The Profcomm Center and You
The Profcomm Center is a virtual organization made up of students and instructors from the University of Arizona's Business and Technical Writing courses and has been developed as a model for analysis projects regarding professional communication technologies and practices. The organization is "virtual," meaning that it exists as resources and sites of online collaboration and as an online clearinghouse of analytical projects conducted by students in business and technical writing. Students' work in Profcomm courses will become part of the organization as a resource for other students and organizations in the community.
As a student in a Profcomm course, you will be considered interns of The Profcomm Center. As an intern, your coursework will be based on the scenario that you are working with The Profcomm Center on assigned projects. Throughout your internship, you will be expected to turn in memos, letters, and reports according to the standards of the organization and according to guidelines offered through the Profcomm site. In addition, you will write a proposal to conduct a final project as an intern.
Some Profcomm courses use the online Profcomm environment through a software client, Workplace™. Workplace™ is an online conferencing space with a shared whiteboard, rooms where you can meet and store files, your online class meeting space, message boards, and a variety of other professional communication tools. You might consider Workplace™ as your virtual office for your internship.
How Does the Internship Work?
In the first class session, in your orientation packet, you will receive a letter from your instructor welcoming you to The Profcomm Center and outlining your semester's work. If you decide to stay in the course and accept the terms of the internship, you will write (as your first assignment) a formal "Acceptance Letter." By accepting the internship, you will agree to meet with the rest of the interns and the course leader (instructor) at agreed times and to turn in all required work.
Your internship assignments will include conducting research and writing a proposal to complete a project for the semester. The focus of the project will be negotiated between interns and the instructor for the specific course. However, all projects will be related to the mission of The Profcomm Center and will, ideally, be published on the Profcomm site to become a resource for future students and organizations in the community.
At the end of the internship semester, you will create an application portfolio to apply for a position in The Profcomm Center (or for another position, if you notify your instructor). The portfolio will include an application letter, a professional resume, and writing samples from your internship work.
The Mission of The Profcomm Center
The Profcomm Center seeks to analyze professional communication technologies and practices and to include those analyses with the other professional communication resources gathered on the Profcomm site. Student interns learn professional communication skills and conduct directed projects that focus on critical analyses of issues in professional communication. The Profcomm Center values projects which address problems or implications of technology and professional communication. Internship projects may be focused on individual fields or organizations, but the analyses themselves should have broader applicability. For example, an intern in a previous semester conducted a project analyzing technology in education by analyzing one specific classroom. However, the project analysis discussed the issues in terms of the "Digital Divide" and made general conclusions and recommendations based on extensive research. Another intern analyzed technical assistance methods at the University of Arizona and created an informational "magazine" based on her findings. The report, however, discussed issues in using online and phone technical assistance and the implications of those practices for "customer satisfaction."
The Profcomm Center actively seeks relationships with organizations in the community for students to interact with for research and project ideas. Student interns are encouraged to pursue contacts they establish independently through letters of inquiry that explain The Profcomm Center and their internship. Student interns are primarily accountable to The Profcomm Center for all their work. However, interns are encouraged to share their findings and collaborate on research with organizations if such collaboration is mutually beneficial.
Members of Profcomm
Instructors and student interns are members of the Profcomm Center. There is a listing of members and links to professional biography pages for each member. Interns create that professional biography page as an early assignment in their course. Members also contribute examples of their work and other resources to build the Profcomm site as a dynamic resource for Professional Communication.
Acknowledgments
This project was made possible by a University of Arizona New Learning Environments and Instructional Technology Grant.
Profcomm team members:
Dr. Ken McAllister, project leader
Dr. Thomas Miller, project leader
Danika Brown, curriculum and technology development
Lonni Pearce, curriculum and website development
Ron Scott, website development and technical support
David Menchaca, curriculum and technology development
Special thanks for additional support go to Wayne Brent, Jean Kreis, Ryan Moeller, Barry Richards, and our TeamWave support specialist Brad Johnson.