Share Paper: How Design Research Can Address “Wicked Problems" in Education

  1. Tom Reeves, Professor Emeritus of Learning, Design, and Technology, University of Georgia, United States
  2. Susan McKenney, Univ. of Twente, Netherlands

Abstract: The pressure on educational institutions to provide flexible learning opportunities is higher than ever in the wake of the dramatic shift from traditional to online or blended learning environments forced by the worldwide pandemic. “Innovations” can be thrown together on the fly or they can be driven by more scientific processes. We recommend the latter. Educational Design Research (EDR) is a unique genre of educational research that has two primary goals: to develop solutions to serious (dare we say “wicked”) educational problems and simultaneously to refine theoretical knowledge related to these problems. The EDR process is embedded in the data-driven ...