What is a Practicum?

The practicum, is a three semester module (October – August), and is intended to afford postgraduate students the opportunity to exercise their creative,questioning, analytic, problem solving, and communication skills in a focused and practical manner, and to further facilitate deep learning on the Masters programme. It is also intended to expose the student to a real-world problem to allow the conceptual and theoretical work covered in the earlier modules, including undergraduate courses completed, to be put into practice. So,while the practicum is an applied piece of work, it is also an academic exercise, and is seen as an essential component of the Masters programme. It must contain a review of relevant literature as well as a substantial piece of primary research with appropriate analysis and conclusions. Students are expected to put into practice the theoretical materials as well as the procedural knowledge covered during semesters 1 and 2, and undergraduate courses already completed. The practicum should not be seen as an opportunity to undertake consultancy or other work for a third party.

Areas of interest can include:Business Development

• Start up investigations
• Consumer Research / Branding
• Marketing (not incorporating Digital Marketing
• Business Analysis
• Feasibility Study
• Strategy Analysis
• Consulting Analysis

Types of Practicum:

There are two main types of practicum.  In the first type of practicum students may apply for a sponsored practicum project. In this case sponsors identify, independently or with students, areal-world problem and students undertake research on the problem, identify solutions and where possible, prototype or pilot the solutions. The Programme Team will allocate sponsored practicum projects towards the end of Semester One. We discourage completely company-driven practicum projects with corporate deliverables and tight company involvement however company ideas and company support are welcome. The students must be responsible for establishing what work is done and how it is undertaken. In the second type of practicum students may identify a real-world problem and,for example, undertake a feasibility study for an original business idea that addresses this problem. If you are proposing your own idea rather than selecting from the list of sponsored practicum projects you should make sure that the specialist area you wish to study is covered by a member of staff at DCU Business School. You can do this by checking individual staff profiles, or archives of research working papers. Practicum proposals are normally approximately 500 – 1,000 words  Students who have Practicum Projects that are potentially exploitable commercially areencouraged to avail of the facilities of Invent DCU, the University’s innovation and enterprise centre.

Every practicum must feature the following elements:·

A Literature Review·        Primary Research·        An Applied Element

Karina Haugen, Digital Marketing Executive and alumna of the MSc in Digital Marketing at DCU Business School spoke to us about the Practicum module she undertook as part of her Masters programme.