It’s about time to involve all stakeholders in co-creating faculty development programmes - Exploring the perceptions of students and teachers

ABSTRACT

Co-creating faculty development courses or activities through student-teacher partnership is a promising recent educational advancement that also introduces new challenges. This study aimed at exploring the perceptions of students and teachers regarding their experiences as co-creators of a faculty development programmes so that valuable lessons can be learned from their experiences, leveraging towards better programme design in the future. The perceived value of contributions and ways to improve student-teacher partnership in future co-creation activities were also explored. Although some negative and demotivating factors were reported, participants mostly perceived their co-creation experience positively. The inclusion of both students and teachers in co-creating faculty development programmes was perceived essential, because it conveys multiple benefits for stakeholders, the created faculty development programmes, and the design process itself. However, purposeful recruitment of participants and their pre-training are crucial to ensure a successful and productive co-creation activity.

KEYWORDS:

• Co-creation
• faculty development
• student-teacher collaboration
• student-teacher partnership

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge all students and teachers who participated in this study.

Availability of data and materials

The raw datasets recorded in the form of digital audio recordings and analysed data files are available from the corresponding author on request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

The ethical approval for this study has been granted by the institutional review board of Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Saudi Arabia. The approval was granted on 26 May 2019 under the reference number IRB-2019-01-234.

Consent to participate

All participants of this study were informed about the objectives and methodology of this research project in detail, and written consent was obtained from all participants individually before each interview. A sample of the consent form and proof of signed consents will be provided upon request.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Muhammad Zafar Iqbal

Muhammad Zafar Iqbal is a Lecturer of Medical Education in College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

Karen D. Könings

Karen D. Könings is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Development and Research, School of Health Professions Education at Maastricht University, the Netherlands.

Mohamed M. Al-Eraky

Mohamed M. Al-Eraky is an Assistant Professor and Director of Academic Initiatives at the Vice President Office of Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Saudi Arabia.

Jeroen J. G. van Merriënboer

Jeroen J. G. van Merriënboer is a full Professor of learning and instruction and Research Director of the School of Health Professions Education, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands