
Campus Talks by Times Higher Education Campus talks: How to make co-creation work in your teaching
Dec 11, 2025
Catherine Bovill, a professor at the University of Edinburgh and expert in co-creation in education, shares her insights on student engagement. She highlights the importance of building trust in teacher-student relationships to enable co-creation. Catherine provides practical examples of co-creation strategies, like student-designed assessments. She also addresses common concerns about workload and student choices, emphasizing the richness that diverse student experiences bring to learning. The discussion includes the relevance of co-creation in today's digital and AI-driven landscape.
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Co-Creation Rooted In Participation And Justice
- Co-creation stems from participatory practices in international development and is driven by justice for students to have a voice in their education.
- Catherine Bovill argues adult students deserve involvement in decisions that shape their learning just as children do under rights frameworks.
What Co-Creation Actually Means
- Co-creation means staff and students work together with shared decision-making and negotiation about learning and teaching.
- Bovill distinguishes it from student-centred or partnership models by flattening hierarchy while retaining teacher responsibility.
Start With Trusting Relationships
- Build trusting teacher–student relationships before attempting co-creation so students will accept unfamiliar approaches.
- Be transparent about intentions and expect co-creation to deepen relationships over time.
