Faculty and Graduate Student Practicum/Internship Experiences and Challenges in Digital Environments during the COVID Pandemic: A Qualitative Instrumental Case Study

The COVID pandemic was an unprecedented event declared a worldwide pandemic in March 2020, which caused a disruption among the graduate students and faculty instructors of colleges and universities nationwide. The purpose of this instrumental qualitative case study was to explore the challenges brought about by the phenomenon faced by faculty supervising graduate student practicums and internships, and barriers associated with graduate students self-directed learning when limited to digital environments during the COVID pandemic. More specifically, this case study focused on the aforementioned challenges and barriers within a private university's graduate programs located in South Central Texas. Analysis of the data revealed five themes, which helped to identify and understand the graduate-level instructional impediments in supervising graduate students during practicums/internships, and their barriers to effectively engage in self-directed learning. The abrupt shift toward a digital platform did not allow for proper digital development to occur, resulting in graduate students having a dissatisfactory experience with their practicums and internships. A best practices model was developed to provide a plan for shifting to a digital learning platform, addressing the major challenges attained through this research. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]