Student personas and their learner journeys in co-creative curriculum innovation

This multiple-case, participatory action research studied design thinking methods for co-creative curriculum innovation in higher education. The results intend to assist in designing curricula that meet future students’ learning needs and offer them a pedagogically bespoke and integrated learning process. Five co-creative degree program innovation processes in design and engineering education were observed at different European universities. The co-creators in each case consisted of educators (teachers and management), current students, industry and non-profit organizations, and academic developers and consultants. Each case aimed to actively include the future students’ perspective by having the co-creators create personas and user journey mapping scenarios throughout the design process. These human centered co-design methods originate in generic design thinking methodology but were fine-tuned from a learning experience design perspective. They zoomed in on the learning that happens in and because of the program curriculum design. Backed by learning theories, studying the five program curriculum innovation cases showed how future learning experiences can be considered by articulating learner student persona details on background, personality, learning behavior, motivations and needs, and plans after the program. Diverse learner journey mapping with these personas led to a wide array of flexible design ideas, ranging from program progression ideas and course specifics to didactic choices in the future classroom. The obtained empathic insights led the curriculum (re)designs beyond discipline-oriented perspectives to student-centered pedagogic innovation.