Applying Educational Design Research to Virtual Reality Safety Training in Mines

Educational design research (EDR) is a maturing research paradigm. It is appropriate for solving complex problems in authentic contexts by means of innovative solutions generated using iterative cycles and rigorous evaluation. This paper presents its features and roots in classic design research and reports on the application of EDR to design, develop, evaluate and improve two virtual reality safety training systems for the South African mining industry. The study embedded several different data collection methods in various EDR cycles. The findings demonstrate their complementarity and the effectiveness of acquiring and combining multi-perspective data within EDR.