Generation of Educational Technology Research Problems Using Design Thinking Framework

Abstract

Design thinking framework is a powerful framework for innovation and design. It involves design specific cognitive activities such as Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test (EDIPT). In this paper we present an implementation of EDIPT framework by novice educational technology (ET) researchers and investigate if the quality of research problems generated by the novice researchers is comparable to the expert ET researchers. We find that the quality of the problems generated by the novices was user-centric and realistic, but expert researchers generated more thoughtful and formally articulated research problems.