Syllabus Information

1. General information

1.1. Aims of the course

This subject has the following aims

• Getting the student in touch with the functions and tasks of an information unit in a working environment
• Promoting the student's personal synthesis of the different previously-learned subjects and their application in the practical position
• Encouraging observation and critical analysis in a specific and limited environment
• Cooperating and team-working with other professionals
• Promoting self-assessment activities in professional tasks
• Becoming aware of behaviours with ethical implications and implement the principles learned in the educational course

1.2. Context and importance of this course in the degree

The basic goal is putting the student in contact with a real working environment. "Integrate the student in a learning context situated in real environments related to the professional role practice to develop. In this way, the student will achieve the acquisition of the necessary knowledge, information, abilities and competence required for its professional work in an specific labor market environment." This process is carried out in cooperation with the professionals in the practicum centres, who will act as the students' professional tutors. 

Brief presentation

This subject is a compulsory one to be coursed in the 4th year of the undergraduate studies in Information and Documentation. Because of tis relation with the professional world, it should have a key influence on the attitudes of the future professionals. It must integrate the student's action-reflection arch in all those aspects addressed in the different previously studied subjects. It has a very practical nature.

Regulations

Libro Blanco del Grado en Información y Documentación de ANECA.

Plan de Estudios del Grado en Información y Documentación: Memoria de Verificación de la Universidad de Zaragoza.

Real Decreto 592/2014, de 11 de julio (BOE de 30 de julio de 2014).

Resolución de 6 de julio de 2017, del Rector de la Universidad de Zaragoza, sobre prácticas académicas externas.

Agreements signed between the UZ and the collaborating entities (Universa).

1.3. Recommendations to take this course

Teaching staff teaching compulsory and basic subjects in the undergraduate studies in Information and Documentation, who complies with
requirements demanded by the Regulations of the University of Zaragoza.
To take this course, candidate students must have approved all their compulsory and basic subjects. This requirement should be required if we understand that the theoretical and practical knowledge previously acquired in these subjects is to be be applied throughout the internship period in the informative units.

2. Learning goals

2.1. Competences

After passing the subject, the student will be morecompetent to:

• Integrate knowledge, procedures and attitudes developed in the different subjects of the undergraduate studies in Information and Documentation in real application contexts.
• Develop specific skills related to professional practice, both those of a pedagogical and didactic, and
  personal and interpersonal nature.
• Get a better understanding of the characteristics, function and responsibilities of the profession they will practice at the end of their studies.
• Check one's motivation and ability to act as a professional. Assess progress and identify aspects in which the student may need a more outstanding personal or professional development.
• Detect, diagnose, develop and assess  the individual and group reflection processes that facilitate access to the profession.
• Identify and discriminate those professionals who are open and ready to address the changes demanded by the profession, 
  adapting to the needs of the labor market.

3. Assessment (1st and 2nd call)

3.1. Assessment tasks (description of tasks, marking system and assessment criteria)

The student must demonstrate that he has achieved the expected learning outcomes fulfilling the following assessment activities:

Assessment

• The subject can not be considered passed if the student has left the center 20% or more of the established hours (even if justified).
• It will be marked as any other subject of the programme (1-10). The pass mark is 5.
• If the internship period is suspended, it must be repeated in another call.
• If any of the assessment instruments (report, field diary, self-evaluation) fails or is not delivered , the subject will be considered not passed and the failed or not delivered document will have to be presented in the next call, without having to repeat the internship at the center.

Assessment tools

Final report

It aims to be a framework for the analysis and evaluative reflection on the set of experiences lived at the center. It is articulated through three axes: formal aspects, content and conclusions. In all of them, a critical assessment of the experiences lived in their internship period must be evidenced.

The report allows the student to integrate in a single document: the context and sense of the performed activities; the interpretation and reflection on the practices want have been carried out; and, the reconstruction of the knowledge generated in them. The student must therefore be able to synthesize and analyze the whole process, establishing the relationship that exists between the theoretical studies of the programme and the Practicum.

Finally, the student must make a personal and reflective analysis of the experience in which he should demonstrate its implications subject for  its academic, professional and personal education and expose the change that, after the completion of the internship, has suffered its understanding of the profession.

Field diary

It is an instrument aiming at facilitating the continuous and systematic data-collection and reflection by the student on the internship period.

It must be done every day and expressly indicated in the notebook. It is an instrument of systematic elaboration. The student must describe the most significant elements of their experience in an objective manner, indicating the situations, contexts and activities in which they have participated. All this must be accompanied by the student'a reflection and personal vision. It should not exclusively be a sequential enumeration of activities and a temporal organization of them; it must collect the questions, doubts, ideas, opinions, problems and solutions taken in each case, etc.

It must become an instrument of reflection for the student; therefore it is advisable to describe the tasks performed and the personal factors involved in it (motivation…).

This instrument may be subject to review and monitoring at any time during the process, provided that the tutor considers it appropriate. It will be delivered at the end of the internship.

Reflexive self-assessment report

In this report, students must show their ability to reflect on their own practices, recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of their performance, difficulties they have faced and proposing improvement proposals if deemed appropriate.

Students must carry out an evaluation of their experience: indicating the fulfillment of their work, reviewing the compliance and adaptation of the activities programmed in the initial plan for their effective development at the host center, and exploring the imbalances, the most relevant aspects of their theoretical-practical learning process, its compliance with their expectations, and its impact in their future decisions.

It will be delivered to each student's tutor at the University once the internship period has ended.

The assessment of the subject is:

• 50% memory
• 40% activity at the host center of the student plus report and marks from the professional tutor. (The tutor at the centre should fulfil and send to the academic tutor at the University a report or questionnaire (attachment 1 of moodle).
• 10% attendance and participation to tutorship sessions and other scheduled activities

The CRITERIA to take into account for the evaluation are:

• Adequacy of formal aspects: written expression, vocabulary and terminological precision
• Structure and organization of the different sections, order in the presentation of information, clarity, precision
• Synthesis competence
• Analysis and reflection competence
• Adequacy, opportunity and richness of the data provided about the center
• Description and understanding of the activities developed throughout

Global assessment proof

Same as point # 1.

4. Methodology, learning tasks, syllabus and resources

4.1. Methodological overview

Agents

Three subjects interact in this course: the internship student, the academic supervisor/professor in the university, and the professional supervisor in the internship center.

Supervisors have an important role in the student's learning process, as they are in charge of guiding students in the real situations and promote their reflexive thinking, showing the relation between theory and practice, and offering help to find the information that may improve their learning process.

During the internship period, the student will count on the orientation of an academic supervisor and a supervisor on the part of the organisation. The first one will be a professor form the University of Zaragoza, who teaches in the studies of the student or in the same university centre, and will be in charge of following the internship and helping the student. The second one will be appointed by the host organisation, and will organise the formative activities of the student in agreement with the Centres, Departments and Institutes.

Methodology

1. Group and individual tutorial sessions and assessment tasks. The tutorial sessions help maintain the constant interaction between academic supervisors and students, and allow the students’ monitoring during the whole process. The number and content of such meetings are decided by the academic supervisor.
   1. Individual meetings:
      • Both between academic supervisor and student and between the student and the professional supervisor of the internship center, whenever they are considered necessary. They can be held at the place of the internship or at the university. They may or not be subject to a previous appointment.
      • Visits of the academic supervisor to the host center.
      • Attendance to specialized seminars when it is considered appropriate.
   2. Group meetings:
      • Meetings with the Practicum Coordinator.
      • Whenever the supervisor considers it appropriate, he/she may summon his students in group meetings to exchange opinions or to put in common.
2. The development of the internship in the host center.

4.2. Learning tasks

• The schedule of this course does not depend on the Faculty Secretary. Whenever possible, it will try not to interfere with other teaching activities, articulating the necessary measures to facilitate the students' development of the Internships.
• The schedule is decided between the center, the student and the academic supervisor, in a consensual manner. The student must take into account that it is a "working situation" and therefore the labor calendar must be strictly followed. They will have the same vacations as the professionals of the center.
• The student cannot go to the internship center without the indication of the academic supervisor.
• The student must have supervision and follow-up of the supervisor in the center.
• Any incident regarding its schedule, the plan or development of activities should be immediately communicated to the academic and professional supervisors.

4.3. Syllabus

There is no specific syllabus for this course. 

4.4. Course planning and calendar

It is a compulsory course of 12 ECTS (250 hours) organized as follows:

• Presentation of course by the Coordinator of the undergraduate Degree in Information and Documentation: 1 hour
• Assignment of the host center and supervisors: 1 hour
• Presentation, initial approach and preparation of the internship plan with the academic and professional supervisors: 2 hours
• Individual tutorials with the supervisor of the University throughout the internship: 5 hours
• Preparation of the field notebook: 30 hours
• Student hours at the internship center: 200 hours
• Preparation of the final report: 10 hours
• Student's self-assessment: 1 hour

The internship can be taken throughout the academic year, either in the first or second semesters. The summer period (non-teaching period) will not be offered to take the course, with the exception of unusual cases.

Process and schedule of internships

• At the beginning of the academic year,  the list of centers where students can carry out the internship of this course [Practicum in Information and Documentation] will be made public on the online teaching platform (Moodle).
• The number of students per center will be one simultaneously. 
• A period will be opened to fulfil requests for host centres. This period will be communicated through Moodle and the department's bulletin board. The applications will be submitted to the undergraduate degree coordinator. [The corresponding document will be on the platform.]
• To request a center the student must be enrolled in the course and have passed all the basic and compulsory courses of the degree. 
• After the request period, the allocation of the internship places will proceed. The assignment will be based on the students' academic record, taking as a reference the average grade of all common compulsory and basic courses, and whenever possible, the preferences expressed in the request form by the student. In case of coincidence, preference is given to the highest number of honors, outstanding grades, etc. ... 
• A provisional list will be published and, after attending to the claims, if any, the final list will be published. 
• Once the allocation of places is finally published, each student should get in contact with its supervisor at the university, who will arrange a meeting to deliver its credentials for the center and perform the rest of the proposed activities. 
• Once the student is integrated at the center, it must completely respect and fulfil its operation regulations.

4.5. Bibliography and recommended resources

http://psfunizar7.unizar.es/br13/egAsignaturas.php?codigo=25724