Jennifer TOEWS-SHIMIZU

Abstract: Generic essay prompts get generic results: students complete them competently, but with little engagement or long-term retention. This session presents a course redesign built around a company simulation. Students apply as interns, pitch an original project such as a magazine, story collection, or literacy event, and develop it in stages for their classmates. We frame this pedagogical strategy as a practical extension of active learning: co-creation, where students author content in teams rather than respond to instructor-provided material. The session draws on this course and a complementary Educational Design Research study with Japanese university students in a Global Studies course, and shares a framework that’s transferable across contexts. Findings across both contexts show measurable gains in learner agency, motivation, and ownership, alongside reduced instructor preparation time across cycles. Because each project is grounded in students’ own choices and locally developed pitches, the resulting work also resists replication by generative AI, a practical safeguard as well as a distinctly human counterpoint to increasingly generic AI content. Attendees leave with a transferable model for embedding co-creation into any curriculum, plus practical guidance on student buy-in, assessment design, and the instructor mindset shift required to share authority with students. Learning objectives: Differentiate co-creation from active learning, and identify where each fits best Explain how this framework solves instructors’ top-cited fear: losing content coverage Describe a four-stage framework — read, discuss, design, create — to turn students into creators Evaluate evidence that co-creation works in Japanese classrooms, despite hierarchy assumptions Outline strategies for student buy-in and the instructor mindset shift co-creation requires Target audience: Curriculum designers, language and English for Academic Purposes (EAP)/English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instructors, faculty developers, and higher education leaders interested in student voice, co-creation pedagogy, and curriculum innovation across Asia-Pacific higher education contexts.