What is a site visit?
Site visits are a critical part of your work term experience. Halfway through your term, your coordinator will set up a time to meet with you and your supervisor at your work site. Your progress, performance, learning objectives, future goals, and work report requirements will be reviewed. It's also your opportunity to ask any questions that you may have.
When does it happen?
You will be contacted by a coordinator at the end of the first month of the semester to arrange a site visit sometime during weeks 6-12. With the number of students in Communication Co-op, the visits are spread over several weeks so that coordinators can also be on campus to help students who are applying for jobs. If you are on an out-of town placement, you may get a visit from a coordinator from a different discipline (e.g. Computing Science) who is doing other visits in the area. If a visit is not possible, then your coordinator will conduct the site visit by telephone or email.
If any concerns or problems arise during your work term, please contact your coordinator immediately - do not wait until the site visit.
How do I prepare?
Each site visit is based on your individual circumstances but there are things you could prepare in advance. Here are a few suggestions:
- Look at your Learning Objectives on Symplicity and compare your progress to your original objectives.
- Think about what else you've accomplished so far, both in terms of hard and soft skills.
- Note any questions you have about your work term and be prepared to discuss any problems you're having.
- Think about what you might do for a work report.
What do I get out of it?
Site visits provide you an opportunity to discuss what you do and how you like it. It's also an chance to discuss how to handle certain problems and your future academic and career plans, as well as to see how to expand your current experience. It's also an important time to get some feedback from your employer or supervisor, and to discuss whether or not you can stay on for a second term.
Research suggests that it is very helpful for co-op students to pause and reflect at the end of each Co-op placement on what has been learned and accomplished before moving on to the next Co-op placement or study semester. This will help you reassess your skills and strengths, and allow you to acknowledge areas for improvement.
As a communication student, you are encouraged to be creative. A variety of options of what to include in your presentation will be outlined in the instructions provided to you at your site visit; what we don’t want to see is a dry, essay-style presentation or paper discussing “This is what I did on my work term”!
After being reviewed by a coordinator, your hard copy of the presentation and speaking notes will be made available for future co-op students to research the organization for future job opportunities. Because we hold onto your project, you should make any necessary additional copies for your own use/portfolio. Please let us know if your project is confidential and we will either return it to you or put it in your file.
Please review the following guidelines:
- Oral Presentation
- Written Work Report (only if you have been given permission by coordinator for extenuating circumstance unable to present)
Eight-month extension
If you have been asked to stay on for an additional four months, you will only do one presentation, which will be at the end of the eight months.
However, at the end of your first four months, you will write a blog post on one of the topics - work term stories; communication tools; industry stories; tips article; interview; or other which you can propose.
Please review the following guidelines:
You will receive detailed instructions by email of what you need to complete at the end of your four months.