The Role of the Virtual Facilitator's Supervisory Style on Virtual Internship Learning: A Phenomenological Inquiry

The aim of this study is to assess the influence of virtual facilitators’ supervisory styles in the virtual intern contingencies, environmental contingencies, and the intern’s motivation, satisfaction and learning, particularly in the hospitality management program. In this phenomenological study, twenty students who completed their internship remotely and met with their supervisor once a week for synchronous sessions, as well as five virtual internship facilitators who all had a lot of experience with interns but none had ever had to supervise interns remotely, were interviewed one-on-one via the digital platform Zoom. The recordings were then transcribed and analyzed. The key findings of the study agreed well with literature as to how virtual internships benefit student interns (Aarons, 2019; Seyitolu & Yirik, 2015). The experience allowed learners to achieve work experience while developing basic and specific skills. Even though study's findings are restricted in their comprehensiveness given the small sample size, they did reveal some insights into virtual internships and their significance to stakeholders.