Better Understanding Needs, Co-Create Learning

What are the specific benefits of co-create learning? For educators and for learners.

Martina Hölscher: It is helpful to briefly explain the approach to put this into context: Co-create learning is a learner-centered approach based on design thinking. In this approach, learning opportunities are consistently designed with the learners in mind and are intended to align with their specific needs and circumstances.

It is crucial to note that the starting point is not the format, but rather the question of what learning outcome should be achieved and what kind of support would be useful for this goal. Whether this results in eLearning, micro-learning, an online seminar, an in-person format, or a modular combination of various elements will only become clear during the process. Co-creation happens on two levels. On the one hand, learners are involved in the development process of learning offerings and can actively help shape them. Ideally, this happens involving real people, but the use of AI personas can also be useful. In the LEARNTEC workshop, for example, we will simulate this using Nora as an AI persona of a young manager and her learning needs.

Involvement on the other hand means that learning experts from various fields are ideally involved in the design process, so that the multidisciplinary nature of the design team leads to the best possible result.

The benefit for learners is obvious: they receive a learning experience tailored to their needs and daily work routine, one that takes their individual challenges seriously and enables direct application in real-world situations.
The added value for instructors or learning designers is that they gain a better understanding of learners’ actual needs and usage contexts. Instead of designing their offerings based on assumptions, they can test hypotheses early on, gather feedback, and refine their ideas iteratively. This reduces the risk of designing a learning format that is out of touch with real-world practice.

Is co-create learning applicable to every learning scenario?

Martina Hölscher: No, not in the same way. Co-create learning is ideal when learning programs need to be reimagined or when existing standard solutions fail to achieve the desired impact on the target audience. Therefore, the approach is most useful when learning programs need to be closely tailored to real-world situations, specific needs, and diverse target groups. Co-Create Learning is less effective when content is highly standardized and there is little room for flexibility, as is the case with highly regulated mandatory training, for example.

Yet even in these cases, the approach can be helpful—if not necessarily to openly co-design the content itself, but to better understand where learners drop off, what they find inaccessible, and how formats can be designed to enhance transfer of learning. This is why I would rephrase the question: Not "Is co-create learning suitable for every learning scenario?" but rather "At what point can co-create learning add value to the design of learning processes?" In many cases, targeted integration into specific phases is sufficient—for example, during demand assessment, when developing and testing ideas, or when refining existing offerings.

Which types of co-create learning are best suited for use in which contexts? Please provide some examples.

Martina Hölscher: Co-create learning, as a design thinking-inspired approach, is generally best suited for complex and flexible learning contexts. The process can be quite open-ended at the outset, both in terms of content and implementation. However, co-create learning can also be applied to specific phases when dealing with predetermined learning objectives or content. A key area of application is professional and personal development. Employees who face very specific challenges in their daily work often find that co-creative development generates solutions that are significantly better tailored to their needs than traditional standard formats. When it comes to new managers, for example, this might mean that training programs on difficult

conversations are not designed as general communication training, but rather as a combination of short practical scenarios, phrasing aids, checklists, or AI-supported conversation simulations.

Co-Create Learning also fits very well into the school and university context to make learning more self-organized and participatory and to bring it closer to the real-life experiences of students. It is particularly helpful when it comes to cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary learning formats and project-based learning.

Co-Create Learning can also play an important role in change and transformation processes. This can be achieved, for example, by highlighting what employees need to not only understand change initiatives but also to support them in their day-to-day work and implement them effectively.

How specific or flexible should learning objectives be to ensure the effective use of co-create learning?

Martina Hölscher: Learning objectives should be clear enough to provide guidance but also open enough to allow for individual adaptation. It is important that learning objectives clearly show how learners can effectively apply what they have learned, so that the practical relevance becomes apparent. A rough direction can emerge from the so-called WKW question, which in Design Thinking closes the problem space and opens the idea space.

In our workshop example, this could, for instance, be phrased like this: "How can we develop a learning program for people like Nora that enables her to prepare for difficult employee reviews in a practical way with minimal time investment? How can she practice these reviews and confidently implement them in her day-to-day management work?"

Ideally, the overall learning objectives are phrased with enough flexibility that learners can use them to figure out their own learning goals, interim outcomes, and how to reflect on their progress. An OKR-inspired approach (Objectives & Key Results) can help by giving learners a framework to design their own goal system for the learning program.

Does co-create learning require more effort or present greater challenges than other teaching methods?

Martina Hölscher: Not necessarily more effort, but it is definitely different and often more challenging. The nature of the effort shifts. In traditional formats, a large part of the work involves preparing the content, implementing the learning activities, and delivering the material. Co-create learning requires learning designers and instructors to listen more attentively, empathize, synthesize diverse challenges, approach situations with openness, and facilitate processes effectively. This demands pedagogical precision, methodological flexibility, and a willingness to avoid trying to control everything completely from the start. A multidisciplinary team helps to achieve this. Co-create learning often requires more effort initially, especially during the conceptualization phase, as needs must be assessed, perspectives incorporated, and ideas developed iteratively. However, this effort can pay off significantly in the long term, as it leads to more sustainable and effective learning offerings.

In our workshop, participants will go through this process: They will work together in small groups with an AI persona in a compact, structured process. They will become familiar with tools such as the Empathy Map, creative formats, and prototyping

Finally, they can test their concept together with the persona. This clearly shows that co-create learning doesn’t have to be an overly complex method, but rather requires, above all, a meaningful challenge, a multidisciplinary team, and appropriate methods.