Engaging Higher Education Students in Creating Curricular Content to Increase Equity.

This study aimed to explore replicable strategies and principles for reimagining higher education students as co-creators of course content through small-scale curricular experiments. The research took place at a broad-access, minority, and Hispanic-serving university that seeks to disrupt patterns of inequity in higher education. In the 2021-22 academic year, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) faculty fellowships were launched to support a university-wide research agenda on equity-promoting teaching practices. Selected fellows formed a team of three, supported by research and faculty cofacilitators. They began by developing a shared definition of equity, focusing on student identity and voice. The research questions for this study focus on the impact of increased student input into course content on student engagement, students' experiences, and faculty members' experiences. Across all instances of small-scale curricular experiments designed to promote co-creation of curriculum, the majority of students reported positive impacts on engagement and experiences in the course. In describing implementation of their strategies, all three researchers found a process of moving from initial challenges in the unfamiliarity of co-creation to greater engagement for themselves and their students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]