Designing for TEL - Design-based Research and Research-based Design

Designing for TEL – Design-based Research and Research-based Design

Tuesday 24/05 10:30-12:00h

Main Hall

Abstract

During the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to engage in collaborative activities and discussions to deepen their understanding about DBR and RDB processes and how the alignment of these traditions can provide a more comprehensive approach to educational research, design, and development that can advance our understanding of TEL environments, where adoption of TEL innovations is problematic.

Needs Analysis

Design-Based Research (DBR) and Research-Based Design (RDB) are two similar yet distinct research approaches to evidence-informed educational design and development. DBR offers a research framework that allows for a holistic investigation into complex learning challenges that lack usable theoretical basis. DBR strives to address real-world problems in an iterative manner that not only attempts to evaluate an innovative product or intervention in context, but also tries to systematically generate and test new approaches to complex learning problems and optimize the proposed solution while producing design principles that are rooted in research (Reeves, 2006).
RBD, on the other hand, stems from the fields of design and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). RBD is strongly oriented towards the exploration of new design concepts and ideas to inform innovative solutions (Leinonen et al., 2008) to educational problems. While RDB does not exclude the development of the theory through design activities, its core research focus remains on the iterative building and redesign of effective prototypes and artefacts.
While these two approaches to educational research and development share many similarities, they utilize educational design concepts and processes differently. Some argue that RBD lacks the research rigour of DBR (McKinney, 2014) and is more oriented towards the design and development of artefacts rather than theory building. The main difference between RBD and DBR is whether the focus is on artefact/product or theory generation as the final output.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Discuss the differences and similarities between DBR and RDB
• Understand how to balance between research and development
• Understand how to tackle TEL innovation adoption challenges
• Create a design research idea and create a research design

Pre-activities

Some papers will be shared.

Session Description

• Introduction of a topic (20 min)
• Discussing two case studies (20 min)
• Presenting a task (5 min)
• Group activities (1) (45 min)
• Group activities (2) (60 min)
• Presentation of results – pitching your idea (30 min)

Post-activities

Additional, more in-depth material and articles.