ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes educational design research. It discusses the dual outcomes of design research and provides several–very different–examples of how these dual outcomes were achieved through brief portraits of four actual studies. The book illustrates how core ideas from the fields of instructional design and curriculum development, different models for educational design research, shape our view of the process; and presents a generic model of educational design research. It also describes the process of mapping and actually building creative solutions that are informed by theory, empirical findings and craft wisdom. The book also discusses the interaction with practice that is present from the very start and tends to increase throughout the entire design research endeavor. It offers guidelines for addressing the same basic elements of any strong research proposal, but from the perspective of integration with an iterative design process.
