The pedagogy behind the MOOC and knowledge and skills

This MOOC is particularly designed as a training module for civil servants and policy-makers in public organisation with an interest to implement and use co-creation methods and tools to involve beneficiaries in all phases of service delivery and management.

The first ILO (Reflect upon the conceptual variety of understandings of co-creation, Also, how the context may influence the co-creation process, its drivers and obstacles) refer to what Aristotle understood as Episteme, which is a term that is used for ‘understanding’ or be ‘acquainted with’. In this module, Episteme try to develop knowledge and understanding of the concept and theory of ‘co-creation’, and to be acquainted with ‘co-creation’ in particular contexts. We discuss and illustrate different understandings of ‘co-creation’, referring to documents from the project and additional articles. Short-recorded videos with researchers and practitioners will add to the complexity. As we all know by now, co-creation is highly contingent and context dependent. An important task for the research project has been to explore common aspects of co-creation. The rational for this MOOC is to let students reflect upon the dynamics between their own understandings of the concepts of co-creation and relate them to their own contextual situation.

The second ILO (Assess the benefits of different methods and tools for co-creation, especially in relation to the students’ own (present or intended) service context and its conditions) address the importance of tools and methods for co-creation. The MOOC shall function as a training module for co-creation. Which refer to the second element of the concept of knowledge according to Aristotle, Techne, which is a philosophical term referring to ‘making’ or ‘doing’. In this module, we will illustrate and show different methods, tools and instruments that could be used for practising ‘co-creation’. First, we will use the overall methods used in the project, as Community Reporting, Living-labs and Social media. Additional, we then elaborate on tools used specifically in the nine different cases in the project.

The third ILO (Reflect upon the ethical compass of co-creation and what it may require from individuals, organisations and service systems), refers to the ethics of ‘co-creation’. Once again, with reference to Aristotle understanding of knowledge, this ILO is understood as Phronesis, which is a term referring to some kind of ‘wisdom’ or ‘practical virtue’. This part of the MOOC will put critical questions more than give answers. Questions that any practitioner of ‘co-creation’ should consider. Such as, why ‘co-create’ at all? How to treat other human beings in dialogues?

Knowledge and skills, ‘compare and contrast’

The knowledge and skills that we focus on in the MOOC are largely generative skills. The MOOC will not engage in summative assessments of particular knowledge of ‘co-creation’. Given the complexity of ‘co-creation’ in public service, summative assessment make not much sense really.

ILO/assessment criteria	Knowledge and skills	Teaching activities
1. Reflect upon the conceptual variety of understandings of co-creation, Also, how the context may influence the co-creation process, its drivers and obstacles	Be able to compare and contrast between cases. Writing skills	Instructive guided videos. Illustrative videos and text material. Videos that highlight general problems of co-creation.
2. Assess the benefits of different methods and tools for co-creation, especially in relation to the students’ own (present or intended) service context and its conditions	Understand that there is a variety of ‘co-creation’ tools available. Evaluate the usefulness of different ‘co-creation’ tools.	Instructive guided videos. Illustrative videos and text material. Videos that highlight general problems of co-creation.
3. Reflect upon the ethical compass of co-creation and what it may require from individuals, organisations and service systems	Understand how individual skills, attitude and behaviours may affect the outcome of ‘co-creation’.	Instructive guided videos. Illustrative videos and text material. Videos that highlight general problems of co-creation.

Given that the students are assumed to have some pre-understanding of public service in its context and have some intrinsic motivation to learn more about co-creation the teaching and learning activities are mainly focusing on illustrative examples, guided instructions, and general problematizing.

Text-material about the nine pilots in the project, and recorded short illustrative videos with respective pilot practitioner, will serve as illustrate examples of the variety and complexity of concept of co-creation, the contextual constraint of co-creation, a set of examples of tools and methods for co-creation and ethical complexity with co-creation.