Monday, April 02, 2012 | 1:00PM–2:00PM

ELI Webinar | Just as Good Is No Longer Acceptable: The Promise of Educational Design Research

Susan McKenney
Susan McKenney is associate professor in the Centre for Learning Sciences and Technologies (CELSTEC) at the Open University in the Netherlands and at Twente University. Her research focuses on understanding and supporting the interplay between curriculum development and teacher professional development and often emphasizes the supportive role of technology in these processes. McKenney is committed to exploring how educational research can serve the development of scientific understanding while also developing sustainable solutions to real problems in educational practice. Because educational design research lends itself to these dual aims, she also works on developing and explicating ways to conduct design research. In addition to authoring numerous articles, she co-edited Educational Design Research and, together with Tom Reeves, wrote Conducting Educational Design Research. McKenney is also current editor of Educational Designer, the journal of the International Society for Design and Development in Education.

Thomas C. Reeves
Thomas C. Reeves is professor emeritus of learning, design, and technology at the University of Georgia. A former Fulbright lecturer in Peru, he has been an invited speaker in the United States and in many other countries. His research interests include evaluation of educational technology, socially responsible educational research, public health and medical education, authentic learning tasks, and educational technology applications in developing countries. From 1997 to 2000, he was the editor of the Journal of Interactive Learning Research. In 2003, he was the first person to receive the AACE Fellowship Award from the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. In 2010 he was made a Fellow of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE). His books include Interactive Learning Systems Evaluation (with John Hedberg), A Guide to Authentic E-Learning (with Jan Herrington and Ron Oliver), and Conducting Educational Design Research (with Susan McKenney).

 

Summary

Join Malcolm Brown, ELI director, and Veronica Diaz, ELI associate director, as they moderate this webinar with Susan McKenney and Thomas Reeves. The capacity of educational technology to enhance teaching and learning in higher education would seem more promising than ever with the cavalcade of new technologies that have been introduced into the sector in recent years such as tablet computers, digital textbooks, and serious games. And yet, traditional approaches to educational research and evaluation continue to show “no significant differences.” Doubts about the benefits of educational technology stem from decades of research agendas focused on establishing certainty in learning contexts where probabilistic knowledge is the best that can be expected. Real progress in improving learning through technology may be accomplished using educational design research (EDR) as an alternative inquiry approach. EDR involves intensive, long-term collaboration among researchers and practitioners to develop viable solutions to practical problems while also seeking to identify reusable design principles.

Additional Resources