Giuliana Longworth is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie doctoral fellow within the Health CASCADE project. Her research will inform knowledge and guidelines for the successful implementation and evaluation of co-creation processes.
Co-creation for curriculum development and why is worth it
The curriculum development process systematically organises what will be taught, who will be taught, and how it will be taught, and each component affects and interacts with one another. In many ways, curriculum transformation offers a way to break with traditional views and a chance to align with the students’ needs. But the question remains: “How to develop an innovative and sustainable curriculum which addresses real-world concerns?” Co-creation can provide an interesting approach. By working directly with the targeted recipients, co-creation represents a way to collect and address key stakeholders’ concerns and develop inclusive solutions
Why partner with students to co-create?
The first question which may come to mind is: “yes, co-creation, but co-creating with whom?” The re-conceptualization of curriculum often happens with academic staff and developers. What seems to be missing from this group of constructs is the University’s main stakeholders: the students!
Students have the right to have a voice and should have an active role in developing teaching materials that will highly impact their academic and personal life. Partnering with students not only challenges normative notions of hierarchy and power but can increase trust, respect, mutual learning, satisfaction and personal development (Nawrocka 2017).
“Students have the right to have a voice in developing teaching materials that will highly impact their academic and personal life.”
Several organisations have positioned this claim at the core of their mission. Two of those are oikos International, a network of Business Schools students around the globe and Positive Impact Rating, an international rating assessing the positive impact of business schools through the students’ voices.
Below is a practical case illustrating the key steps of the process.
ESADE Business School Curricula Review Committee
ESADE Business School in Barcelona (Ramon Llull University), in 2020, formed a joint student-staff committee to review and analyse sustainability content and coverage of their curricula. Which steps have they taken to achieve this objective?
- Putting it in writing: including objectives in policy and plans
It is crucial to put in place political and institutional structures to enable support and achieve objectives in the longer term. ESADE has started by making the collaboration between faculty and students a key aspect of the design and implementation of its Sustainability Action Plan, launched in September 2020.
The Plan was elaborated through multi-stakeholder dialogue and specified steps for reviewing the curriculum so that it would continue to meet the needs of students. ESADE involved their most expansive student association, in this case, oikos Barcelona (a local chapter of an international student organisation), to help them identify new challenges and areas of improvement.
- Building an evidence-base of key students’ concerns to identify action priorities
Once the working dynamics and structure have been set, it is important to search for evidence of key needs. oikos Barcelona and ESADE surveyed over 2500 students in 2 years to identify the needs for curricula. Using the Positive Impact Rating for Business Schools’ survey of closed and open questions, they built an evidence base of student demands for more sustainability and philanthropy topics in courses.
- Forming a multi-stakeholder working group for curricular review
ESADE’s Identity and Mission team invited oikos Barcelona to participate in the Curricular Review Committee to perform a review of current coverage of sustainability topics in the core courses of the different official programmes in the Business School to facilitate their inclusion. The group consisted of 12 faculty members of different academic departments and three representatives from oikos. Four additional students provided support in the review process.
The group met three times between November 2020 and June 2021. Faculty and students held additional meetings per academic field for the syllabus review.
Faculty and students worked together to co-create the methodology for analysing the curricula. Together they defined what a sustainable course looks like, how it is delivered, what percentage of content (relating to sustainability) is acceptable, etc. The process was validated by the Dean of the Business School and ESADE Executive Committee, and the vice deans, associate deans and academic department heads were informed about the process.
- Process Results & Plan for action:
By working together, the team has evaluated the existing syllabus and subjects in light of sustainability challenges and assessed to which extent they could be more inclusive and extensive. Together they identified improvement areas and orientated goals and plans.
The process in itself has been experienced as a result. The collaborative process undertaken by students and faculty jointly reviewing academic content was seen as a fruitful exchange. As a result of the process, ESADE has experienced more interest from faculty in the incorporation of sustainability topics in their courses and, as a result, created the following initiatives:
- Faculty interest group on sustainability. Creation of a space where a group of faculty members meet regularly to share best practices and discuss the challenges they face when incorporating sustainability into their courses.
- Sustainable finance. The creation of the first Sustainable Finance Think Tank at ESADE. The aim was to create a space for students, academia, and industry experts to engage in vivid dialogues on reconciling sustainable and financial decisions.
How can Health CASCADE support similar projects?
The Health CASCADE network is producing tools and resources, including a curated co-creation database, a co-creation guidance and reporting template, a methods’ finder, scoping and systematic reviews. All are available on the website.
The tools we are producing aim to guide practitioners in the planning, conducting and evaluating co-creation projects, in all fields, including participatory curriculum development. If you are involved in any co-creation project and are interested in sharing your results, discussing burning questions or partnering with us, don’t hesitate to contact us directly.
About Giuliana
Giuliana is part of the core group within Health CASCADE, which is responsible for developing guidelines for using co-creation in public health research. These guidelines will in turn be developed using co-creation; with feedback from researchers and practitioners to ensure that the product is fit for purpose. As she develops the guidelines, Giuliana reflects on the value of co-creation in this process and how to effectively engage the target groups. In her blog, she presents a successful case study of students and staff that came together to co-create a curriculum.