Abstract:

Work integrated learning (WIL) in its various forms (e.g., placement, internship, apprenticeships, client-based projects, mentoring, and simulated learning) has been key to students’ transition from higher education to professional practice. WIL is a term that describes a range of approaches that integrate theory and practice within a deliberately designed program. During the pandemic, due to restrictions and the closure of many enterprises, placing students in workplaces was not possible. Universities responded to these challenges by mobilizing staff, engaging industry partners, and taking WIL online. Some online interventions introduced major program changes while maintaining a high quality of learning, but other interventions were less successful. In this paper the focus is on uncovering the principles underpinning successful online WIL by addressing the research question: What enables or constrains online WIL in professional education? Legitimation Code Theory’s (LCT) Specialization tools reveal the underpinning principles of specialized dispositions, practices, technologies, structures, etc. Specialization understands that learning and practice always include epistemic and social dimensions. In this study, the focus was on online WIL as an educational practice. Students undertaking online WIL, have underpinning knowledge about their work (epistemic relations to practices) and have a social orientation to their work (social relations to practices).The epistemic relations reveal the extent of the specialization of the knowledge underpinning online WIL within a field, while social relations explain the underpinning affordances for individual or collaborative learning in online environments. A qualitative survey (n = 79) was undertaken to capture the epistemic and social dimensions of online work-integrated learning practice in three Irish and three South African universities across a variety of levels (e.g., diploma, Bachelor and Master’s). Each member of the research team identified a purposeful sample of participants within the business, health and engineering faculties of their institutions; the sample comprised coordinators, program leaders, lecturers, and managers at undergraduate and postgraduate levels across three faculties, thus enabling the exploration of online WIL practices from various perspectives. The data were analyzed to ascertain the extent of epistemic and social affordances for WIL at different levels and in different programs. With regard to epistemic relations, the study found that the technologies were suitable for WIL preparation (e.g., CV development), and, to a certain extent, learning within a workplace (e.g., meeting with a workplace mentor on MS Teams). More specialized forms of learning and platforms for productive work were a challenge, e.g., there was a mismatch between the technology used in higher education and the industry standard. With regard to social relations, the study found that there were technologies to support basic social interactions (e.g., WhatsApp groups) and workplace communication (e.g., attending meetings on Zoom), but there was little to support interprofessional and specialized communication. The study concluded that online WIL was enabled when the modalities used afforded an appropriate range of epistemic challenge (including using specialized online tools), meaningful collaboration and interprofessional teamwork.

Keywords:

Work-integrated learning, Professional Education, work placements, Legitmation Code Theory, epistemic challenge, social affordance.