ABSTRACT
The methodological paradigm of “design experiments” is traced back to 1992 when Alan Collins (1992) and Ann Brown (1992) advocated a new methodological approach that would guide them as they carried out research and design work in the context of real-life settings. What began as a reaction to traditional experimentation and its focus on controls, laboratory settings, and replicable results has emerged into a growing field that can be grouped under the label of design-based research methods. In communicating the activity and the need, Brown (1992: 141) stated:
As a design scientist in my field, I attempt to engineer innovative educational environments and simultaneously conduct experimental studies of those innovations. This involves orchestrating all aspects of a period of daily life in classrooms, a research activity for which I was not trained.
