Designing for mediational transition and learning through simulation: a task analysis of knowledge transformation

This chapter investigates learning possibilities of a learning design in a university setting. The course ICT pedagogics in organisations is an example of the learning design ‘learning through practice’. It aims to facilitate students’ knowledge transformation, employability and substantial engagement. The chapter examines three challenges related to learning at university: the academic challenge (how to involve and support learning to understand and use the different knowledge forms of a discipline); the employability challenge (raising students’ awareness of future work opportunities); and the substantial engagement challenge (supporting students in relating personally to their subjects and engaging them in discovering, questioning and creating knowledge). The learning design is based on a framework where the academic learning objectives are transformed into knowledge for the workplace. Learning tasks are formulated which simulate the use of knowledge from the workplace. The chapter analyses the learning tasks and their opportunities for knowledge transformation related to the tasks’ domain, activity and life settings. Finally, the chapter presents an evaluation of the course, with particular focus on the learning possibilities as regards the three challenges. Design principles for the learning design are presented.