In educational practice, much design is going on, such as for lesson plans, lesson series, courses or complete educational programs. Much of this design is based on personal experience or political agreement. This approach does not always pay off, as it lacks a solid foundation in tested design principles. A scientific foundation is needed.
Educational design research provides this foundation for design practice, however, findings of this research are not always used. The use of empirically tested educational design principles, therefore, needs propagation. In this study an intervention was implemented to promote the utilization of these principles. The focus was on enhancing perceived usefulness of design principles by four design teams in various contexts. The design principles in cases were aimed at creating hybrid learning configurations in which boundary crossing can take place between the worlds of school and work. The study showed that most of the design team members found that utilization of the principles would lead to an improved learning configuration.
Full citation: Cremers, P., Wals, A.E.J., Renate, W., & Mulder, M. (2017). Utilization of design principles for hybrid learning configurations by interprofessional design teams, Instructional Science. 45(2), pp. 289–309. DOI 10.1007/s11251-016-9398-5.
Abstract: ‘Educational design research yields design knowledge, often in the form of
design principles or guidelines that provide the rationale or ‘know-why’ for the design of
educational interventions. As such, design principles can be utilized by designers in
contexts other than the research context in which they were generated. Although research
has shown that quality support is important for design success, less is known about processes that promote utilization of design principles as the rationale for instructional design.
In this study we therefore explored an intervention for promoting the utilization of a set of
research-based design principles in educational practice. This intervention aimed to promote utilization through enhancing perceived usefulness of the design principles by design teams in various contexts. The set of design principles that was utilized by the design teams in this study underpins the design of so-called hybrid learning configurations that are situated at the interface between school and workplace. The intervention was developed from the perspective of boundary crossing theory and was conducted with four different design teams. It was evaluated by way of a questionnaire and a dialogue with members of the design teams. This boundary crossing intervention appeared to bring about the desired outcomes. Most of the design team members considered the set of design principles useful in several different ways and they expected that utilization of the principles would lead to an improved learning configuration.’
