Full circle co-creation: From Student Designers to Student Facilitators in Optometry Education

Description

Team Based Learning (TBL) is a central component of the Master of Optometry programme at the University of Manchester, supporting early clinical reasoning, collaboration, and authentic application of knowledge. To build learner ownership and deepen understanding of TBL design principles, we introduced a whole cohort co creation activity in which first year students design their own application exercises. Now in its second year, this initiative has developed into a sustainable, repeating cycle of partnership embedded within the curriculum.
Students collaborated within their TBL groups using a structured online Padlet framework designed with predefined sections for topic selection, activity design, alignment to outcomes, facilitator notes, and guided reflection. This scaffold supported both commuting and on campus students, enabling flexible collaboration and ensuring equitable opportunities for participation. The digital structure also ensured clarity and consistency across the cohort while generating a rich bank of student created resources that staff could draw upon in future curriculum planning.
Across the two implementation years, students created high quality, authentic application exercises grounded in clinically relevant scenarios. Selected groups worked with academic staff to refine their designs for whole cohort delivery. In the second year, members of one of the original student teams returned to co facilitate their adapted exercise for the new first year cohort. They also delivered a short talk sharing their insights, challenges, and practical advice, helping to build confidence and belonging among year groups. Their contribution demonstrated that partnership can extend beyond the immediate activity, becoming a meaningful part of the programme identity.
Evaluation through surveys, reflections, and focus groups shows that students developed stronger understanding of complex content, improved teamwork and communication, and clearer awareness of alignment and cognitive challenge. They consistently reported that the Padlet structure supported creativity while providing enough guidance to avoid confusion. Staff gained deeper insights into students’ learning preferences, areas of uncertainty, and design thinking, informing future refinements to TBL sessions.
This repeating design, refine, deliver and mentor cycle has now become an integrated and expected element of the programme rather than a one off project. The involvement of returning students has strengthened belonging across cohorts and highlighted the value of partnership in healthcare education. This case study demonstrates how a simple, low tech framework can support sustainable, scalable co creation that enriches both the learning design process and the wider student experience.

Session Outline
This presentation shares a two-year case study of embedding whole cohort co-creation within the Master of Optometry programme at the University of Manchester, illustrating how a simple digital scaffold can evolve into a sustainable, cyclical partnership model. The initiative centres on first-year students designing their own Team-Based Learning (TBL) application exercises using a structured Padlet framework with dedicated sections for topic selection, activity design, learning outcome alignment, facilitation notes, and guided reflection. This design enables transparent, flexible collaboration for commuting and on-campus students, ensuring equitable opportunities for participation.
Across both years, students created authentic application exercises that highlighted their understanding, misconceptions, and creativity. Selected groups collaborated with academic staff to refine their exercises for whole cohort delivery. In its second year, members of one original student team returned to co-facilitate their exercise for the new first-year cohort and delivered a talk sharing their reflections, challenges, and practical advice, helping to build confidence and belonging among year groups. Their contribution demonstrated that partnership can extend beyond the immediate activity, becoming a meaningful part of the programme identity
Evaluation through surveys, reflections, and focus groups shows that students developed stronger understanding of complex content, improved teamwork and communication, and gained a clearer awareness of alignment and cognitive challenges. They consistently reported that the Padlet structure supported creativity while providing enough guidance to avoid confusion.
Staff gained deeper insights into students’ learning preferences, areas of uncertainty, and preferred design, including enthusiasm for gamification and hands-on tasks, informing future refinements to staff-designed TBL sessions.
The presentation will offer a transferable model for implementing this type of “full circle” co-creation: where students not only design learning activities but later refine, deliver, and mentor the next cohort. It demonstrates how a simple, low-tech framework can support sustainable, scalable co-creation that enriches both the learning design process and the wider student experience.

Participants will:
Reflect on how co-creation can enhance belonging, confidence, and understanding of challenging content in early-year learners.
Identify practical strategies for transitioning students from designers to facilitators and mentors.
Explore how a structured online tool (Padlet) can support inclusive collaboration.
Take away a transferable framework for embedding similar co-creation cycles sustainably within existing teaching structures.

Period	17 Jun 2026
Held at	University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) , United Kingdom
Degree of Recognition	Regional