Co-creation in education is the process of collaborating with students in the design of learning experiences, which could relate to content, delivery or both. By working with students to incorporating their perspectives into the learning design it is possible to enhance the inclusivity and authenticity of learning experiences by more accurately reflecting the experiences, contexts, needs and aims of the actual students.
Co-creation can be as large as collaboratively designing a whole curriculum with students all the way down to a single assessment, session or even just an activity within a session. As co-creation means giving up some control over the material and its delivery, it can be personally challenging for many people, and starting small is a good way of dipping a toe in a collaborative design process with students and making it work for you while reducing any potential risk to the wider learning experience.
As with many design processes, when undertaking larger co-creation activities it is better to work with a small number of student as representatives of the cohort rather than attempt to work with the entire cohort. This enables the collaborative group to be comprised of the students who are most engaged and whose experiences, both personal and academic, can bring the most value to the process. Using a smaller group also enables those involved to develop a greater understanding of general and subject-specific pedagogy that will allow them to make more informed contributions to the design of the learning experience.
In co-creating teaching and learning activities with
students, they can be given a chance to apply what they have learned and
demonstrate their mastery of a topic. There
are lots of guides, resources and case studies to support this work but you can
begin with some reflective questions.
Ask yourself if students have had an opportunity to co-create.
- Have
students and staff worked together to co-create any learning or assessment
activities (have you done any of thing things listed above)? Have you
shown current students how previous student feedback has been used as part
of your rationale?
- Have
students worked with staff to assess the success of the module design?
- Can
students apply what they have learned to things that matter to them?
- Have
students been encouraged to take risks and to see failure as a route to
learning? Have there been failures in the module design that offer an
opportunity for improvement?
Seek out RAISE
(Researching, Advancing and Inspiring Student Engagement) which is a supportive
professional association, and which offers a buddy scheme to help encourage
practitioners new to this way of working.
Additional guidance on how to incorporate co-creation in teaching is available from the links below.
