Co-creation with students

What do we mean by 'co-creation'?

Co-creation is an umbrella term that covers co-partnership, co-design and co-production, but essentially describes activity where a students and faculty members work together to produce an artefact, project, assessment, etc.

Bovill et al. (2016) describe co-creation as ‘when staff and students work collaboratively with one another to create components of curricula and/or pedagogical approaches’.

Most of the literature focuses on academic partnerships, where teaching staff co-create learning activities, assessment or undertake curriculum design with students. However, co-creation is increasingly being used with Professional Services departments to develop more collaborative, student-focussed approaches.

Co-creation is working with students as partners.

In Cook-Sather et al.(2014) ‘Engaging Students as Partners in Teaching and Learning’, they outline three principles one should be mindful of when working with students as co-designers.

Respect - partnership built on communication. Everyone’s views taken into consideration and valued
Recriprocracy - Respect is an attitude, recriprocracy is a way of interacting. In a professional services setting ,a student would envisage themselves both as a student but also a member of stuff or (The University).
Finally, shared responsibility: reliability, trustworthiness, essential if building partnerships with students.

Advantages

Authentic method to incorporate student voice
Outputs are usually more useful and relevant to students
Helps foster sense of belonging for students
Makes the university a more inclusive environment
Benefits all involved

Things to be mindful of

Partnership does not require a false equivalency - although you are working as partners, this does mean that you have equal responsibilities for the success of a project.
Co-creating with students doesn’t mean we do everything they recommend to us (Cook-Sather et al., 2014)
When working with students, one should consider whether they are possibly talking about student engagement, in which ‘the participation of students in quality enhancement and quality assurance processes, resulting in the improvement of their educational experience’ (QAA, 2012, 2), rather than co-creation? A student completing a feedback form is student engagement, but co-creation requires a meaningful partnership and a deeper level of working together.

In 2024, Dr. Aisling Tierney created a comprehensive analysis of co-creation taking place at the University, which you can find in this document (available on Sharepoint to UoB staff).

You can also find guidance from TSS/HR on recruiting students on casual contracts to undertake co-creation work with you, if the work is on a more substantial basis. We have also put together this guidance on how to recruit students to work with you on co-produced projects (available on Sharepoint for UoB staff).

Although most of the literature explores examples of co-creation within academic settings, there are an increasing number of examples across other settings in higher education institutes.

Co-creation in academic settings

Co-creation in Professional Services settings

Students and staff working together to create a wellbeing policy document (co-production). Students directly input (rather than via surveys) into policy creation through workshopping sessions.
A hackathon in which students present ideas on solving a University problem, working with colleagues to learn more about the inner workings of the University (co-design).
Outputs of the hackathon are then implemented into future policy and/or training materials for staff.
Student Fellows Programmes (student partnership)
Student Fellows work on themes directly linked to University strategy and attend relevant committees and run student-focused activities to garner authentic student voice. They act as a central point between students and staff to feed information both ways. They create resources to disseminate across the University, informed by both staff requirements and student perspectives and needs.
Feedback Engagement Fellows

Bovill, C. & Felten, P. & Cook-Sather, A. (2014). Engaging Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching (2): Practical guidance for academic staff and academic developers. Access it here.

Bovill, C., Cook-Sather, A., Felten, P. et al. Addressing potential challenges in co-creating learning and teaching: overcoming resistance, navigating institutional norms and ensuring inclusivity in student–staff partnerships. High Educ 71, 195–208 (2016). Access it here.

Chilvers, L., Fox, A., & Bennett, S. (2021). A student–staff partnership approach to course enhancement: Principles for enabling dialogue through repurposing subject-specific materials and metaphors. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 58(1), 14–24. Access it here.

International Journal for Students as Partners

Kaur, A., & Noman, M. (2020). Investigating students’ experiences of Students as Partners (SaP) for basic need fulfilment: A self-determination theory perspective. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 17(1), 1–15. Access it here.

Matthews, K. E., Cook-Sather, A., Acai, A., Dvorakova, S. L., Felten, P., Marquis, E., & Mercer-Mapstone, L. (2019). Toward theories of partnership praxis: an analysis of interpretive framing in literature on students as partners in teaching and learning. Higher Education Research & Development, 38(2), 280–293. Access it here.

Seale, J., Gibson, S., Haynes, J., & Potter, A. (2015). Power and resistance: Reflections on the rhetoric and reality of using participatory methods to promote student voice and engagement in higher education. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 39(4), 534–552. Access it here.