Co-Creation of Learning Technologies in School–University–Industry Partnerships: An Activity System Perspective

EdTech companies can develop tools and services for educational institutions. The EdTech sector needs teachers as end-users to create services and tools that serve the users’ real needs. Co-creation in the EdTech sector is essential for bridging the gap between developers’ and educators’ needs. By collaboratively designing learning technologies, we can ensure that tools address end-user requirements. In the EdTech industry, teachers and researchers need to work together to assess the effect of practice and services on learning and teaching and co-create solutions with a more evidence-based approach. This study emphasizes co-creation as a research setting to extract design principles and comprehend stakeholder dynamics within multi-participant systems. Implementing Activity Theory, we aim to analyze stakeholder roles and their intersections. The essence of co-creation lies in collaborative meaning-making, shared ownership, and sustainable development with scalability potential. Our co-creation program targeted the collaborative design of education technologies, engaging teachers, the EdTech sector, researchers, and policymakers. We seek to understand the core dynamics of such partnerships and how interdisciplinary co-creation elevates stakeholders’ professional experiences.