CMD Seniors Intern at eCornell

Mary L Kish, 1/4/2008  ·  0 comments

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Julie Tausend '08 and Nicole Zaehringer '08 have been working at Ithaca's other premier institution of higher education—Cornell University. Specifically, they intern at eCornell, a university owned business which provides a comprehensive online, professional and executive development curriculum in the areas of strategy, leadership and management development, human resources, financial management, and hospitality management.

"My position as a content architect is giving me a practical understanding of the production aspect of distance learning and enabling me to enhance my project management skills," says Zaehringer.  "I am learning the importance of meeting tight deadlines while ensuring that quality control standards are met."

The internship includes preparing eCornell courses for its online environment using XML and HTML coding to insert course content, links, images, flash presentations, quizzes, polls, discussions, glossary, and course templates into a course shell. The interns also perform course maintenance ensuring functional links, images, navigation bars, and templates. 

Tausend adds that, "Doing an internship at eCornell is a great experience because I hope to pursue a career in e-learning. I enjoy being able to apply what I have learned from my CMD coursework to my internship. It hasn't been difficult juggling the internship with my classes, and I enjoy working alongside CMD alum Brian Dashew because it eases the stress.  He understands the amount of school work I have to do. It also makes the work environment a bit less daunting in regards to working with new colleagues."

The course materials at eCornell are authored by Cornell faculty, with instructional design by staff learning designers, like Brian Dashew, an '06 CMD alumnus.  Both Zaehringer and Tausend concentrate in instructional technology in the communication management and design program, and like them, Dashew interned at eCornell while attending Ithaca College.