Course Title: Information Management Industrial Experience

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Information Management Industrial Experience

Credit Points: 12

Course Code	Campus	Career	School	Learning Mode	Teaching Period(s)
BUSM2215	City Campus	Undergraduate	620H Business Info Technology	Face-to-Face	Sem 1 2006, Sem 2 2006

Course Coordinator: Bernadette Welch

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 925 5827

Course Coordinator Email:bernadette.welch@rmit.edu.au

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

None

Course Description

The Industrial Experience Component involves students taking either 3-week full-time work placements or other negotiated placements, (see Student Guidelines) with a reflective follow-up assignment, or where students have existing relevant work experience, an alternative professional development project.
This component of the course will provide students with an opportunity to apply some of the skills of information/knowledge managers acquired in their academic studies, and to gain practical experience in professional information and knowledge work. The placement will give students a broad overview of tasks, activities and systems within the host organisation. Students will be able to select a placement which is appropriate to their interests from a broad range of Information and Knowledge Management environments, document management centres, archive centres, academic, special, public or school libraries and some non-traditional areas. Where a student already has some relevant industrial experience, this component of the course will promote further professional development.

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

Develop the skills required to work effectively within the work environment and manage the tasks and responsibilities associated with industrial experience.

At the conclusion of this industrial experience component, students will have gained and some experience of:
• the services offered by the host organisation, in relation to its clientele;
• the community or clientele served by the organisation;
• activities, processes and systems which support the organisation’s functions;
• the range of resources within the organisation and their relationship to the services offered;
• the relationship of the organisation and its service to other services and agencies in the community;
• internal administrative structures and staff management roles; and
• the strategies employed to evaluate the effectiveness of the organisation’s services and programs. 

Overview of Learning Activities

Placement Students
Students are required to undertake placement blocks of 3 weeks duration, at mid-year or end-of-year, followed by completion of a written reflective assignment (See Section G. Assessment tasks). Some additional time in consultation with the Academic Supervisor is required in this course
Students must complete 60 days (4 X 3 weeks) or the equivalent of Industrial Placement over the duration of their Program.
Before undertaking placement, students must attend one of the Industrial Placement Briefing Sessions (see Schedule of Key Dates). Students will not be placed unless they have attended one of these briefing sessions.

Academic Supervisor
Each student is allocated an Academic Supervisor who conducts individual briefing sessions before and after the placement, visits the student during the placement, and assesses the student’s written assignment.

Host Supervisor
Each organisation accepting students for placement allocates a staff member who supervises the student within the work environment and completes a report on the student’s performance.

Students undertaking a placement in either placement block must fill in a Student Placement Questionnaire Form (See Appendix A). This is to be placed in the assignment box by Friday 22nd April (for mid-year placements) or Friday 9th September 2005 (for end of year placements).
To assist students to identify their preferences for placement, an Industrial Experience Placement database (MS Access) of organisations potentially willing to place students in 2005, can be accessed from the RMIT Business LAN—on the G: /BIT/IM-IKM Programs/Industrial Experience. Students can search this database by topic/ course area and by organisation name.

Three-week mid-year placements start on Tuesday 14th June and conclude on Friday 1st July; three-week end-year placement starts on Monday 7th November, and concludes on Friday 25th November. Check Section F Schedule of Key Dates for further details.

Overview of Learning Resources

Provided on an individual basis by the host organisation and academic supervisor.

Overview of Assessment

Hurdle Requirement

Successful completion of the work placement