Being the first university in the world to provide doctoral program in Work-integrated Learning (WIL), we face the challenge of how to integrate doctoral courses into the WIL philosophy, which is the profile of the University West, Sweden. To exemplify what we mean by such a notion of integration, we introduce and demonstrate our proposed ontological approach to integrate a PhDcourse into the fundamental concepts underpinning WIL. The WIL within the context of informatics research (which is a subfield of the IS discipline) playsfive different roles of (1) the main course content, (2) the target occupation ofthe students and occupational field of the teachers, (3) the analytical perspective of the research activities in the course, (4) the educational method where teachers and students conduct collaborative research activities as a cognitive apprenticeship learning model, and (5) a co-authored research paper as outcome.The outcomes of such a conducted approach and lessons learned from the course will be thoroughly described. In the course, a meta-analysis of WIL informatics research will be performed to examine four dimensions which are: theories relevant for WIL; methods used in WIL research; occupational fields in WIL informatics studies; and roles of technology in WIL research. The course is arranged in the these phases: Local investigation; locally rooted research within the informatics field is examined by the course participants in dialogue with the authors of a number of published articles in order to see the extent and the how aspects of these identified WIL-oriented research work; Local synthesis; both teachers and the PhD students (i.e., course participants) explore the results and synthesize a local WIL-model; Global overview; a number of related international literature is selected and studied; Global synthesis; The local WIL model is compared to the global investigation. Co-authoring; a research paper is co-authored by the course participants and presented at a conference. By doing so, we enhance our understandings and thus contribute to one additional practical application of WIL's pedagogical philosophy, which influences the course content, the course format, the activities, the teaching-learning model,and the outcome of the course.

Design principles are prescriptive knowledge that offers theory-based guidelines for Design Science Research in Information Systems. This paper introduces and proposes a set of design principles for e-learning that support integration work. The design principles are proposed based on two cycles of Action Design Research. The cycles were conducted in the organizational setting of stakeholders and end-users known as integration workers, which are responsible for supporting the integration process of newly arrived immigrants of society. Overall, the contributions of this paper are (1) e-learning technologies that support integration work, (2) prescriptive knowledge in form of design principles for designing e-learning technologies that support integration work, and (3) an explicit case of Action Design Research that demonstrates the process of shaping and re-shaping design principles through two different cycles. © 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

The research in this thesis emphasizes the endeavor of designing for adaptable learning. Designing for adaptable learning is understood as an overall response to designing for integration work. Designing for integration work is thus classified as a special case of designing for adaptable learning. Integration work in this research is understood as a professional practice that aims to improve and support the integration process of newly arrived immigrants (referred to as newcomers) in society. As professional practitioners of integration work, integration workers face daily challenges that are wicked by nature. In order to understand and problematize these challenges, the empirical work of this research was organized and performed within a case of digitalizing the civic orientation program in Sweden. The civic orientation program is a special case of integration work in Sweden, where integration workers organize and provide civic orientation to newcomers in Sweden. Different groups of newcomers are subsequently participating in a required 60 hours of civic orientation and are provided sessions through their native language. The integration workers are responsible for organizing and performing civic orientation through a dynamic process of dialogues, exercises, and more. Integration work as a practice, however, does not incorporate a standardized knowledge base, which provides integration workers a unified way of organizing and performing civic orientation. Instead, different counties and municipalities in Sweden organize and perform civic orientation in various ways. Furthermore, due to the extreme heterogeneity among newcomers as participants in civic orientation, the integration workers are forced to adapt. In turn, the integration workers themselves are heterogeneous due to their different roles, areas of responsibilities, and more essentially, worldviews. In order to understand and problematize the aspects of designing for integration work, an explorative approach was adopted through three consecutive cycles of Action Design Research. The cycles were performed from 2013 until completion of this thesis. The thesis was subsequently governed through three research questions: (1) How to design for integration work? (2)What makes designing for integration work significant? (3) Why do design for integration work? There search questions were addressed and answered through a body of produced knowledge that captures and provides the essential contributions of the thesis. The contributions of the thesis highlight different aspects of designing for integration work, as a special case of designing for adaptable learning. Thus, the contributions are presented and discussed with an explicit bearing toward designing for adaptable learning,as the general class of problems and solutions of this research. The contributions are consequently provided through: (1) an ensemble artifact that is termed a digital platform for civic orientation; (2) an Information Systems Design Theory for adaptable e-learning; (3) a design research methodology that incorporates work-integrated learning; (4) the meta-design of an open learning platform that supports the social integration of newcomers in society; and (5) a philosophical concept that problematizes and conceptualizes the essence of presence in e-learning. Ultimately, the research contributes to the research domains of information systems and work-integrated learning, by providing findings that problematize core aspects of designing for adaptable learning. Furthermore, the thesis extensively discusses the findings of this research by emphasizing a philosophical perspective toward core aspects of the research contributions. Finally, the thesis concludes with a set of limitations of the current research and a brief discussion about potential endeavours of future research.

This research in progress introduces the concept of kernel philosophy to advance prior discussions concerning design, meta-design, the underlying rationale of design, and the assumptions and values of which a design rationale rests upon. Consequently, the present research proposes philosophy as a kernel that ingrains the assumptions and values of a design rationale, and how an active use of kernel philosophy may establish a reflective attitude to-wards design in information systems research, through two main features (1) sense-making of design/meta-design and (2) inspiring the design/meta-design process. Finally, the paper pro-vides a brief demonstration of kernel philosophy in use and ends with a brief discussion con-cerning limitations and future research.

This book chapter provides revitalizing thoughts on the meaning of theory, theorizing, and philosophizing in the field of Information Systems (IS). More specifically, the chapter scrutinizes and explicates central definitions of theory, theorizing, philosophy, and philosophizing, in the context of developing theoretical implications as a part of a larger theory development project. Additionally, the chapter introduces the concept of kernel philosophiesand conceptualizes different spaces for theory development projects in IS. Finally, the chapter ends with concluding remarks on philosophy and philosophizing as supportive medium for the theorizing process in IS.

Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) technology has been shown to effectively facilitate fire safety training. However, the current discourse on immersive safety training provides scarce knowledge on the quality of immersive safety training from the perspective of safe spaces.

In turn, the general notion of a safe space – being an environment that is characterized by the freedom to move, share, talk, and act freely without risk for physical or mental damage – needs further elaboration in an IVR training context where the experience of safety is highly interrelated with embodiment and immersion. This study employed thus a phenomenological approach to explore and conceptualize characteristics of immersive safe spaces. This was done through phenomenological interviews with employees at Sweden’s largest train operating company, which undertook fire safety training in IVR by using an IVR application known as the “Fire Trainer”.

The interview material was then analyzed through an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) that conceptualized four themes for characterizing immersive safe spaces: Sense of Authentic Hazard Recognition, Sense of Behavioral Responsiveness, Sense of Intersubjective Risk Perception, and Sense of Embodied Atmosphere. Implications of conceptualizing the themes are targeted towards understanding the quality of being/feeling safe during safety training in IVR, and how the design of future immersive fire safety environments might benefit from employing the proposed themes.

mmersive Virtual Reality (IVR) technology is becoming central for Information Systems (IS) research. However, existing studies in IS fall short of providing insights into how the IVR experience becomes meaningful for end-users. To increase granularity and specificity in this regard, researchers have suggested that the IVR experience can become meaningful due to its fleeting feeling of escapism. In this paper, I explore and characterize how individuals use the IVR experience to create meaning in the context of meaningful escapism, by undertaking a phenomenology inspired inquiry, based on Heideggerian views on meaning, meaningfulness, and world. Interviews and analysis were conducted within an empirical case of IVR fire safety training. As a result, four characteristics of the IVR experience as a meaningful form of escapism were unveiled: a sense of content, a sense of familiarity, a sense of mood, and a sense of care. Throughout this study, I offer a nuanced perspective on how the characteristics contribute to clarifyingthe distinctions and relationship between meaning and meaningfulness, as well as how the IVR experience becomes a meaningful escapism that provides an alternative of individual’s being-in-the-world, into a being-in-the-virtual-world, also known as Virtual Dasein. Further, this study contributes to the IS field by advancing the current discourse on IVR research and escapism, from a phenomenological perspective.

Design Science Research (DSR) has since the last decade become a paradigm within the field of Information Systems (IS). It provides researchers and practitioners within IS with a rich set of tools in terms of methods, theoretical foundations, research validity and other characteristics. This paper investigates what the notion of users is in DSR. It presents results from a small literature review based on 31 DSR-papers. The results indicate a low presence of how DSR-papers conceptualize the concept of users. The paper suggests that DSR hasn’t reached it’s full potentialities in terms of positioning an explicit notion of users, and that it can be a relevant task for further research for IS-researchers in general, and for DSR-researchers in particular.

In design for complex, uncertain, and ill-natured situations, it is not possible to apply known methods and solutions without having a deeper situational understanding. Such design situations are infected with wicked problems that are contradictory and complex. This paper answers the question of how the wickedness of designing Information Technologies (IT) for integration work can be understood, and what implications the design situation has for the design process. The paper employs a phenomenological account to perform interviews together with stakeholders and users known as integration workers. Based on a phenomenological analysis, four wicked problems are identified to represent the wicked design situation: Struggle of hopes and fears, Contradiction of contingency, Contradiction of social presence, and Uncertainty of reliance. The wicked problems are subsequently addressed as interrelated and have implications for the design process, which is enframed through four proposed design implications: IT for subtle decision makings, IT for cross-boundary interaction, IT for disclosing proximity and distance, and IT for increased empowerment. The implications incorporate a holistic design ontology, which also shows the viability of phenomenology for studying, describing, and understanding how to tackle situational wickedness in design-oriented Information Systems (IS) research.

Throughout the last 2 decades, workplaces have been provided with digital services for optimizing work activities and processes. A variety of professions have incorporated their tasks for teaching and learning through the utilization of novel digital services. Teachers and students have the opportunity to interact with each other regardless of geographical locations through distance education and learning. Overall, the phenomenon of digitalization has generated consequences and effects for the society in general, and workplaces and professionals in particular.

    Recently, a notion of digitalization has reached projects conducted on a national level for integrating newcomers in Sweden. The Swedish government has appointed members from University West, together with a municipality in West Sweden to launch a novel digitalization project. The project emphasizes challenges and issues with designing, developing and evaluating an open digital experience in Civic Orientation. This paper examines and discusses a duality of digitalization by investigating how we can understand the tension between professional’s pre-understanding and affordances of digital services in Civic Orientation. We will present results from interviews with professionals at the municipality, together with results from a survey evaluation. We argue in the paper, that it is beneficial for further research, to understand the tension between professional’s beliefs and affordances of digital services.

In this paper, we present our designed prototype: CollaborGeneous. CollaborGeneous is a framework of collaborative IT-tools for heterogeneous groups of learners in Civic Orientation. It is designed to serve different types of activities for producing, maintaining, distributing and presenting digital learning-material within Civic Orientation. The significance of introducing our prototype is relevant for both practitioners and researchers within Design Science Research. The novelty of our artifact lies in its characteristic of use in the intersection between Civic Orientation and Information Systems, providing different groups of learner's necessary tools to collaborate and create an open digital experience of Civic Orientation.

An Information Systems Design Theory is a prescriptive theory that offers theory-based principles, which can guide practitioners and scholars in the design of effective information systems and set an agenda for on-going research. This paper introduces and describes an ISDT for adaptable E-Learning. We formulate our ISDT based on two cycles of Action Design Research. The cycles were conducted in an authentic organizational setting with end-users, responsible for organizing, producing and distributing civic orientation. Based on our findings, we propose that our ISDT, together with its components, can be used to design, implement and support an information system that incorporates E-Learning, which is not explicitly constrained to the formal context of higher education. © 2016 IEEE.

Action Design Research (ADR) is a Design Research (DR) method that enriches the DesignScience Research (DSR) paradigm, by providing stages and principles for designing IT artifacts and allowing for their emergence in an organizational context. The method has been used and elaborated by scholars, extending the mode of the method and its stages, incorporating and adopting knowledge from related approaches such as Participatory Action Research(PAR) and Participatory Design (PD). In this paper, we have adopted principles and philosophy from PAR and PD to extend and elaborate the AD R method, by providing afront-end of Action Research (AR) that emphasizes learning through incremental iteration. We will introduce our elaborated method as Participatory Action Design Research (PADRE) and demonstrate how we have used it in our own research. We argue that the ADR method can benefit from incorporating learning within and across each and every stage iteratively. We also argue that learning can be used as an repository of knowledge, which informs and gets accumulated for formalization of learning that can be re-used within different cycles of ADR.Hence, we introduce PADRE and provide a model that consists of a set of key-components, which extends and elaborates the ADR method.

Action Design Research (ADR) is a Design Research (DR) method that enriches the Design Science Research (DSR) paradigm, by providing stages and principles for designing artifacts and allowing for their emergence in an organizational context. The method has been used and elaborated by scholars, extending the mode of the method and its stages, incorporating and adopting knowledge from related approaches such as Participatory Action Research (PAR) and Participatory Design (PD). In this paper, we have adopted principles and philosophy from PAR and PD to extend and elaborate the AD R method, by providing a front-end of Action Research (AR) that emphasizes learning through incremental iteration. We will introduce our elaborated method as Participatory Action Design Research (PADRE) and demonstrate how we have used it in our own research. We argue that the ADR method can benefit from incorporating learning within and across each and every stage iteratively. We also argue that learning can be used as a learning nexus, which informs and gets accumulated for formalization of learning that can be re-used within different cycles of ADR. Hence, we introduce PADRE and provide a model that consists of a set of key-components, which extends and elaborates the ADR method

This work-in-progress paper briefly scrutinizes and discusses how immersive media (e.g. virtual reality, augmented reality) plays a role in supporting work-integrated learning through immersive experiences.

In order to achieve this, a literature search was performed to identify and scan studies that emphasize immersive media and work-integrated learning. Initial findings resulted in a discussion about the concept of hybrid spaces, and how immersive media can mediate an experience of work-integrated learning in higher education.

Finally, the paper concludes with a short discussion on the limitations of this study and potential research challenges that need to be addressed through further work.

The notions of immigration and social integration have increasingly become central themes in public discourse,particularly in the European Union. Besides opportunities, this phenomenon also poses challenges to the host nations of promoting social integration of immigrants. Continuing an earlier Design Science Research project that developed an open learning platform for Civic Orientation in Sweden, this paper attempts to extend this platform using Jürgen Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action as an inspiration. We aim at designing a more inclusive open learning platform for social integration that supports instrumental, strategic, normatively-regulated, dramaturgical, and communicative action. We expect to further the relevance of philosophy in IS research by not only making sense of phenomena through philosophical lens, butalso attaining inspirations from philosophy in designing sociotechnical information systems.

Abstract: In order to learn, presence is necessary. If we experience a genuinely rich presence, exams, tests and other forms of evaluating knowledge are not crucial for learning. In distance learning, the concept of presence is not obvious. Presence in distance and network contexts usually means being active on social media. However, in distance and network learning, something more is needed. It is the face-to-face interaction that needs to be "digitalized". In order to investigate this, we have turned to Heidegger (1927) and the concept of Dasein. The concept of Dasein means to apprehend the existence of the world and not only the world itself. Digital Dasein means to transcend the digital medium and reveal the essence of presence for a more translucent form of e-learning. The need for an artefact mediating Digital Dasein has been identified.

In order to learn, presence is necessary. If we experience a genuinely rich presence, exams, tests and other forms of evaluating knowledge are not crucial for learning. In distance learning, the concept of presence is not obvious. Presence in distance and network contexts usually means being active on social media. However, in distance and network learning, something more is needed. It is the face-to-face interaction that needs to be “digitalized”. In order to investigate this, we have turned to Heidegger (1927) and the concept of Dasein. The concept of Dasein means to apprehend the existence of the world and not only the world itself. Digital Dasein means to transcend the digital medium and reveal the essence of presence for a more translucent form of e-learning. The need for an artefact mediating Digital Dasein has been identified. © 2017, Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. All rights reserved.

Newcomers in Sweden face a problem of learning the Swedish society with respect to laws, culture, democratic values, education system, labor market and aspects of taking the role as a parent. The municipality of Gothenburg and the county administrative board in Västra Götaland are appointed by the Swedish government to educate newcomers in civic orientation. This paper describes some problems in providing distance education for Swedish civic orientation in forms of advanced learning modules (ALM). Requirements for implications for design were gathered through several conducted workshops together with relevant stakeholders through a participatory design approach. We concluded that our design for implications can be processed for future research and used together with a system solution.

In order to achieve learning, presence is necessary. If we have good presence, no tests are necessary. In distance learning, the concept of presence is not obvious. Presence in distance and network contexts usually means being active on social media. However, in distance and network learning, something more is needed. It is the face-to-face interaction that needs to be “digitalized”. In order to investigate this, we have turned to Heidegger (1927) and the concept of Dasein. The need for an artifact mediating Dasein has been identified. The concept of Dasein is not easy, not even in philosophical terms. It means being somewhere else, and not on the place you are present. We have extended the The Community of Inquiry Model originating from Garrisson & Andersson (2003) by introducing the concept of digital Dasein.

In this paper, we have identified a gap with regard to imparting social values in an eLearning platform that was designed for orienting immigrants entering Sweden (newcomers). We identified that an existing eLearning platform is more oriented towards creating awareness rather than imparting transformative learning. Therefore, we propose a conceptual framework suggesting how to bring in the social values in eLearning platform,by subsequently applying social learning approach to promulgate transformative learning in which the learner also internalize the values in their attitude and behavior. The proposed framework makes a theoretical contribution by combining the notion of value, value content, value systems and social learning approach in the eLearning platform. The contribution also has practical implications in terms of providing transformative learning to newcomers. We argue that the contents on social values through the eLearning platform should be transformative, and not only informative. We suggest to integrate social values in the eLearning platform; make the learning transformative, and impart those values through social learning approaches such as triple-loop learning, connecting various communities of practices and to make the platform more interactive and engaging

Gamification provides a prominent technique that can be used to provide Immersive Learning Environments (ILEs) for domains, where it is dangerous or expensive to learn in real environments. Especially industrial organizations (e.g., manufacturing, mining, construction) are a promising domain for implementing ILEs that combine gamification concepts with a pedagogical design to facilitate safety training under secure circumstances. Although there are design research studies that exemplify the utility of gamification of learning activities, or how to improve organizational safety training through gamification, there is a need to address how sustainable safe spaces can be designed for enhanced safety training in ILEs. Safe spaces are key elements of a successful safety training experience in ILEs as they provide safe and secure training environments, which in the physical world are typically considered too dangerous with high risk of injuring the training participants. This study reports findings from an ongoing DSR project that stresses the design of ILEs for sustainable safety training. Within the project, an artifact for immersive fire safety training in virtual reality has been designed, developed, and evaluated together with employees of a train operator company. The research responds to the need of producing design knowledge that moves beyond the highly contextualized designs principles that are particular for IVR applications. We use gamification concepts as a kernel theory for developing a mid-range theory of designing immersive virtual safety training environments.

Purpose

Although there is a large body of literature available on the foundations of workplace learning (WPL), little is known about designated research methods that systematically combine intervention, design and learning at work. The purpose of this study is to propose action design research as an alternative method for organizing WPL in general and facilitating pedagogically rich activities in particular.

Design/methodology/approach

This research used a case study approach to focus the action design research method and exemplify its utility through two case studies that emphasize WPL in general and how the method can be used to facilitate pedagogically rich activities in particular.

Findings

The results of the case studies indicate that the action design research method had a significantly positive effect on organizing WPL in organizations systematically, as well as creating a narrative that structures the research process and its outcomes.

Originality/value

The findings help scholars that are in need of organizing WPL research in a systematic way. The findings do also help practitioners in organizations to solve real-world problems and develop new knowledge jointly together with scholars. Consequently, the findings contribute to the existing literature by exemplifying how to facilitate pedagogically rich activities and disseminate the outcomes of doing so in a formalized way.

This paper highlights Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) as an outcome of using Action Design Research (ADR) in practice. We argue that ADR is a subtype of Design Science Research (DSR) and a prominent method for facilitating mutually beneficial collaboration between academia and practice. Subsequently, we tie our work around ADR and WIL to the Scandinavian school of IS-research and worker participation, by emphasizing reflective practice on both researcher and practitioner side. We demonstrate this through two empirical cases and four case episodes. Consequently, the cases highlight building, intervention, and evaluation in the areas of civic orientation and county administration. The narrative around each case focuses on ADR-activities that mediate reflection and learning through iterative cycles. Outcomes from the cases are reported as WIL-outcomes and finally, we conclude this paper by briefly suggesting two implications for future relevant research.

This paper reports on the results of a study to investigate how scholars engage with and use the action design research (ADR) approach. ADR has been acknowledged as an important variant of the Design Science Research approach, and has been adopted by a number of scholars, as the methodological basis for doctoral dissertations as well as multidisciplinary research projects. With thisuse, the research community is learning about how to apply ADR's central tenets in different contexts. In this paper, we draw on primary data from researchers who have recently engaged in or finished an ADR project to identify recurring problems and opportunities related to working in different ADR stages, balancing demands from practice and research, and addressing problem instance vs. class of problems. Our work contributes a greater understanding of how ADR projects are carried out in practice, how researchers use ADR, and pointers to possibilities for extending ADR.

This paper reports on the results of a study of how scholars engage with and use the action designresearch (ADR) method. Since its publication, ADR has been acknowledged as an importantvariant of DSR, and has been adopted by a number of researchers. It has been adopted as theprimary research method for doctoral dissertations as well as research projects in severaldisciplines. With the increasing use of ADR, the research community is also learning about how toapply ADR in different contexts. In this paper, we focus on how researchers are using the method.Drawing on primary data from researchers who have recently engaged in or finished an ADRproject, we identify several recurring themes: managing expectations with actual outcomes ofADR-projects, coordinating work across different ADR-stages, and balancing the focus on probleminstance versus class of problems. Our work contributes a greater understanding about how ADRprojects are carried out in practice, how researchers can avoid some of the common pitfalls, andhow the method can be applied more effectively.

Virtual Reality (VR) technology has progressed and become viable for the purpose of education, learning, and training. Organizations adopt and employ VR technologies to enhance employees' skills, competency, and readiness through safety training that prepare the employees towards work-specific situations that are dangerous, hazardous, and uncertain. This research in progress paper reports early results from an Action Design Research case on VR safety training. The empirical work of this study is on-going and is set in the domain of rail industry. Early results are reported as tentative design implications for safety training in VR, which are based on a first round of data analysis. The implications are proposed with the ambition of extending them into design principles for safety training in VR. Subsequently, steps for future research are outlined and discussed to advance the design implications into principles.

Poverty, war, conflicts, and other forces of global turmoil are constantly challenging how developed nations design their processes for immigration in general, and civic orientation in particular. This paper focuses on an exploratory study of the challenges coupled with the digitalization of civic orientation in a region of West Sweden – and concludes with a set of five tentative design guidelines for how to design for heterogeneous groups of end-users.

As the digital transformation of society accelerates, sophisticated Information Technologies (IT) emerge and are introduced into organizations and institutions of society. An example of such technologies is the Virtual Reality (VR) technology that has re-emerged and become a frequently used solution for supporting collaboration and workplace learning in immersive spaces. The deep sense of immersion in VR enables users to learn and develop working skills in an authentic virtual space, which facilitates an increased feeling of user presence and mapping with real world working scenarios. However, due to the emerging nature of using VR for collaboration and workplace learning, there are wide possibilities for Information Systems (IS) scholars to explore the prescriptive knowledge space of how to design and theorize VR technologies through Design Science Research (DSR). In this research in progress paper, we scrutinize the question of how to design immersive collaborative spaces for industrial workplace learning, and subsequently perform a preliminary round of literature review to address the question. Consequently, the findings of the review are reported as three meta-requirements, which we target as the contribution and input for further development of an information systems design theory. © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Design principles (DPs) have been recognized as a central contribution in Design Science Research and the research community has begun acknowledging their importance. Much of this work implicitly assumes that design principles are natural components of contributions that can easily be derived by researchers without a need for criteria for their proposal, application or evaluation. In this paper we infer a framework for how to expose the conceptual structure of DPs as both components and sole contributions. We find a danger in assuming that design principles alone are contributions as they are very broadly used to propose utility yet the specific target audience or the explicit use of them as components of design theory occur less frequent. Furthermore, by applying our framework to a set of DPs, we offer four parts of their conceptual structure that can be used to convey the nature of design principle contributions and further identify potential areas for improvement or further research. We derive 8 questions that offer a guiding hand to researchers who attempt to embed DPs as components of their contribution either to research or to practice. © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

How to increase the chances of overall positive, rather than negative, impacts from new technology developments is expected to be a key challenge for the future of design-oriented research. In this context, we argue that a thorough understanding of the ethical dimension of research and technology is needed so that researchers can make an informed assessment of the expected impact of their work and carry it out more effectively. Myers and Venable [1] took a first step towards investigating the role of ethics in design science research (DSR) and proposed a tentative set of principles that aim to help researchers achieve outcomes that are good from an ethical perspective. We extend this stream of research and present an ethics-aware DSR framework, which describes how values and ethics are fundamentally related to DSR and how we measure its impact. Most importantly, the framework can act as an actionable guideline for how to maximize the expected positive impact of DSR projects. Moreover, the framework can also be used to discuss the structure, direction and expected positive impact of DSR.  

A comprehensive understanding of how to achieve relevance and practical impact with our work remains elusive within the information systems (IS) community. While we know that finding or constructing important research problems sets the bar for the potential impact that research can have, we know little about how to support research problem assessment and selection in practice. This paper address this gap by presenting the problem assessment framework (PAF) and outlining its application for the assessment, selection, and justification of important research problems. The PAF builds on the problem assessment ontology, which explicates the domain of problem assessment based on a synthesis of extant research. We have instantiated the PAF in the problem assessment canvas to make it more accessible. Altogether, we contribute three novel artifacts that support researchers looking to work on the most important research problems as the basis for more relevant and impactful IS research.

While ethics are recognized as an integral part of information systems (IS) research, many questions about the role of ethics in research practice remain unanswered. Our report responds to this emerging set of concerns with a broad and integrative account of five perspectives on ethics in IS research and design science research (DSR) in particular. Our report is informed by a broad literature review, a panel discussion at DESRIST 2020, and substantial personal experience from wrestling with ethical considerations in the field. The report provides a comprehensive discussion of prevailing perspectives on ethics and the implications for IS research. Together, we hope the report will inspire more ethics-conscious and responsible IS research. © 2022 by the Association for Information Systems.

Many Design Science Research (DSR) papers in Information Systems (IS) suggest sets of design principles (DPs) that provide knowledge for creating instances, in different contexts, of IT artefacts that belong to the same class. However, despite frameworks for evaluating DSR contributions, the evaluation of DP reusability to, with and for practitioners has been largely neglected. We suggest that in order to maintain the practical relevance of DSR, papers with DPs as their key outcomes should contain a reusability evaluation of the proposed principles. We propose a framework of minimum reusability evaluation of DPs by members of the target community of practitioners. The framework comprises five criteria: (1) accessibility, (2) importance, (3) novelty and insightfulness, (4) actability and guidance, and (5) effectiveness.

MIS Quarterly recently published an extensive review of the Grounded Theory Methodology (GTM) inInformation Systems research (Wiesche et al., 2017). Our paper contributes to the IS research methodsliterature by reflecting on, commenting on, and elaborating on their review. Even though our paper isa commentary to a single paper, we provide it as a general argument in support of pluralist GTM researchpractice. Specifically, we argue that Wiesche et al. have omitted paradigmatic assumptions fromtheir considerations, which hides their positivist/functionalist single-paradigm framing. Paradigmaticassumptions are important, because what it is means for a 'theory' to be 'grounded' is a matter ofontology and epistemology. We make four arguments to advance GTM pluralism: 1) identification ofdifferent GTM generations may not be purposeful; 2) abduction should be acknowledged in addition toinduction; 3) GTM procedures are resources not necessities; and 4) theorization should be grounded inlocal meanings in the context of explanation.

Even though the practice of integrating evaluative features into software has long been applied in commercially available software, it is still underrepresented in the Information Systems (IS) community. This paper presents a framework for embedded evaluation support. We are aware of the challenges of evaluation of socio-technical systems and take this issue into consideration in our framework. Our framework is the result of conceptualizations drawing from the evaluation discourse discussion on the topics of artifact evaluation in DSR. We also demonstrate our ideas through two examples of embedded evaluation support mechanisms designed and used in a DSR project in the Swedish healthcare sector. © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018.

Even though the practice of integrating evaluative features into the artifact has long been applied in commercially available software, it is still under represented in IS community. This paper presents a design theory for built-in evaluation support. We seek to incorporate the idea of 'the self-evaluating artifact' into the design science research. We are aware of the challenges in designing built-in evaluation features in socio-technical systems and take this issue into consideration in our framework. While the theory draws from the literature on evaluation in DSR, we also provide an expository instantiation of the theory demonstrating a built-in evaluation support mechanism designed and used in DSR research in the Swedish healthcare sector.