Action Design Research and Free/Libre Open Source Software: a beneficial alliance for research and experimental development in technopedagogy[Action Design Research et Free/Libre Open Source Software : une alliance bénéfique pour la recherche et le développement expérimental en technopédagogie]

Our research project concerns the design of a virtual simulation platform enabling the production of Open Educational Resources (OER) and, more broadly, the implementation of an original and flexible game-oriented learning apparatus. To this end, we have progressively deployed Sein et al.'s (2011) Action Design Research (ADR) within an research and experimental development approach (OECD, 2016), based on the use of two Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) video games: the Minetest construction game and the FlightGear flight simulator. The resulting simulation platform is currently being used in a number of courses at IAE Paris-Est, the university management school of Paris-Est Créteil University (UPEC). It has enabled us to imagine innovative, emerging game-oriented learning uses that would have been totally unattainable in such a short timeframe using proprietary commercial tools. It also gave us considerable design and experimentation flexibility to identify key factors that led to particularly positive results in terms of achieving learning objectives in the courses concerned (Lépinard, 2020 ; 2022 ; 2023). Finally, the use of FLOSS has changed one of the principles of ADR: the achievement of a finalized technological artifact is no longer conceivable, since it is simply unthinkable. Only temporarily stabilized and satisfactory states can be achieved, and these constantly create new potential for technical, pedagogical and organizational evolutions.