The Importance of Boundary Objects in Industry-Academia Collaborations to Support Evidencing the Efficacy of Educational Technology

Abstract

The context of a 2.5 year academia-led programme for the educational technology sector in the United Kingdom is used to explore the role of logic models as boundary objects to support the programme objectives. The programme provided educational research training and mentoring to participants from 252 small and medium-sized enterprises to support them with the use of existing and self-generated evidence of the efficacy of their educational technologies. Participants from a deliberate sample of six enterprises were interviewed to elicit their perceptions of the process through which the creation and use of a logic model for their product or service did or did not become a useful tool to support their research and business goals. The results suggest that logic models have vital roles as boundary objects in this context, such as supporting communication, learning, and product development. The study offers a first-case example of how logic models can be used in the design of educational technology, responding to the call for research in this area. A discussion on the challenges associated with the use of the logic model in the context of the project concludes the article.