Co-creation and co-design in technology-enhanced learning: Innovating science learning outside the classroom

Abstract

Innovationin technology-enhanced learning (TEL) is a complex process that requires the active involvement of diverse actors. This paper elaborates on two design innovation approaches that call for the active involvement of stakeholders: co-creation and co-design. While co-creation and co-design are well aligned, they are rooted in different traditions. We argue that co-creation and co-design can contribute to TEL innovation, and we present a design research case based on a research and innovation project that uses co-creation and co-design to innovate in science learning outside the classroom. Based on a qualitative analysis of the project co-creation and co-design outputs, we elaborate on the key differences between co-creation and co-design and highlight the main implications these differences have for TEL innovation.

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“…The papers include both school [3,4] and university-based [5,6] contexts in which the students are the co-creators, as well as professional learning environments in which the teachers, developers or tool users are the co-creators [7,8,9,10,11]. The contexts are not limited to formal education settings, but also include settings in which non-formal or informal learning [11,12] is the focus.…”

“…The rationale given for adopting a co-creation approach is often the belief that such an approach will lead to a more relevant and directly applicable TEL tool or platform with a higher fit to practical requirements [3,6,7,8,10,11,12], but many of these special issue papers also highlight the expected impact of the co-creation on participants themselves in terms of increasing their TEL literacy and, hence, selfconfidence [8,9] leading to more positive views of TEL or STEM [4,9] and supporting knowledge exchange [7,12].…”

“…There are a range of methods used to structure the co-creation activities reported in these papers, but common themes are the use of face-to-face participatory workshops, structured design iterations including research question, re-design, method and results, for example, and collaborative/project work involving multiple stakeholders. A smaller number of papers report on co-creation work where technology itself is being used as the platform to connect the co-creators and structure their contributions [11,12].…”

“…This highlights that there is certainly scope for further work on defining co-creation in TEL, its core components and the different ways in which it can be implemented. One of the papers in this special issue [12] makes a useful contribution to this ongoing discussion by exploring the differences between co-creation and co-design.…”

“…It also highlights the need for further work on scaling co-creation approaches, work that is addressed by at least three of the papers in this special issue. These papers look at using technology to help scale co-creation engagement [11] and embedding cocreation within formal education activities [9,12]. A method of scaling that is used in this special issue is that of a multi-layer approach.…”