Across a broad range of design professions, there has been extensive research on design practices and considerable progress in creating new computer-based systems that support design work. Our research is focused on educational/instructional design for students' learning. In this sub-field, progress has been more limited. In particular, neither research nor systems development have paid much attention to the fact that design is becoming a more collaborative endeavor. This paper reports the latest research outcomes from R&D in the Educational Design Studio (EDS), a facility developed iteratively over four years to support and understand collaborative, real-time, co-present design work. The EDS serves to (i) enhance our scientific understanding of design processes and design cognition and (ii) provide insights into how designers' work can be improved through appropriate technological support. In the study presented here, we introduced a complex, multiuser, digital design tool into the existing ecology of tools and resources available in the EDS. We analysed the activity of four pairs of 'teacher-designers' during a design task. We identified different behaviors -in reconfiguring the task, the working methods and toolset usage. Our data provide new insights about the affordances of different digital and analogue design surfaces used in the Studio.

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A number of researchers have explored the role and nature of design in education, proposing a diverse array of life cycle models. Design plays subtly different roles in each of these models. The learning design research community is shifting its attention from the representation of pedagogical plans to considering design as an ongoing process. As a result, the study of the artefacts generated and used by educational designers is also changing: from a focus on the final designed artefact (the product of the design process) to the many artefacts generated and used by designers at different stages of the design process (e.g., sketches, reflections, drawings, or pictures). However, there is still a dearth of studies exploring the evolution of such artefacts throughout the learning design life cycle. A deeper understanding of these evolutionary processes is needed – to help smooth the transitions between stages in the life cycle. In this paper, we introduce the four-dimensional framework for artefacts in design (4FAD) to generate understanding and facilitate the mapping of the evolution of learning design artefacts. We illustrate the value of the framework by applying it in the analysis of an authentic design case.

A novel phenomenographic approach was used to examine how former elite players who had all subsequently become elite coaches conceptualise three sets of phenomena related to decision-making in football: what it is; what constitutes a good decisionmaker; and how is decision-making developed. Participants were interviewed and their responses to questions were recorded, transcribed and coded. An iterative analysis revealed conceptions of each of the three phenomena, ranging from simple and narrow to more sophisticated and holistic. In the narrower conceptions, coaches viewed decision-making as a collection of judgments leading to given outcomes that could be correct or incorrect. More holistic conceptions of decision-making reflected several sources of complexity arising from various contingencies within the game (e.g., speed of play, team dynamics). Participants' conceptions of good decision-makers reflected the broadening range of abilities required of players. In the most elaborate conceptions, the participants conceived of players as having to predict what happens next, based on their knowledge, as well as having to collaborate with teammates when on-the-ball and off-the-ball, within an ever changing environment. Participants highlighted their conceptions of how decision-making may be developed, emphasising the importance of: playing with others; effective communication; balancing structure and autonomy; knowledgeable inspiration from other players and coaches; and a focus on improvement rather than winning. In future, research is needed to better understand how a coach's conceptualisation of decision-making impacts on his/her ability to create effective environments to promote skill development in players.