Reshaping Higher Education Designs and Futures: Postdigital Co-design with Generative Artificial Intelligence
Abstract This article examines how collaborative design practices in higher education are reshaped through postdigital entanglement with generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). We collectively explore how co-design, an inclusive, iterative, and relational approach to educational design and transformation, expands in meaning, practice, and ontology when GenAI is approached as a collaborator. The article brings together 19 authors and three open reviewers to engage with postdigital inquiry, structured in three parts: (1) a review of literature on co-design, GenAI, and postdigital theory; (2) 11 situated contributions from educators, researchers, and designers worldwide, each offering practice-based accounts of co-design with GenAI; and (3) an explorative discussion of implications for higher education designs and futures. Across these sections, we show how GenAI unsettles assumptions of collaboration, knowing, and agency, foregrounding co-design as a site of ongoing material, ethical, and epistemic negotiation. We argue that postdigital co-design with GenAI reframes educational design as a collective practice of imagining, contesting, and shaping futures that extend beyond human knowing.
Authors
- Antonia Scholkmann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6378-4426)
- Alison Casey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0273-5150)
- Frank P. Schulte
- Lilia Mantai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4603-3831)
- Chrysi Rapanta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9424-3286)
- Henrik Dindas
- Olov Engwall (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4532-014X)
- Diego Muñoz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2548-1501)
- Belinda Paulovich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6650-3872)
- Joanne Mignone (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6617-7592)
- Wina Smeenk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9888-1712)
- Sarah Hayes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8633-0155)
- Laura Ann Chubb (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4073-1436)
- Linus Tan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5705-0493)
- Stefan Hrastinski (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9984-6561)
- Marieke van Dijk
- Jimmy Jaldemark (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7140-8407)
- Sandris Zeivots (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5450-2530)
- R.J. Godwin
- Xin Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1471-7892)
- Jack Webster (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-0482-7420)
- Tiffany Winchester
Institutions
- The University of Sydney (AU)
- Federation University (AU)
- University of Auckland (NZ)
- Baylor University (US)
- University of South Australia (AU)
- FOM University of Applied Sciences for Economics and Management (DE)
- Auckland University of Technology (NZ)
- Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (NL)
- Mid Sweden University (SE)
- Swinburne University of Technology (AU)
- Universidade Nova de Lisboa (PT)
- KTH Royal Institute of Technology (SE)
- Aalborg University (DK)
- Inholland University of Applied Sciences (NL)
- Bath Spa University (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Postdigital Science and Education
- Published
- 2025-11-15
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-025-00595-4
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Digital Education and Society
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 6.49