The CoSIE MOOC on co-creation is built after the principles of a massive open online course, as it is freely available online. Its contents are based on the findings of the CoSIE project, detailing on individual co-creation cases, drawing out commonalities and offering reflective dialogues and more in-depth material.
The CoSIE MOOC on co-creation is built after the principles of a massive open online course as it is available freely online in sola.kau.se/cosie. Its contents are based on the findings of the project “Co-creation of Social/Service Innovations in Europe” conduced in 9 countries and 10 piloting sites during 2018-2021 and funded by the European Commission Horizont program.
The major aims with this MOOC are to provide a structured online course module that can be used (as it is or selected parts) for self-study, study circles and in professional work to upskill public sector workers and other interested stakeholders, including students, to prepare for co-creation. In this project we have especially been targeting co-creation with citizens that are marginalized or initially experienced as ‘harder to reach’ and engage with public services and service value enhancement.
An important aim has been to share the gained knowledge and insights and advance our understanding of co-creation in varieties of cultural, administrative and political contexts. The MOOC is aimed as a complementary to that of the Roadmap for co-creation. The MOOC is a tool to deepen understanding, knowledge and advance stakeholder commitment to co-creation while the Roadmap with its accompanying tools is a more ‘hands on’ support in designing and governing the concrete co-creation processess.
For unity and simplicity, both the Roadmap and MOOC are structured around three major themes: ‘the system’ that is necessary to support co-creation, ‘the catalysts’ or driving forces and, perhaps most importantly, ‘the ethical compass’ to guide the co-creative actions of involved professionals and stakeholders.
The MOOC is divided into two major sections – pilot level findings (with insights and voices from pilot actors of how they perceive co-creation and cope with its advancement), and project level findings (where mainly project researchers reflect on commonalities, challenges and novelties with co-creation).
A novelty in this Co-creation MOOC is the possibility for its students to extract a certificate accompanied by their own reflections – as a way for a potential employer, co-creation leader or group to assess the candidate’s readiness.
This MOOC is a living artefact – it is in no way a finished product but rather a module that should preferably be evolving and continuously modified – all depending on its usage forms, audiences and contextual knowledge. For now, it offers collective insights from the conducted innovative co-creation practices combined with theoretical explanations and links to further studies. Some knowledge is new and some is validation of earlier knowledge and research strands applied to new public sector contexts.