OnStage offers efficiency, archiving, and more
Before the web-based portal OnStage was used at the HU, each lecturer and internship coordinator had their own system for monitoring the process of internship and graduation. The students' files could only be found with the lecturers themselves and the coordinators filled out a printout in their own way to maintain an overview. There was a need for a system to archive the delivered (end) products and to make progress more transparent. In addition, there was a need for a job board where organizations can manage their vacancies for internships themselves. So that became OnStage. For this article, several people were interviewed about their experiences with implementing this system.
Arjan: “Insight and progress are now visible in OnStage”
Arjan Kroon, Internship Coordinator Communication and Multimedia Design (CMD) at the FCJ, was asked three years ago to take a look and make proposals about the structure of the OnStage program and the process templates. The implementation process was difficult in the beginning and there was some resistance in the workplace, because why did things have to be different? Arjan found that phase pleasant; the participation of teachers was well taken into account.
“Where access was previously lacking, it is now available in OnStage. It's accessible and easy to fill it out,” says Arjan about the benefits.
But there are also areas for improvement:
“The program offers so many possibilities; we're not fully using that space yet. More customization is needed. With the limitation of the process templates at the faculty level compared to the possibilities of the Onstage program, we are now throwing the baby out with the bathwater. So give more space to the ability to modify templates and make it perfect.”
The discrepancy between the study manual and the options in OnStage is therefore another point for improvement, but Arjan states that it is a nice system and he would certainly not want to go back to everyone's own way of working.
Serena: “Everything is in one place and everything is digital”
OnStage started last September at the practice office for the Institute of Law. Serena van Lierop, working as coordinator, talks about her experiences so far:
“Where we used to have the contracts and papers on paper, the contracts were still sent to the organizations and the vacancies were sent via e-mail, there is now a system where we can store everything digitally. At a glance, we can now see how a student is doing.”
After letting go of her own way of working and opening up to the new system, she quickly saw the benefits.
“Everything is in one place and everything is digital. The preliminary phase is very clear. For the guidance process, I sometimes still miss a manual. We report this to the key user and that is also well addressed,” says Serena. All in all, it's more the new way of working that her colleagues and students are still getting used to, because the reactions about OnStage as a system have been positive.
Rob: “The entire process is carefully listened to, thought along and supervised”
Rob Niekel is a chemistry teacher and does the internship and graduation coordination for the Chemical Research & Development specialization. A year ago, he became involved with OnStage, where he was asked to help devise process templates.
“In the beginning, internship coordinators lacked the need to switch to a new system. They were used to their own way of working. If a system is then imposed by the faculty, it takes some getting used to. But I find the implementation, which is still underway, pleasant. People listen carefully, think along and guide the entire process. It's a clear system where everything is now stored in a central location and you no longer have to email all days before everything is in order,” says Rob.
The institute does have to deal with companies that require students and teachers to sign confidentiality agreements, which has consequences for the collection of data on OnStage.
“This is now being taken into account in the templates, which is a very positive point,” says Rob.
The lecturers and internship coordinators were enthusiastic about the implementation and the first students at his institute will start working with OnStage in February.
Arie: “Happy with OnStage as a system with a few more improvements for the future”
Finally, I speak to Arie Groenenboom, internship coordinator for the third-year internships at the institute for ICT and OnStage leader within the institute. Last school year, Arie was involved in OnStage's simulation sessions at the FNT.
“We started the preliminary phase in May and the guidance process in September. We were well supported in the implementation by OnStage's practice office and functional management, because in the beginning it was difficult to understand how it worked properly,” says Arie.
He mentions the advantages of archiving documents, less e-mail traffic around internships and having insight into the status of different internships. There are also a few areas for improvement:
“During the first round of use, there was a struggle with the use of 'Digital Assessment', whose method caused confusion among internship teachers. Fortunately, that has now been remedied. A second point is that OnStage is not intuitively clear to users. With modern internet applications, users are used to not reading instructions or only superficially, which is why mistakes are made. This can largely be solved by modifying various labels.”
Arie is happy with OnStage as a system where everything about the internship can be handled, but a few more steps can be taken to increase user-friendliness.
In short, the experience is that going through the entire internship process has become a lot easier with the arrival of OnStage. Students who already work with OnStage are also satisfied. With OnStage, everything is now centrally located and all documents are digitally archived, fully accredited. This way, you can work more efficiently. However, there are still a few areas for improvement that can make the system even more user-friendly.
Interview by Evelien Pleging with Arjan Kroon, Serena van Lierop, Rob Niekel and Arie Groenenboom.