Plan an extended feasibility phase in which research and platform teams jointly refine design, implementation, and logistics¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

A key SEERNet learning is the benefit of an extended feasibility process involving the research team, platform team, and stakeholders to finalize questions, design, experimental contrasts, and data collection. In IES-funded SEERNet work this took the form of a feasibility letter during proposal review and "an expectation from IES that the funded teams spend the first six months of the award building out and refining their designs and implementation." Researchers should also prepare for IRB review, which may be more conservative for novel DLP protocols.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Continued interaction with the DLP; clear communication about data access timelines; IRB applications emphasizing that studies are comparisons of normal education practices

Constraints¶

• Reviewing protocols for DLP studies may be new for institutional IRB offices, causing more conservative review; data access timelines may differ across parties

Target Learners¶

• Funded research teams and platform developers collaborating on DLP studies

Target Learning Goals¶

• Ensuring study feasibility and smooth implementation of experimental contrasts

Related Strategies¶

• Use a two-phase feasibility process — a pre-submission platform feasibility letter and a post-award six-month feasibility phase — before research funds are committed
• Conduct a smaller sequence of rapid-cycle studies that build on one another instead of planning a single large confirmatory study
• Five recommendations for integrating Improvement Science with SEERNet
• Run conversational office hours in which practitioners and researchers co-design research questions with platform representatives
• Pair rapid evidence synthesis with community co-development to speed usable implementation plans
• Use design-based implementation research with educator co-design and iterative pre-post testing cycles to develop a usable, feasible classroom intervention.

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Schellinger, A., Zacamy, J., Roschelle, J., Closser, A., & Zepeda, C. D. (2024, April). Considerations for Conducting Research in Digital Learning Platforms. Digital Promise. https://doi.org/10.51388/20.500.12265/210