Utilizing Co-creation Method in Learning Marketing and Design Skills – Experiences of Made in Maaseutu Project During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Created on 2nd March 2022

Conference: The Paris Conference on Education (PCE2022)
Title: Utilizing Co-creation Method in Learning Marketing and Design Skills – Experiences of Made in Maaseutu Project During the Covid-19 Pandemic
Stream: Teaching Experiences, Pedagogy, Practice & Praxis
Presentation Type: Virtual Poster Presentation
Authors:
Heidi Alander, Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Finland
Minna Virkkula, Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Finland

Abstract:

Co-creation, generally used as a part of development process in business, can also be utilized in teaching and learning, for one in topics related to marketing and design. Made in Maaseutu -project organized eight co-creation workshops for over 70 higher education and business school students with 21 micro-businesses to get improvement ideas for companies and real life business cases for students. The aim of the project was also to develop a method combining co-creation and enhanced learning. Considering the pandemic most of the workshops were held entirely online or as hybrid events. The workshops were based on a user-centric approach including keynote lectures to enhance skills and to give inspiration. As a conclusion, based on the experiences of the workshops, both parties saw co-creation beneficial and efficient. The micro-businesses received tangible advice to implement immediately or subsequently as a part of their usual development process. The workshops increased the know-how of substance, customer insight and co-creation method enabling micro-businesses to perceive new service or product opportunities. For students, the workshops appeared as real worklife reference projects strengthening their marketing and design related skills, confidence and interaction skills. Besides, the workshops enabled micro-businesses to find students to be their possible employees and students to get networked with micro-businesses. Considering the experiences of the past two years, it is probable that co-creation workshops will be utilized and developed further also after the Covid-19 pandemic at our university.