Integrating design science research and design based research frameworks for developing education support systems

Abstract

This paper proposes an integrated research framework that takes advantage of the similarities of design science research (DSR) and Design-based research (DBR) for developing a new decision support system (DSS) artefact. Firstly, the paper discusses the progression of DSR in the Information Systems and evolution of DBR in educational technology notifying the similarities and limitations. Next, we apply our proposed framework combining DSR and DBR to develop and effectively evaluate the artefact of the Educational DSS that can be used to identify students at risk and improve student retention and completion rate. Further, our paper creates a basis of methodological guide to construct and evaluate a machine learning (ML) based DSS artefact by conformity to the features and tenets of commonalities between DSR and DBR and correlating them to Peffer’s design science research approach. In line with the characteristic of DSR and DBR, the development framework that we proposed will be used as a new source of knowledge to design any IT artefact in the education domain.