Mi:Lab Principle 4: Co-Create for Greater Impact
Today’s challenges require diverse mindsets. Work closely with service users to build meaningful solutions
Co-creation is a phenomenon that integrates services users into each stage of the design process, to ensure we are solving the right problem for our users and in turn create meaningful solutions to this problem. Co-creation creates value in higher education by softening existing hierarchical structures and considering all stakeholders (both students and staff) as contributors. It enables students to adopt an active, participatory role in which they have the capacity to interact and collaborate with educators. Co-creation in higher education ensures that each individual within the university community has a voice and stake in the development of their own learning experiences.
Despite the fact that co-creation is increasingly a requirement in businesses (Binder, Brandt, & Gregory, 2008), the same cannot be said for Higher Education Institutions. This is despite the potential opportunities to create more integrated and superior outcomes than if only one group tried to satisfy the needs of the other alone, by students interacting with university staff, sharing their own experiences and perspectives (Dollinger, Lodge and Coates, 2018). Mi:Lab seeks to create an environment that drives co-creation between staff and students. As a result, Mi:Lab have established Mi:Voice, a new university collective of creative thinkers that facilitates productive collaboration, where the voice of each group is represented, respected and visible in our outputs.
Co-Create with Mi:Voice
Mi:Voice is a collective designed to tackle some of the most prominent problems faced by the staff and students of Maynooth University today. Co-creators are experts of their own lived experiences and so, we seek to actively listen to their stories and experiences, to gather real insight into their needs, goals, frustrations, hopes and ideas. We then transform these insights into actionable design challenges and co-create solutions together.
Through our very own Mi:Voice Summer School, students and staff of Maynooth University will engage in three days of challenge-based, collaborative workshops tackling some of the most pressing challenges in the university today. Join us on July 27–29th 2021 to co-design the transition back to campus. Participants will have the opportunity to become design thinkers, use their voice as a force for change and co-design the future of Maynooth University. Follow this link to sign up: https://milab575176.typeform.com/to/RxIf48AF
