Abstract

Design-based research (DBR) and cognate, practitioner-oriented methodologies have gained increased prominence in the last twenty-five years, and in particular have become established approaches for exploring how we might best optimise the potential impact of digital technologies in education. This is highlighted by the research that shows how DBR has become a mainstay, ubiquitous feature of graduate programmes in the Learning Sciences internationally (Sommerhoff et al, 2018). The Learning Sciences is a field of academic enquiry concerned with advancing our understanding of how we can innovate systematically to improve educational experiences and systems; and invariably where we are trying to exploit the novel, interactive affordances and capabilities offered by new digital technology. The increased use of design as a systematic research methodology around the world highlights its continued, and growing relevance and importance. The increasing popularity of educational design research methodologies, including DBR, owes to their potential to be both practically focused but theoretically robust. DBR, as a participatory and principled research methodology, can potentially support educational designers, innovators, policymakers and technologists to bridge practice and theory. Starting with an outline of the provenance and history of DBR methodology, this paper describes educational design research methodologies, illustrating how DBR can be employed to enhance the development of digital technologies in education.