Beyond Campus Walls: Virginia Tech Engineering Online’s Pioneering Remote Internship Transcending Disciplines and Borders

Virginia Tech Engineering Online (VTEO) and the Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) graduate program at the VT School of Education joined forces with the EPIC Education Foundation (EPIC) Spring semester 2023 to provide a unique remote internship opportunity for students. Led by Dr. Alicia Johnson, Director of VTEO, Dr. Glen Holmes, faculty sponsor, John Dunavan, Peer Tree, Principal industry partner, and Dr. Charles Camarda, VT College of Engineering (COE) alumnus and retired NASA astronaut, the partnership offered groundbreaking collaboration and an authentic experience for IDT doctoral students to assist Dr. Camarda’s EPIC Foundation in refining its educational program.

The students’ primary task was to develop a multimedia presentation that would effectively introduce educators to EPIC's educational program, "EPIC Challenges." EPIC believes in integrating challenge-based learning at all levels of education, fostering collaborative problem-solving skills, rapid prototyping, and embracing a "fail fast and often" philosophy to drive innovative solutions. The hands-on experience included various aspects of instructional design, including front-end analysis, creating personas, scripting, storyboarding, and prototyping. By adhering to the agile model methodology, the teams delivered project milestones to EPIC every two weeks, showcasing their progress and incorporating subject matter expertise.

The impact of this collaboration has not only provided valuable real-world experience for the graduate students but has also proven to extend beyond the confines of Virginia Tech. Moving forward, the most recent benefit extends to VTEO design team developer and IDT doctoral student Bryce Kayanuma, who will accompany Dr. Camarda's team in New Delhi, India and Kennedy Space Center where the EPIC program workshops will take place. By bridging the gap between academia and industry, the collaborative internship initiated by VTEO and EPIC sets a remarkable precedent for future global collaboration between academia and real-world problem solving, benefiting both students, academia, industry, and the global community at large.