When to co-create education: comparing co-creation discussions before and after a course

Teachers can co-create education with students at different moments. To maximise advantages of co-creation, we need to understand how timing impacts the nature of co-creation discussions. We therefore aimed to identify differences and similarities in the content of co-creation discussions that took place before and after participation in a course. Fifty-seven medical residents who participated in a patient safety course, were divided in seven groups; four groups co-created beforehand, three groups afterwards. We used template analysis, informed by the 4C/ID model. Groups co-creating beforehand explored design possibilities as course builders, whereas groups co-creating afterwards worked as course content improvers. Complementary strengths of co-creation beforehand and afterwards suggest combining different moments of co-creation.