PENN STATE - ERIE, BLACK School of Business
MIS 495: Internship: Ido Millet
Office (#292 REDC) Hours:
Monday
4:30 – 5:45
Tuesday
11:30 – 2:00
Office: (814) 898-6262
Home: (814) 825-6009
eMail: ixm7@psu.edu
Textbook:
Skype: ido_millet
None Prerequisites: MIS 430 (Systems Analysis)
Course Objectives
The objective of this course is to give the senior MIS major a chance to participate in a real-life
Management Information Systems environment. In order to gain the most from the experience, the
student will bring to bear most of the concepts learned in the foundation courses of the MIS
curriculum.
This course has no lectures, homework, or exams. The body of the course is composed of the
individual internship projects that each student will complete. Specification of work times and
projects is between the student and sponsor. The School of Business policies in relation to internships
are available through our web site.
E-mail:
Check your email at least weekly. Contribution to the MIS Internship Info Exchange discussion
forum on Angel may influence the grade for your Final Paper.
Academic Integrity Policy:
Academic integrity is the pursuit of scholarly activity free from fraud and deception and is an
educational objective of this institution. Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating,
plagiarizing, fabricating acts of academic dishonesty by others, having unauthorized possession of
examinations, submitting work of another person or work previously used without informing the
instructor, or tampering with the academic work of other students.
Grading Policy:
Supervisor Evaluation
Final Paper (& info exchange)
Presentation
60%
20%
20%
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Grading Scale:
93 – 100
90 - 92.9
87 - 89.9
83 - 86.9
80 - 82.9
77 - 79.9
70 - 76.9
< 70
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
F
Internship Proposal
All students are required to submit a one page Internship Proposal form, itemizing the internship
duties that have been agreed upon by the student and the sponsoring organization. An Internship
Proposal Template and an example of a completed proposal are included in the Internship Program
policy document available from the School of Business.
These proposals are due within 7 days from the start of the internship. The purpose of the
proposals, which will not be graded, is two-fold. First, they will give me an idea of what each of you
is doing, and they will also provide a basis for evaluating the "success" of the internship. Include an
address and phone number where you can be reached during the term. Include an address and phone
number where the internship sponsor can be reached.
Meeting with Me
Consultations with me through email, telephone, or meetings are recommended. This can address
problems as they develop and ensure you are taking full advantage of opportunities to contribute and
develop professionally.
Presentations
Presentations typically take place on the last week of the semester. Summer interns may elect to
present during the first week of the Fall semester. You will receive notice of the exact day and time
via email. If the message doesn't reach you, it is your responsibility to get in touch with me and find
out the schedule for presentations. You will give a formal presentation on your internship – 14 to 15
minutes in length (including 1 minute for Q&A). The presentation should give the highlights of your
project experience, from the perspective of what you think is important for MIS students to know.
Your grade for the presentation will depend on two factors:

Your ability to prepare and deliver a professional business presentation:
 Professional dress is not required, but could help in producing the desired effect.
 PowerPoint files of previous presentations are available on my disk service (ixm7)
 Videos of previous presentations are available for viewing on a YouTube channel.
You are expected to view and evaluate one such video. See Instructions on Angel.
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
Your ability to synthesize your experience into interesting and meaningful presentation for other
MIS students.
Attendance by all students for all (or a specified number of) presentation sessions is required.
Your presentation grade will be reduced if you fail to attend the required number of presentations.
Internship Presentation Guidelines
The order of presentations will be decided at the start of the session. Show up at least 10 minutes early
if you wish to participate in this process.
You will have a maximum of 14 minutes to present; leaving one more minute for Q&A. Practice and
adjust the scope of the presentation to keep within this timeframe.
A typical mistake is to spend too much time on background information. I may interrupt your
presentation and ask you to skip the rest of the introduction if I think you are wasting too much time
on that content. Keep asking yourself: is this important and interesting for my audience? Other typical
mistakes include presenters who:
* Talk about, but not show, data models, screens, reports, scripts, or web pages.
* Leave the audience with little sense of what you have done during the internship.
* Cram too much text on the slides, and just read that text for the audience.
With at least one or two topics go deeper than an "overview". Show and explain (slow down) more
detail (a screen, an ERD, a portion of a program, a proposal, or an analysis document, html code, a
report). In other words, teach us something.
There will be a computer and projection unit setup at the presentations and you must use PowerPoint
(no transparencies). Avoid showing live applications or web sites since it leads to too much time
wasted between and during presentations. If you want to show certain aspects of an application,
capture the relevant screens/ERDs/Reports in PowerPoint.
Expect a VERY low grade if your presentation fails to demonstrate preparation and proper use of
visuals. For example, if you just stand there and talk with no slides you should expect a zero grade on
the presentation regardless of how well you talked.
PowerPoint presentations from previous semesters are available from the "Internship Presentations"
directory under my disk service (ixm7) at the lab.
Watch and Rate 1 Internship Presentation Video:
Several past Internship Presentation videos are available at the following YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/MIS495Behrend
At least 3 days BEFORE the presentations, I expect you to watch one of these video presentations and
post an evaluation to the Internship Information Exchange forum. Be sure to “subscribe” to that
forum.
On the Day of the Presentations:
Name your PowerPoint presentation as FirstName_LastName.ppt (e.g., Jane_Doe.pptx).
If the presentation should NOT be made available as a sample presentation (confidential materials),
then name the file like Jane_Doe_Confidential.pptx.
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Email the file to me at least 2 hours before the Session starts so I can place all files on the PC before
presentations start. Bring a backup copy with you (or place it on your P drive).
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Final Paper
You will submit a well-prepared paper documenting the internship. Papers are to be printed on
8.5" x 11" paper and simply stapled (no binding or plastic covers). Organization of the paper:
1. Cover page - title ("ASP.NET at …"), your name, date, and semester.
2. Preface page - to include the sponsoring organization's name and address, and the internship
supervisor's name, title, and telephone number. Also include the dates of the internship here.
3. Table of Contents (and, of course, page numbers)
4. Introduction: background information on the sponsoring organization (keep it short)
5. Discussion – it is your responsibility to decide on a structure & content that would support the
objective of producing an interesting and informative paper. Your intended audience: MIS
Juniors who wish to read about and learn from your internship experience.
6. Lessons Learned -- what did you learn from the internship experience with particular emphasis
on insights that will help guide you in your future career.
7. Attachments (reports/screens designs, sections of code, organizational charts, bibliography,
Footnotes, etc...). Note: exercise judgment here -- don't just "pad" the report.
8. A self-evaluation form (same form as the one used by the supervisor)
Be sure to edit and proofread carefully! You shouldn’t follow the guidelines blindly, but you
have to produce an interesting and well-written report. No limit is set on the length of this paper, but
the minimum equivalent of 10 single spaced pages (not including exhibits, cover, preface, and table of
contents pages) would seem to be necessary. The actual spacing is your choice but should result in a
format that is easy to read. Your grade on the paper will depend on the following factors:
1) The quality, layout, and professionalism of the written presentation
a) Expect severe grade penalties for spelling mistakes. Search for and check for all cases of
typical spelling mistakes (then <> than, their <> there, to <> too).
b) Read again your paper and look for opportunities to simplify and improve the writing. For
example, instead of “… is able to be developed…”  “ … can be developed…”
c) Add images when the discussion related to something visual (at least in some cases)
d) Add code snippet and explanation when the discussion relates to code (at least in some cases).
e) When reasonable, insert images and code snippets in line with the text instead of as
Attachments. The idea is to avoid forcing the reader to alternate between pages.
2) The extent to which you synthesized your experience into interesting and meaningful insights for
other MIS students.
3) The extent to which the paper (and my judgment) indicates you have tried and succeeded in
turning the internship into a productive and meaningful experience (given the circumstances).
4) Your contributions to the email Information Exchange.
Final papers are due by 4:00 PM on the first day (Monday) of Final Exams week.
Note: for Summer interns who elect to present during the first week of the Fall semester, the final
paper is due on the day of presentations.
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Summary of Requirements
1. One page Internship Proposal: Due 7 days from start of internship.
2. Contributions to the e-mail Information Exchange Forum . You are required to subscribe to
that forum so that new messages are automatically emailed to you.
3. Attendance and evaluation of at least 10 intern presentations (or a complete session).
4. Evaluation of 1 video recording of a prior internship presentation (at least 3 days before your
presentation).
5. Presentation, as scheduled.
6. Evaluation Form from the sponsor. The form is mailed directly to the sponsor by the school of
business. However, it is your responsibility to make sure the sponsor remembers to send it back
on time. The form is due by the first day of finals. As this is the only proof that I have that you
actually completed the internship, no form - no grade!
Note: Late forms lead to deferred grades, which turn into a failed grade beyond a certain point.
7. Final Paper: on 1st day of Final Exams week at noon
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