Course Outline
Internship Guidelines
Before You Start
- Identify an internship opportunity that suits your interests, professional aspirations, schedule, and location. With your prospective sponsor, discuss your responsibilities, duties and working hours. Is the proposed arrangement clear to you both? Will it provide college level experience and meaningful learning? Will it provide 120 hours of work? How is it relevant to energy and sustainability policy?
- Contact the ESP Internship Coordinator/Course Instructor, Haley Sankey (hjs142@psu.edu [1]) to review the proposed arrangements and receive preliminary approval or guidance.
- Complete the Energy and Sustainability Policy Internship Agreement [2]. Submit the completed form, signed by student and sponsor, to the ESP Internship Coordinator.
- Take all necessary steps to comply fully with Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) requests from your sponsor (if applicable).
- Register for EGEE 495. Because registration for this course is departmentally controlled, you will need to ask the internship coordinator to process the registration on your behalf.
During Your Internship
- Post weekly electronic journal entries (see Journal Assignments page)
- With your sponsor, complete the Energy and Sustainability Policy Internship Midterm Evaluation [3] form. Submit the completed form, signed by student and sponsor, to the ESP Internship Coordinator via email or the Dropbox on the course Canvas site. This form is due by the end of the 6th week of the academic term.
- Complete the other assignments (SWOT Analysis, Resume, Practice Interview, etc) by the due dates assigned.
Completing Your Internship
- With your sponsor, complete the Energy and Sustainability Policy Internship Final Evaluation [4] form. Submit the completed form, signed by student and sponsor, to the ESP Internship Coordinator via the Dropbox on the course Canvas site. This form is also due by the last day of class for the academic term.
Internship Forms
- ESP Internship Agreement [2]
- Midterm Evaluation [3]
- Final Evaluation [4]
- Cover Sheet/Verification Form [5]
If you have difficulty with the electronic signature portion of the form, follow the Creating an eSignature directions [6].
Recommendations:
- Keep a secondary copy of your internship journal. There is no guarantee that your blog space will exist forever, so plan accordingly. Print it out, or make an electronic copy of each entry.
- Create a contact list. Keep the contact information for individuals and organizations that you encounter during your internship (and throughout your career), for future reference. Ideally, you can reach out to these contacts for a reference or a job lead when you are job searching.
- If your internship experience has you learning new jargon, start a list of the terminology with definitions so that you can "talk the talk" when interviewing for similar positions. You can include terms related both to your work and your place of employment, as well any new "language" you learned while on the job.
Journal Assignments
You are expected to submit personal journal entries throughout the semester documenting the work you've completed and the learning that's occurred through your internship/project experience. You can see more about what content is expected in each journal entry assignment.
Why Journaling?
First, let's clarify, your journal is not a "diary"; it is not merely a log of what you did each week. While we want you to have a record of what you accomplished this semester, this exercise is meant to be so much more! We want you to do some profound thinking and execute higher level reflection. What this means is that the journaling prompts are not provided for you so that you can fill in the blanks, check off an assignment, and move on. You're far enough along in your educational journey now, that you should be experiencing some deeper learning and connecting your coursework to your life outside the classroom. The prompts are provided to help guide you to digest what has happened, analyze and process the learning that is occurring, and then share it with the world. When you're looking for a job and the interviewer says, "I see you did an internship, tell me about that", these prompts are designed so that you can say more than "It was great! I learned a lot." You need to not only be able to recount your job duties, but it'd be advantageous for you to be able to say how you developed as a person. The prompts provided were developed to help you think through how you're developing now, as it's happening.
In addition to helping you process the learning and the experience, the online journal will provide a record of what you encountered! Additionally, your journal can serve as a product that you can use to demonstrate to future employers and academics your accomplishments, approach to work, and ability to communicate. You may also find the contents to be a useful reference for future projects and research.
Journal Requirements
Students are expected to set up a blog site to journal about the internship experience. You can use sites.psu.edu to set up a personal blog space, or you can choose another blogging site. If you would like to use the Penn State Sites, first you need to Activate Penn State Personal Webspace [7], and then you can create a blog at sites.psu.edu [8].
Grading and Submission
Content
In addition to addressing the individual prompts provided for each journal entry, they should always also include the following information (as applicable):
- Summary of weekly events, providing details regarding your role and responsibilities.
- Personal Reflection:
- Personal learning objectives: Review the objectives you wrote in your first journal entry. Evaluate if and how your internship work this week is helping you (or not) achieve each objective.
- Summary: What did you enjoy doing this week; what responsibilities did you dislike? What did you do well? What do you need to work on? Are you learning anything new? Are you growing your skill set? Your confidence? Are there assumptions you've made in the past that are being challenged by your current experiences?
- Challenges: What responsibilities were challenging to complete? What are some of the roadblocks you encountered this week? How did that affect your ability to do your job? What areas do you need to learn more about in order to do this job more confidently?
- Discuss ideas or theories related to your experiences/observations: How does what you've seen/experienced connect to what you already knew? What was surprising, and why? Have you drawn any new conclusions? How does what you've seen/experienced connect with material you've learned in your coursework?
- Photos, links, PDFs, and any artifacts that help make your journal more visually appealing and will serve as examples of your work that may be of interest to potential employers. Be sure to state your role in creating or using the artifact. If the artifact is the result of a major project you were involved in, reflect on the creation process, quality and utility of artifacts. (e.g. If you created a flyer for an event, was it effective in recruiting attendees?). Include complete annotations for each artifact including date, description, purpose, intended audience, and your role in creating or using the artifact.
Grading
Each Journal will be graded out of 40 Points.
A detailed rubric is available to you on the Dropbox pages in Canvas. Below is a summary of how you can earn full credit. Your journal post must:
- be submitted on time - no late work is accepted and no "extra-credit" is provided;
- adequately address the assignment prompts;
- be cited properly (in-text and as a reference list), if appropriate. A link can be found on the Citation Styles page [9] of the Resources menu in Purdue's Online Writing Lab [10]; and
- be well-written and largely free of any grammatical or other typographical errors;
What do we mean by "well-written?" Your submissions should always be a scholarly piece of polished work. Your post should demonstrate that you've not just simply typed it into the text editor box as you went, with little regard for organization, syntax, or spelling mistakes. It should be written with the tone and style that is appropriate for college coursework, not a text message. In summary, it should be work you'd be proud to share with a potential employer.
Submissions
Submit the URL to the appropriate week's Journal Dropbox in Canvas by the date specified on the course calendar (unless you've established an alternative calendar of due dates with the instructor). Once your original draft is graded, if you earned less than a C, you will have the opportunity to edit your journal and resubmit for a higher grade.
For the journal entries themselves, please provide as much detail as you can without compromising any proprietary or private information. It is expected that if you adequately address the requirements as outlined, your post will be 800+ words in length. Please refer to the syllabus and grading rubric (in Canvas) for further information regarding the level of effort that is expected for your journal. In short, it should be a formal, polished product that you would be proud to hand over to a potential employer as an exhibit of your abilities and experiences. The prompts should be addressed in paragraph-form responses and the reader should be able to understand the prompts you're addressing without you repeating the prompt itself; meaning, provide context. If you can't address the prompt perfectly because your internship project/work situation isn't exactly applicable, use the prompt as a guide to think about what is relevant and what information you can include that a potential employer may find interesting! Don't be afraid to brag about what you've accomplished, ways you've grown, challenges you've tackled, etc.
SWOT Analysis
Required Reading
First, read through the article titled "Don't Rely On Luck At Work: Define Your Career Aspirations And Goals [11]." Once you've considered the questions presented in the "Don't Rely On Luck" article, read "How To Conduct A Personal SWOT Analysis [12]."
For further guidance, view the video and read the article titled: "Personal SWOT Analysis: Making the Most of Your Talents and Opportunities [13]."
You may have heard of a SWOT analysis before, maybe at your place of employment or with one of the groups you are involved with outside of work. The basic premise and purpose of a SWOT analysis is to assess potential growth and limitations. SWOT is the acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This SWOT assignment has you turning the lens back on yourself; what are your strengths and weaknesses? What opportunities or threats do you see when looking down the road towards your professional goals?
Part of being successful is understanding what you're good at, what things you need to work on, and what opportunities are available to you. While we all may think we know our strengths and weaknesses, somehow putting them to paper can increase our awareness of them and allow us to address each with confidence. After completing this exercise, you will have a strong answer when you are in an interview, and you get the age-old question, "What are some of your strengths?" or "Tell us about your weaknesses."
Personal SWOT Analysis
Complete a Personal SWOT analysis. You are expected to thoroughly examine your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats using the questions at the bottom of the page to help guide you through the process. Once you have identified your strengths and weaknesses, you can then use that information to identify opportunities and threats that may exist in the pursuit of your desired career. An easy way to think of it is this: strengths and weaknesses are directly attributable to you, your personality and your experiences. Opportunities and threats are less personal things that, while you may be able to influence the outcome, you don't necessarily have control over. For example, a strength would be that I have the ability to speak and understand American Sign Language. A weakness would be that I have a tendency to be impatient. An opportunity would be that 40% of the workforce is slated to retire in the next ten years. A threat is that corporate is eliminating duplicate positions in my division. (NOTE: None of this is truth, just random examples I chose in a variety of situations to help you better understand the type of information you should be considering).
For further clarification, asana.com (2024) describes Opportunities and Threats like so:
"Opportunities in SWOT result from your existing strengths and weaknesses, along with any external initiatives that will put you in a stronger competitive position. These could be anything from weaknesses that you’d like to improve or areas that weren’t identified in the first two phases of your analysis... These are external conditions that could be helpful in achieving your goals. For example, you might be looking at emerging markets, increased demand, or favorable shifts in regulations."
"Threats in SWOT are areas with the potential to cause problems. Different from weaknesses, threats are external and out of your control. This can include anything from a global pandemic to a change in the competitive landscape... These are external conditions that could negatively impact your objectives. Examples include increased competition or potential economic downturns."
Your SWOT analysis should be guided by the questions listed below. Be sure to incorporate any additional information you feel may be useful in presenting the SWOT analysis. You can use a matrix, [14] which may initially help you work through the analysis. You can also incorporate photos and other visuals if you'd like. Be creative and resourceful. Have fun with this!
NOTE: Feel free to do your own search if you still are unclear about the purpose and implementation of this activity. There are many great resources available to you.
| STRENGTHS |
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|---|---|
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WEAKNESSES |
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| OPPORTUNITIES |
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| THREATS |
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| ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS to consider |
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Activity
Present your SWOT analysis as a narrated PowerPoint, Prezi, or product of any other presentation-type of software. You do not need to personally appear throughout the video, but your voice must be used to talk through and discuss the SWOT analysis findings. You may choose a recording technology and format that best suits your skills and equipment. Please show the SWOT matrix you've completed.
For useful advice on crafting a presentation, visit LinkedIn.com/learning [15] to find resources and guidance on using PowerPoint. You have access to this resource with your Penn State credentials.
Grading
The SWOT analysis will be graded using a detailed rubric that can be found in Canvas.
Submission
Upload your file to the "SWOT Analysis" Dropbox in Canvas by the date specified.
LinkedIn Assignment
LinkedIn is the "world's largest professional network on the Internet," with more than 300 million members in over 200 countries and territories. (LinkedIn - Company page [18]). Its mission is to "connect the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful. When you join LinkedIn, you get access to people, jobs, news, updates, and insights that help you be great at what you do." (LinkedIn - About page [19])
The ESP program has an official LinkedIn page, connect with us and stay in touch with us there, post graduation!
You can:
- view What is LinkedIn [20]? (less than 2 minutes!);
- visit LinkedIn and signup [21] (if you haven't already);
- read 8 Mistakes You Should Never Make on LinkedIn [22] (Forbes, 2013);
- Check out The Ultimate LinkedIn Profile Playbook [23] by Hubspot
For this week's assignment, you need to update your LinkedIn profile. You should already have one in place from EMSC 302. Now you need to make sure it's ready for prime time!
- Create a complete, up-to-date profile. Include a photo, summary, experience, and Education. Add more sections if you like!
- Connect with me (Haley Sankey [24]) and Brandi Robinson [25]
- Join the Penn State ESP Majors and Alumni group [26]
You may also be interested in these groups:
- Penn State Career Services
- Sustainability @ Penn State
Helpful Resource
If you don't have a LinkedIn profile, for a step-by-step guide, review the Components of LinkedIn Profile information provided on the LinkedIn and Social Media page. [27]
Resume and Cover Letter Assignment
Required Viewing and Reading
- Log onto LinkedInLearning [28] using your PSU username and password. Then use the search window to find the "Writing a Résumé" course. Feel free to watch the whole course video if you'd like, but you are required to watch Section 1, "Basic Components of a Résumé" and Section 2, "Customizing the Basic Résumé Components. [29]"
- Read "Part II: Find the Right Job!" of Get Hired Now by Ian Siegel. Find the link in Canvas.
- Additionally, review the Penn State Career Services website on résumés and Cover Letters.
- Building Your Brand [30]
- Résumé [31]
- Cover Letter [32]
Résumé writing isn't what it once was; there was a time when you could put together your résumé, consider it done, and attach it to your carefully crafted cover letter and then wait by the phone. But nowadays, you are expected to customize your résumé to every position you apply for. This requires a good deal more time, but provides the employer with better insight into your experience, qualifications and writing abilities.
World Campus Career Services
If you think you need to wait until you graduate to take advantage of the services provided by the Career Services office, think again! You can always search for a job in the field before you've actually graduated. Many organizations will hire you (usually conditionally) if they know you're working towards a degree. So, it's never too early to polish that resume and practice writing cover letters!
If you already have a job, you can work with the Career Services staff to hone your skills for that next big promotion or create a road map for career advancement.
If you're looking for an internship, Career Services can help with that too! Don't be afraid to call them up and say, "I need help with X, can you help me?" If they can't, they will find someone that can.
Work with the staff in Career Services to get your resume in tip-top shape! Resume formats and norms are constantly changing; get expert advice on how to make yours the best it can be!
You can see all of the services they offer at the Career Services webpage [33] including:
- Career Counseling
- Career, internship, and grad school resources
- Employer connections
For this assignment, you will be job searching. You are expected to complete a cover letter and résumé. You can use the ad provided below, or you can find another job that you're interested in. If you use a different ad you must include the ad in its entirety in your submission.
Interview Assignment
Interviews can be the most stressful part of job hunting, and for good reason - an interview can be the most important step in the process of getting hired! If you're lucky enough to get some face time with a potential employer, we want you to be prepared! As you know, explaining the ESP program to others can be challenging. Add in other difficult questions, and then sprinkle nerves into the mix, and things can get messy quickly! Penn State Career Services says, "The keys to interviewing success are knowing yourself, researching the employer, and preparing for and following up after the interview" (2015). The SWOT analysis assignment will help you with knowing yourself, and this interview assignment will help you prepare for the main event - the day when you're in the hot seat, interviewing for the job of your choice!
You will be interviewed by an ESP alumnus. This is an amazing opportunity to connect with someone who has already graduated and may be utilizing their degree or pursuing grad school. You will receive an email from me, with your interviewer's contact details. Email them your job announcement, cover letter, and resume. They will respond asking, inviting you to schedule a job interview. You will be attending the interview via Zoom. You will need a working microphone, speakers, and web camera to participate. TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY, be respectful, and do your best. Dress as if you were going to an interview. Make sure you're in a quiet space without distractions. Be respectful to the person interviewing you and show up on time, prepared.
Potential Interview Questions
NOTE: I am providing these for you to review and get a feel for the typical interview questions. Answer them out loud to yourself (or you kids, or your cat, etc). Practicing the answers out loud is critical and can really help you better identify gaps in your responses.
The interviewer may or may not use these questions!
- Tell me a little bit about yourself.
- Tell me about your degree in ESP and explain how the courses you’ve completed will make you successful in this position.
- What interests you about this job?
- Do you think that developing renewable energy technologies makes sense? Why?
- Describe a failed project that you have been involved in at work, in your courses, or even with a local non-profit group, and explain why it was not successful.
- Why should we hire you?
- What questions do you have for me?
NOTE: Make sure your camera shot is in close enough so that it only captures your upper torso and face, thereby allowing the interviewer to see your face clearly.
Grading
The Practice Interview will be graded using an assessment and notes provided by the interviewer. You will be assessed on the following items: eye contact, posture, demeanor, self-confidence, grammar, use of filler words, ability to emphasize strengths and describe past experiences, and your skill in focusing on your ability to learn quickly. The following will also be considered for grading: appropriate message content, clear and concise responses, and thorough answers without deviating in a confusing or inappropriate way.
Additional Interviewing Resources
Penn State's Career Services Office has put together some very helpful tips to help you be successful on an interview. Visit the interviewing page to learn more about how to properly prepare, make a good first impression, and how to follow up after the interview. They have also listed some common interview questions that could be directed at the candidate, as well as some examples of questions candidates can ask the interviewers.
Lynda.com also has a wealth of useful resources. This business skills tutorial regarding good body language is especially helpful in ensuring that you are sending the right message, even when you aren't speaking a word! This snippet is part of a larger course called "Acing Your Interview." Feel free to watch the whole course if you'd like! Log onto lynda.psu.edu. Use your PSU username and password to log on. Then use the search window to find "Demonstrating good body language." If you have difficulty accessing it, please be sure to let me know!
You can also check out 50 of the most common interview questions (and how to answer them). [34]
References:
Infographic Assignment
Translating the learning and personal growth that comes from an internship experience can be difficult. While you’ve done a lot of this in your journal entries, the goal of this final assignment is to synthesize your experience in a short, concise way that others will want to review. You will be doing that by creating an infographic. An infographic is a way to integrate your experience and share your learning, growth, and internship story with the world. It also provides you with an educational artifact you can share on a blog, and even in Penn State poster expositions or competitions if you so choose. You can read more about the exciting poster opportunities on the "Sharing Your Experience [36]" page. NOTE: You do not need to be on campus to present. Your advisor can help facilitate remote attendance.
As someone who has completed several different engagement opportunities, I know there is much to share. An infographic will help you tell that story, but more importantly, it will help you reflect on your experience.
An infographic is a way to visually represent your experience in an interesting, clear, and concise way. It should be
- focused - specific and relevant information;
- graphic - graphics and images tell the story (fewer than 800 words total);
- ordered - the sequence should be obvious; simple flow paths and cues should guide the reader.
Please review the following video to learn more about the qualities commonly included in infographics.
What makes an effective infographic (2:13)
Infographic Deliverables
The infographic assignment is really a set of three assignments you will complete in succession.
- Outline
- Draft
- Final version
I highly recommend that you read through the entire infographic lesson prior to beginning, so you have a good idea of what the project is and how to approach it.
Special thanks to Hailley Fargo, Head of Education and Outreach Services, Northern Kentucky University for much of the guidance and information contained in this lesson.
Create an outline
The first assignment is an outline of an infographic about your internship experience.
Consider what story you want to tell and create an outline
Because you've been journaling about both your personal growth and your weekly internship duties, you should have enough information to create your outline and infographic on both or either topic.
Once you have chosen the focus of your infographic, create an outline.
Note
If you've received funding from the Student Engagement Network, it is recommended that your infographic focuses on your personal growth related to the areas identified through the Student Engagement Network (SEN) growth areas [37].
Contact me if you need more info on this.
Outline Details
The outline should address some of the questions below and include ideas for how you want to present that information on the infographic.
If you're focusing on personal growth, also address what you learned and how you grew through the experience. Refer to the personal learning objectives you identified at the beginning of the semester. Your journal entries should have spelled this out for you as the semester progressed. It's a bit more of an abstract idea to work with, but practice in expressing your learning is invaluable and will help you be able to discuss your experience in a way that is of interest to potential employers.
If your infographic is focused on a project you worked on or the internship duties themselves, only, then expand on those. While this option may be more simple and straightforward, it will be less helpful to you when talking about the internship at a job interview. In short, it's a less meaningful and in-depth explanation of what the internship experirence did to make you a more valuable employee.
Keep in mind that this outline is a large percentage of your semester grade, so plan to spend significant time and effort thinking about this and sketching out a plan. It is unlikely you will figure this out on your first try, so keep iterating until you find something that feels right. Feel free to send me an outline or sketch in advance of the deadline. I am more than happy to provide feedback before you start creating the final product.
Components:
Introduction
Provide an overview of your experience, including:
- Basic organization and internship info
- Personal learning objectives
Infographic focused on internship duties
Use the questions below to help formulate the outline:
- Which UN Sustainability Development Goals (pick two of the most prominent ones) related to your internship experience?
- What issue, problem or challenge did your internship address?
- What is the motivation for the work that you did during your internship?
- What communities were impacted by the work you completed?
- What tools, skills, experiences, classes, etc. helped you navigate your internship?
- What resources did you use to help you be successful at your internship?
- What were some of the challenges you faced during your internship? How did you overcome those challenges?
- What did you learn from this work? Did you learn more about an area of interest?
- Is there anything else you want to add about the experience or your project?
Self-growth focused infographic
Use the questions below to help formulate the outline:
- Which UN Sustainability Development Goals (pick two of the most prominent ones) are related to your experience?
- What learning objectives were you working on during your internship experience?
- What tools, skills, experiences, classes, etc. prepared you for this experience?
- What were some of the best moments during this experience? Why?
- What are some of the challenges you faced? How did you overcome those challenges?
- What did you learn about yourself from this experience?
- What questions were raised as a result of this experience?
- How has this experience impacted what you'll do next?
- Is there anything else you want to add about the experience or your personal growth as a result of completing the internship?
Deliverable
Please submit your outline, with ideas for graphics, as a Word or PDF to the "Infographic Outline" Dropbox by the date provided to you by the instructor.
Special thanks to Hailley Fargo, Head of Education and Outreach Services, Northern Kentucky University, for much of the guidance and information contained on this page.
Choose the layout
Consider the Layout
Now that you have an outline of what you want to present, it is time to choose a layout. As you can imagine, creating an effective infographic is a bit more complicated than simply putting facts and images together. The information must also be efficiently organized to demonstrate the connections between important concepts or ideas. There are several ways in which you can organize your content. Please watch the following video for some ideas.
10 Types of Infographics (3:50)
Your experience probably best fits into one of the following: the visual article, the flowchart, the timeline, or the map. But, you don't have to use these types, feel free to improvise, combine, or modify any of them to reach your desired outcome!
Layout Cheat Sheet
The image below offers some additional layout ideas for your infographic.
Again, some of the layouts shown above may fit your story better, but there is no prescription here, be creative!
Your experience probably best fits into one of the following: the visual article, the flowchart, the timeline, or the map. But, you don't have to use these types, feel free to improvise, combine, or modify any of them to reach your desired outcome!
Example of what not to do
Below is an example of a traditional poster. Most of your infographics should not look like this.
Special thanks to Hailley Fargo, Head of Education and Outreach Services, Northern Kentucky University, for much of the guidance and information contained on this page.
Choose the software
Now that you know the core elements of infographics, you may be wondering how to actually get started. There are many programs out there to create infographics, but most are not recommended or supported by Penn State (for various reasons). We recommend that you use PowerPoint and start with a blank slide. The following video will walk you through how to find and import graphics into PowerPoint. You will find additional tips on the "How to Make an Infographic in PowerPoint: The Beginners’ Guide [41]" tutorial on the graphic mama blog.
How to Create an Infographic in PowerPoint (5:49)
Other good options, but not supported by Penn State help desk include:
Adobe Spark [42] is part of Adobe's Creative Cloud Suite. It allows you to create a variety of graphic-based resources. As a registered Penn State student, you have free access to this software.
Canva [43] also offers free accounts. It has a simple and easy-to-use interface, and each item you create is downloadable in a PDF format. *Please note: Canva offers graphics and other elements for an additional fee. You are not expected to purchase anything in order to create your infographics. Doing so is at your own discretion.
Feel free to experiment and try different software until you find one that works well for you.
Design your infographic
Note:
In order to be able to use this in a poster exposition or competition, it should not exceed 46” (W) x 36” (H).
Tips for Designing an Effective Infographic
- Present all information in a visual and concise way.
- Cite all data and graphics.
- Choose your fonts carefully.
- Choose a font that is easy to read.
- Limit font choices to 2-3 different fonts and be consistent where you use them (titles, headers, text, etc.).
- Limit the amount of text. Each text box should contain a maximum of 50 words.
- Limit your color scheme to 2-3 colors. Use color to:
- connect your ideas, sections, categories, etc;.
- highlight the most important elements;
- direct your audience through the story;
- Consider the size of various elements. Size helps to:
- suggest the importance and relevance of various elements -- the bigger something is the more important it is;
- connect ideas and sections;
- direct your viewer through the display;
Examples 1 - 3
Example 1
Notice how this infographic tells a story in an interesting and appealing way. It may work even better if the background colors were used to divide up sections of information.
Example 2
This is a great example: It is attractive. The information is in manageable bits, and the road illustrates progression and connection.
Example 3
This example shows what you can do when you have a lot of information. It also demonstrates how visuals are essential in telling a story.
Examples 4 - 6
Here are some examples of infographics that may give you some ideas and inspiration! This is just a few examples. You can find many more with a simple Google search.
Example 4
This example focuses an audience's attention into the center of an illustration, using color to organize the learner's experience and interconnections. There's A LOT going on within this illustration, and the minute detail can make the reading of the infographic seem like a puzzle to untangle. While visually appealing, I wouldn't recommend using this much text.
Example 5
This example utilizes historical imagery and variations in sizing of both photographs and text to emphasize key information.
Example 6
This "top ten" list simply draws the attention vertically downward in a sequential series of steps. The simple display of color and patterning communicates the learner's message clearly.
Examples 7 - 9
Example 7
This is another vertical "top down" sequence that guides the audience with arrows and simple drawings.
Example 8
A comic-style infographic like this one is a fun and familar way for the audience to understand a story or process.
Example 9
This inforgraphic shares A LOT of information in a "light-hearted" way by coupling comic illustrations with tables and text boxes.
Draft infographic
Deliverables
Create an infographic DRAFT that tells the story of your internship.
Upload a PDF of the Infographic draft to the same "Infographic Draft" Dropbox by the date found on the syllabus.
Submit your final infographic
Deliverables
Create an infographic that tells the story of your internship. When it's complete, add it to your blog as a separate journal entry or as additional media for one of your existing journal entries. Share the URL to the journal entry in the "Infographic" Dropbox.
Upload a PDF of the Infographic to the same "Infographic" Dropbox.
Sharing Your Experience
Presenting at poster exhibitions is a great way to gain professional experience and share the things you are learning. Now that you have completed an infographic, there are just a few simple steps to convert it to a poster.
I strongly suggest you consider presenting at one of the several exhibitions on campus (listed below). You might be surprised to learn that this opportunity is not limited to resident students. World Campus students are encouraged to present as well!
How does it work?
You can work with the instructor to have your poster printed.
- If you’re on campus, you’ll deliver the poster and present it in person.
- If you’re a World Campus student:
- the poster will be delivered for display at the event,
- you will receive a copy of the poster,
- we will then arrange for you to present remotely, interacting with the attendees in real time.
Check out this 1:46 minute video showing one of our World Campus students from Florida participating in the 2018 Undergraduate Poster Exhibition.
Potential Events
- Student Engagement Expo [63]
- The Undergraduate Exhibition [64]
- Celebration of Undergraduate Engagement (CUE) [65]
Please do not hesitate to contact me or your adviser if you see any opportunities happening on campus that are not listed here that you would like to participate in. We would be happy to talk to you about how to get involved.