An important aim in engineering education is that students should not only acquire knowledge, but they should be able to use this knowledge in action. I.e. they should develop professional capabilities for knowledgeable action and actionable knowledge. 

According to Markauskaite and Goodyear professional knowledgeable action requires a holistic, fluent and co-ordinated use of semiotic and material tools, body and environment. Knowledgeable action requires the development of epistemic fluency that involves the ability to smoothly move between abstract, contextual and situated ways of knowing and the capacity to employ multiple epistemic tools. However, the epistemic complexity of knowledgeable action is often underestimated in engineering education. This epistemic complexity has been addressed by Carstensen and Bernhard who have developed the notion of “learning of complex concepts” (LCC-model) that models how students learn to master epistemic tools by “making links”. 

In this study we have used the LCC-model as an investigatory tool to analyse video-recordings from electric circuit theory courses. The aim was to gain an increased understanding in how students develop epistemic fluency. We will discuss critical features in the design of labs and in the use of real experiments, computer simulations, modelling and other semiotic and material tools in labs for students’ development of epistemic fluency. The results of this study show that labs can be designed to facilitate students’ development of epistemic fluency by making links.