Type: Field placement
  • Year program was established: 2007
  • Number of students per year: 30
  • Number of employers/partners per year: 8-13
  • Programs/academic disciplines participating: Interactive Arts and Science (IASC) and GAME program
  • Duration of experience: 80 hours
  • Submitted by: Koreen McCullough