The International Consortium for Educational Development (ICED) council meeting is taking place in June at the University of Greenwich in London. To welcome our international colleagues, SEDA, ICED and the University of Greenwich are partnering to hold a symposium on Monday 9th June.
The flourishing field of co-creation in education represents a transformative paradigm shift that transcends traditional boundaries between students, staff, industry, and the local community, fostering a collaborative ecosystem that enriches the learning experience.
The symposium seeks to explore and deepen our understanding of the multifaceted dimensions of co-creation across diverse disciplines and areas of work, including collaborations between academic and professional practitioners , employers, internal and external partners.
We particularly welcome contributions showcasing innovative practices, and advancing scholarly discourse on ethical, technological, and global considerations, ultimately contributing to the ongoing evolution of co-creation as a pedagogical and community-building strategy. These could be pedagogical or action research projects, sharing good practice, or simply reflecting on your experience. We welcome contributions from academic and professional services colleagues as well as students, community and industry or practice partners.
We will accept contributions for presentations focusing on the following themes:
Contributions may be a 20-minute paper or a 10-minute lightning talk. If you would like to contribute, please fill in the form by 12:00 noon GMT on Monday 17th March 2025. We will let you know by mid-late April if your submission has been accepted.
Gemma Mansi PFHEA, NTF, SFSEDA will deliver the keynote address.
Bio
Dr Gemma Mansi is an Associate Professor in Educational Development in the Vice Chancellor’s office at the University of Greenwich. Gemma leads on university teaching and learning projects specific to student partnership, assessment, and pedagogy. Gemma has been recently successful in leading this years’ QAA collaborative enhancement project on behalf of Greenwich; exploring how embedding student leadership within academic programmes can foster collaboration, inclusivity, and shared responsibility in education.
Leading on educational development to create cultural change has cemented her passion for widening participation and empowering staff to challenge themselves and develop their own innovative practices to facilitate equitable learning. Previously she was Deputy Head of Teaching and Learning for six years where she led teaching innovation, quality assurance, and enhancement across the School of Education at Greenwich. Before undertaking senior leadership roles in educational development, Gemma was a programme leader in childhood and youth studies and the EdD programme. She has also taught on professional programmes, exploring aspects of primary education. In addition, she is a SEDA Executive Committee member who is Chair for the Student Partnership Impact Award (SPIA), which professionally accredits students for their leadership abilities through partnership. Gemma is also Co-Chair of the SEDA Fellowships Committee, providing educational developers with the opportunity to accredit their achievements in educational development.
Abstract
Developing students as leaders to co-create teaching and learning
Student partnership has been a developing concept that was originally observed in teaching and learning in higher education (HE), but in more recent years has extended to a wide range of areas across institutions (Lowe & Moxey, 2024). This is certainly a positive shift towards working more inclusively with students, not only to develop and enhance different facets of the student journey but also to evolve the working relationships between students and staff (Matthews, 2016). To facilitate an effective relationship, students not only require opportunities to participate in partnership, they also need to develop the necessary skills and mindset to feel confident and able to participate effectively. Confidence building and effective participation require leadership skills, which is a dynamic ability that develops gradually allowing students to adapt, learn from experience, and strengthen their self-assurance. Leadership skills are some of the key foundations of nurturing student engagement, which is pivotal to any successful initiation of student partnership.
In 2022, SEDA developed the Student Partnership Impact Award (SPIA), providing students and recent alumni with an opportunity to be professionally accredited for their leadership abilities through partnership. The SPIA development team carried out a review of the award procedures for quality assurance purposes. The review process found a lack of leadership narrative in unsuccessful applications. This stemmed from applicants not being ultimately responsible for a project and, as a result, these applicants subsequently seemed unable to claim any leadership, which set the tone of applicants being subordinates to the staff project lead. These findings raised further questions for the development team about students’ exposure to leadership skills development. Also, support provided to facilitate students’ ability to recognise their own leadership skills as part of their own employability skills development.
This research explores factors affecting students’ ability to confidently engage and articulate themselves as leaders in a student partnership setting, and what we can do as staff to support students in developing those graduate attributes.
The event will take place at the University of Greenwich, Greenwich Campus.
| Time | Event | Title | |
| 9:30 – 10:00am | Coffee Morning | ||
| 10:00 – 10:15am | Opening | ||
| 10:15 – 11:30am | Presentation Session 1 | 10:15 – 10:35am Using ABC Learning Design to Support Co-creation in Inclusive Curriculum Design, Tamara Reid, Kingston University (paper) | |
| 10:40 – 10:50am Co-Creating Inclusive Business Education: Insights from the Inclusivity Changemaker Initiative, Kenisha Linton, University of Greenwich (lightning talk) | |||
| 10:55 – 11:05am Barriers to and enablers of learning for international students on Psychology MSc programmes: A co-created research project, Natalie Bowling, Simran Chettiar, Harshini Pandya, Ioana Bocancea, University of Greenwich (lightning talk) | |||
| 11:10 – 11:30am Navigating New Pathways: The Impact of Digital Curation on Student Engagement and Faculty Development, Dilmeire Sant Anna Ramos Vosgerau, Anna Beatris Pereira, Pontifical Unviersity Catholic of Paraná/Brazil and Center for Online and Distance Education (CODE) – The University of London (paper) | |||
| 11:30 – 11:45am | Coffee break | ||
| 11:45 – 1:00pm | Presentation Session 2 | 11:45 – 12:05pm Empowering Student as Partners: A Co-Creation in Assessment & AI Education, Shivani Wilson-Rochford, Birmingham City University (paper) | |
| 12:10 – 12:30pm Co-designing, implementing and evaluating video-based formative assessment to develop communication skills in Veterinary Nursing, Dave Gatrell, University of Bristol (paper) | |||
| 12:35 – 12:45pm Supporting students to use the Bristol Skills Profile (BSP) to critically reflect on feedback and develop agency to improve reflective skills and competencies, Joe Gould and Yogadhveep Arora, University of Bristol (lightning talk) | |||
| 12:50 – 1:00pm Co-creation in formative assessment: Students as pedagogical co-designers, Angeliki Voskou, Suzan Koseoglu, University of Greenwich (lightning talk) | |||
| 1:00 – 2:00pm | Lunch | ||
| 2:00 – 3:00pm | Keynote presentation | Gemma Mansi: Developing students as leaders to co-create teaching and learning | |
| 3:00 – 3:15pm | coffee break | ||
| 3:15 – 3:55pm | Presentation session 3 | 3:15 – 3:25pm Co-creating space for student voice on ‘Responsible Research and Innovation’, Alison Harvey, Catherine Pennington, Yasmine Osmani, University of Manchester (lightning talk) | |
| 3:30 – 3:40pm Co-researching the affordances of social media to encourage active and participatory learning within and outside of the classroom, Sue Beckingham, Sheffield Hallam University (lightning talk) | |||
| 3:45 – 3:55pm A student, technician, and academic co-created Northern Lights simulator, Ian Whittaker, Nottingham Trent University (lightning talk) | |||
| 3:55 – 4:10pm | coffee break | ||
| 4:10 – 4:35pm | 4:10 – 4:20pm Co-creation and employability with Public Health students, Lotta Hacket, Natalie Blakely, Aleena Philip, Ewaen Arnold, University of Greenwich (lightning talk) | ||
| 4:25 – 4:35pm Ten years of working with students as partners: reflecting on the value of co-creating knowledge, Ewa Krolikowska, Pamela Zigomo, University of Greenwich (lightning talk) | |||
| 4:35 – 4:45pm | Closing | ||
Booking is now open via Eventbrite.
Tickets are £50 per person.
A member of the International Consortium for Educational Development