Knowledge objects and knowledge practices in interdisciplinary learning: Example of an organization simulation in higher education

Figures & data

Figure 1. Student activities in simulation and individually, arrows mark additional tasks for organizations.

Table 1. Participants.

Study field	Gender						Age
	Male	%	Female	%	Total	%	Mean	SD
Educational psychology	4	18.2	32	51.6	36	42.9	29.4	8.0
Engineering	12	54.5	4	6.5	16	19.0	28.0	7.4
Economics	4	18.2	8	12.9	12	14.3	26.7	6.7
Humanities	1	4.5	9	14.5	10	11.9	27.2	5.3
Education	1	4.5	9	14.5	10	11.9	32.3	8.8
Total	22	100	62	100	84	100	28.8	7.5

Table 2. Categorization, description, data examples, and frequencies of knowledge practice categories in interdisciplinary teams.

Category	Description	Data example	f
Attending to the interdisciplinary task and problems	Describing the collaboration activities and phases. Explaining how the work took place, how the team organized itself. Description of problems and tensions as they evolved.	Today, we had a good chance to think about the entire content of the offer, the skeleton structure, with the rest of the team. After this, we divided into groups to think about the different parts of the structure in more detail. At the end, we pulled everything together. After the usual pains, we got good frames made for the offer. Cf64	314
Responsibility taking and commitment	Description of oneself or another team member taking responsibility for some task or function and how that contributed to the teamwork. Describing a lack of responsibility expected from a role. Evaluating team commitment to joint objectives.	Fortunately, the person elected as CEO of our organization did not panic unnecessarily, and the “we spirit” created in the previous meetings prevailed. The CEO started a discussion about how we were going to organize, and although the atmosphere was democratic, the CEO was the person who was more vocal and led us to a compromise. Cf71	162
Framing expertise, roles, and contributions	Considering one’s own expertise and how one is able to contribute to the team. Expressing taking on a new role in the simulation, e.g., more responsibility. Evaluating roles and contributions of other team members, including choice of leadership.	I’m wondering if I should choose my own role from an area where I already have experience, or if I should go for a completely new territory for the sake of learning. The most distant topic to me would have been well-being at work, but I ended up in a somewhat more familiar area, i.e. the management team. In addition, I signed up for the communications manager’s job, where I thought I could find something to contribute as a former communications student. Bf49	167
Crossing interdisciplinary boundaries	Description of how boundaries between fields of study were crossed and knowledge and expertise from the different fields was integrated. Recognition of contradictory conceptualizations or field-related practices.	We felt that we learned many things from interdisciplinary collaboration and organizational work, such as the ability to work under pressure and urgency as well as reacting and anticipating situations (e.g., additional tasks), using different remote working platforms, relying on the team, and listening and applying different perspectives. In addition to these, we got to know interdisciplinary teaching methods. Em97	64
Concretizing and exploring new knowledge	Explication of going deeper into a subject in teamwork. Materialized the integrated knowledge into a tangible outcome. Considering improvements based on feedback from the client.	Currently, our offer consists of two sections, one of which is devoted to improving occupational safety and the other to occupational well-being. Today we split into two teams. Although in our own team we didn’t make much progress in the making of the offer, we still got a better outline of what kind of service we offer and how to get it sold to the client. The outlines started to form and for the next time is left to write the offer. Cf62	116
Reflecting and expanding practices and knowledge	Reflection of the simulation experiences (personal and team) and expressions considering how the simulation could be improved or repeated in a more fluent or improved way.	At the beginning of the course, I didn’t really know what to expect, but towards the end I started to understand and see how the different theories come out in practice. The stages of group formation came up so strongly in our own organization that those will not be easily forgotten. Am3	260
Total			1083

Table 3. Knowledge objects and contributing artifacts with examples from teams (IDL = interdisciplinary learning).

Weekly organization meeting	Knowledge object	Contributing knowledge artifacts	Examples of team artifacts and interaction	Digital Tools	IDL challenge
1	Expertise in team	Introduction of the members and responsibilities		MSWord	Explore and describe expertise in team
1	Organiza-tion identity and marketing	Organization’s logo and values		MSWord, PowerPoint, design tools	Negotiate organization identity and mission; Externalize values and design of logo
1,2	Competing offer for the client (1/2)	Draft ideas for the offer		Meeting notes, whiteboard notes	Ideate and organize activities to plan services and a competitive offer
2,3,4	Competing offer for the client (2/2)	Draft structure		Whiteboard, Google docs document, MS word document	Decide on components of the offer; Plan and coordinate team responsibilities
3,4	Understanding of HR activities (1/2)	Playing the BestBoss game		BestBoss game (2018) http://service.mekiwi.org/playgain/bestleanboss/	Learn about HR activities in an organization; Achieve adequate game scores
3,4	Understanding of HR activities (2/2)	Team annual HR resources plan		MSWord, PowerPoint presentation	Define HR-process and plan of investments in HR-activities
4	Cooperation negotiations	CEOs and communication responsibles: Video to announce negotiations		Mobile phones, laptops https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_23sO8mEvc	Communicate leadership decisions
4,5	Finalized offer for the client (1/3)	Pricing the services and budget for the offer		Spread sheets, tables, costs, price per hour	Economics expertise to calculate budget together with expertise on the chosen services
5	Finalized offer for the client (2/3)	The finalized offer		Pdf document	Collectively iterate and finalize the offer for the client
6	Finalized offer for the client (3/3)	Final offer presentation		PowerPoint	Offer presentation for the client and the class; Client’s feedback to offers
6	Evaluation	Evaluation notes on a template for evaluation discussion in teams		MS word	Reflect on team processes and conclude teamwork

Figure 2. Distribution of categories of collective knowledge practices in diaries across the six course meetings.