The Information Systems and Operations Management Practicum isn’t a normal lecture-based course that you study for. It’s a course that allows you to take a step into the future and get real life experience with a real client and high stakes. In this course, you work in a team as consultants to a real company in order to solve a real problem. You have to understand the problem, create a project plan, create a solution to the problem, communicate with the client regularly, present your solution to the client, etc. Throughout this process, you learn how to communicate, you grow, you change, and you develop new skills through real experience and so much more. Not only do you have the chance to develop your soft skills, you also leave the course with real technical skills that you learned through your project. If you want to learn through experience and are willing to put in a lot of effort, this is a course that would be a great fit for you and one that you would gain a lot of unique & valuable lessons from.
This course is offered during the Fall semesters and is available to sophomores, juniors, and seniors—however, most students take this course during their junior year. Throughout the duration of this course, you also have the opportunity to receive scholarship money to put towards certifications in technical tools & skills. You can find the syllabus and learn more about this course here: https://practicum.web.illinois.edu/syllabus/. The Fall 2020 students’ blog posts about this course are here: https://practicum.web.illinois.edu/blog/