Novel Educational Tool to Advance Current Fashion Pattern Construction Practices: A Theory-Based Design Process and Learner-Centric Pilot Evaluation

Pattern parametrisation offers notable advantages over traditional methods in efficiency, sustainability, and creativity, yet remains underutilised due to limited awareness and mastery of its conceptual and technical foundations. This study adopted a developmental instructional design approach to create PatternInstruction, an LMS-based OER platform promoting the adoption of the generic frameworks established by Gill et al.(2023) for flexible integration across fashion contexts. Its development followed the theory-informed OER-PattEdu instructional design model established by Al Houf et al. (2024), designed to support the dissemination of fashion pattern construction innovations (FPCIs). A post-learning mixed-method evaluation assessed PatternInstruction’s usability and impacts on the adoption process before large-scale implementation. Findings confirmed its effectiveness and readiness to support widespread adoption. The study contributes theoretically by demonstrating how open LMS-based OERs can be developed and piloted to disseminate field-specific innovations, and methodologically by operationalising and evaluating the OER-PattEdu model for the first time. Engaging practitioners through PatternInstruction offers the potential to shift both academic and industrial practices towards a more efficient, sustainable, and creative engineering paradigm.