DHE 400 Section 1 is a junior level course taken by Merchandising Management majors who are accepted into the Merchandising Management Internship Program. This 2 credit course will be required for all MM majors who want to earn credit for any field experience or internship opportunity. Enrollment for this course will be roughly around 90 students.
This course is a professional development course that allows students to prepare for securing a competitive internship in their chosen field by developing a self branded “package” containing their resume, cover letter, business card, and both hard copy and web portfolio. Students also practice effective interviewing skills (through guest speakers, mock interview exercises), business etiquette (email, phone, in-person) and are exposed to several networking opportunities with industry. There is never enough time to go into great depth of course topics in class, therefore incorporating more online activities, online discussions and virtual homework assignments to be delivered in a hybrid format will work well with the format of this class. The course content also focuses on professional
development topics ranging from students attending professional development
workshops on campus, conducting informational meetings and job shadows with
industry professionals, getting professional documents critiqued by on campus
career professionals and personal research on job opportunities which is all
done outside the classroom. These assignments can be assigned outside the
classroom and monitored online.
A large portion of this class focuses on the portfolio development piece. We will approach the development with “steps” carried out throughout the term. The “steps” will be discussed and shown in-person. A follow up activity that requires students to apply that step and develop their portfolio throughout the term will be carried out in the online portion of the class. Each step must be completed before the next class, so you get this zig-zag approach between in-person class content to online content and back to in-person class content. This will help keep the students engaged and active throughout the week between in-person class contact and online contact.
Some fun and new things I’m looking forward to working on for this class (thanks to Ecampus resources and support) are 1. creating videos with Adobe Presenter to demonstrate certain steps in the portfolio development process, 2. interviewing professionals in the industry about various topics, and hosting those interviews online to use for class discussions or even homework assignments. 3. Posting relevant Youtube and other online videos on my BB site. 4. Incorporating Jing (video creator) in a class assignment for students to create a profile video of themselves to include in their portfolios.
The only thing left to say is…time to get to work!
Sandy, you’ve clearly put a great deal of thought into how to make good use of the online environment and integrate the in-class and online portions of DHE 400. Your students will be the beneficiaries of your planning. Bravo!