ABSTRACT

Internship as part of work-integrated learning (WIL) is a critical curriculum component in higher education to better prepare for the future workforce. To assess WIL, educators typically select authentic assessments such as reflective journals and managerial reports to solve existing workplace problems. Despite the academic discourse supporting the use of internships, a paucity of studies has investigated the role of formal assessments embedded into internship subjects. In this paper, we evaluate the perceptions of hospitality and tourism undergraduates towards the effectiveness of assessments as part of their WIL internship programme. Focus group sessions were conducted with internship university students (n = 29) in Australia over a cross-sectional longitudinal period of 3 years. Our thematic analysis revealed three key themes: authenticity of assessment design, challenges with work-study-life balance, and the level of industry involvement in assessment. This study contributes to the body of knowledge in relation to how compulsory assessment tasks can be effectively integrated into WIL internships to positively influence the experiential learning outcomes of students.

摘要

实习作为工作整合学习 (WIL) 的一部分，是高等教育的重要课程组成部分，可以更好地为未来的劳动力做好准备。为了评估 WIL，教育工作者通常会选择真实的评估，例如反思性期刊和管理报告，以解决现有的工作场所问题。尽管学术话语支持使用实习，但很少有研究调查正式评估在实习科目中的作用。在本文中，我们评估了酒店和旅游本科生对评估有效性的看法，作为他们 WIL 实习计划的一部分。在为期 3 年的横断面纵向期间，对澳大利亚的实习大学生 (n = 29) 进行了焦点小组会议。我们的主题分析揭示了三个关键主题：评估设计的真实性、工作-学习-生活平衡方面的挑战，以及行业参与评估的水平。这项研究有助于了解如何将强制性评估任务有效地整合到 WIL 实习中，从而对学生的体验式学习成果产生积极影响。