From Interventions to Theories: Two Literature Analyses of Knowledge Creation in TEL Design-based Research

One of the main aims of Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) research is to aid in the design of educational technologies that are not only effective but also can contribute to the high-level theories of our field. Albeit design patterns or guidelines are not unheard of in TEL research, there is a scarcity of intermediate-level concepts that are not as generalizable as theories, but with an applicability wider than that of a single technology or intervention. This document reports on two focused analyses of TEL literature that investigate such scarcity. The evidence from our analysis illustrates the relative shortage of such intermediate-level contributions, and suggests that the TEL community needs a way to abstract knowledge from multiple design-based research processes, in a more explicit and systematic manner.