How research informs educational technology decision-making in higher education: the role of external research versus internal research

Maya Escueta,Fiona Hollands

doi:10.1007/s11423-019-09678-z

Maya Escueta, Fiona Hollands

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-019-09678-z

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Abstract

Research use in educational decision-making has been encouraged and well documented at the K-12 education level in the United States but not in higher education, or more specifically for educational technology. We conducted a qualitative study to investigate the role of research in decisions about acquiring and using educational technology for teaching and learning in higher education. Results from 45 interviews of decision-makers in higher education show that they engage in different types of research activities throughout the decision-making process, but that in most cases the research is lacking in methodological rigor. Externally-produced, scientifically-rigorous research was mentioned in less than 20% of interviews. Decision-makers often conduct their own internal investigations on educational technology products and strategies producing locally-relevant, but usually less-than rigorous, evidence to inform decisions about continuing use of the technology or scaling up.

Highlights

Research use in educational decision‐makingThe use of research in educational decision-making has become a topic of increasing importance among education researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and funders
With the exception of Acquaro (2017), almost no research has investigated the use of evidence and research for decisions about educational technology in higher education. This study addresses this gap in the literature by asking the question: Do educational technology decision-makers in higher education use research to inform decisions about acquiring and using educational technology to facilitate teaching and learning and, if so, how? We summarize our findings from a set of interviews with decision-makers in higher education about their use of research when making decisions about educational technology to improve teaching and learning and provide two detailed examples of internal research conducted by IHEs
Even for those decision-makers taking a quasi-rational approach to educational technology decisions, our findings suggest that educational technology decision-makers in higher education rarely use externally-produced, scientifically-rigorous research to inform their decisions

Summary

Introduction

Research use in educational decision‐makingThe use of research in educational decision-making has become a topic of increasing importance among education researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and funders. With limited budgets and increasing demand for accountability in education, a call for the use of evidence and scientifically-based research in education decision-making has emerged over the past 10–20 years (Baker and Welner 2012; Maynard 2006). The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB 2002) and the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA 2015) guide K-12 educators by establishing evidence-based decision-making practices and by providing definitions of scientifically-based research. This legislation is based on the theory that such a framework can support better outcomes for students (U.S Department of Education 2016), it is unclear whether this works in practice given the lack of enforcement. While the NCLB Act and ESSA provide an accountability framework for K-12 education, no such legislation calls for the same focus on evidence-based decisionmaking in higher education (Deming and Figlio 2016)

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