The ILC is a job description, initiated by the student intern and designed in collaboraiton with the site supervisor and the practicum group leader. It should include, either explicitly or implicitly, just about everything that will be part of the internship.
Go to ILC Samples
The ILC serves several purposes:
- It helps the intern define what s/he wants to learn from the internship experience.
- It establishes communication and accountability between the student, the site supervisor, and Chicago Semester. All three parties have obligations: Students agree to do the tasks set forth on the ILC; supervisors agree to provide opportunities to fulfill the tasks and offer guidance along the way; Chicago Semester agrees to monitor the entire process to confirm that it is worthy of academic credit.
- It provides the framework for midpoint and final evaluations, which take place at the internship site. At both events, the ILC will be a major focus as the intern explains progress in meeting goals, objectives, and tasks as stated.
The ILC has four components:
- Goals -- These are broad statements indicating what the student wants to learn, know, understand, develop, or decide during the internship. Goals describe educational intents in a broad way.
- Objectives -- These are "mini-goals," chunks of a goal, or sub-goals, which focus on a specific phase, or particular aspect of the overall goal. They will be more specific and more limited than the goal but more general and abstract than the tasks.
- Tasks -- These are the smaller, very concrete units of the learning contract. Tasks are actions and begin with an action verb. Tasks are the many specific things interns do at the internship that together fulfill their objectives and goals.
- Evaluations -- Evaluation statements (one for each goal) explain how the student and supervisor will know that goals have been reached. To that end, each statement explains the following:
- Who will oversee the evaluation (usually it's the site supervisor)
- When the evaluation will take place or be completed (midpoint, final, weekly, before a certain date)
- The means or instrument of evaluation (examples of work performed that demonstrate a skill or an area of learning, a verbal discussion, a written report)
Samples: Sample ILC in Word | Sample ILC in PDF