CREATEd Co-Design

CREATEd is engaged in the development of a co-design toolkit that engages a diverse team of researchers, practitioners, designers and other stakeholders in the creation of research-informed equity-centered resources.

What is Co-Design?

Co-design is an innovative approach to creating more usable research products but also for democratizing research use through more equitable and inclusive processes. The CREATEd co-design process leverages the knowledge and experiences of researchers, educators, communication and design experts, and other stakeholders in envisioning and producing resources that both draw on high quality research and are useful and relevant for achieving greater equity in educational policy and practice. 

Our team is developing (and continuously improving) a set of co-design tools to be used in both CREATEd fellowship activities and shared with other members of the education community.

Stay Tuned! New FREE toolkit coming Fall 2025!

What Does the Co-Design Process Look Like?

The CREATEd Co-Design process is an 8-stage, facilitated framework for leveraging diverse teams’ collective knowledge. Our framework (pictured below) includes phases that walk teams through:

Created Codesign Process

Preparing for co-design: identifying research to be transformed, building a co-design team of researchers, educators, communication and design experts, and other stakeholders, clarifying roles and tasks, developing norms for communication and interaction

Ideating and negotiating: deciding how the research can be made most useful, for which audiences the resource is intended, and what the product should be and look like

Prototyping and improving: implementing design ideas and receiving feedback from the team before finalizing the design

Mobilizing: developing and implementing a plan for mobilizing the resources to key audiences

What Does CREATEd’s Co-Design Process Do?

  • Contribute to stronger relationships between research and practice by creating opportunities that support greater understanding and appreciation across research and practice boundaries and improve capacity for future collaboration.
  • Demonstrate our commitment to redress systemic inequities and promote a more socially just education system by adopting critical lens on all aspects of the work, including the selection of research, intended users and uses, and product design
  • Promote a more diverse and inclusive educational community by building teams that are more representative of the communities we serve

What is the Outcome of Co-Design?

The co-design process leads to the development of new research-informed equity-centered resources that can be mobilized nationally to strengthen educational policy and practice.  These resources are/will be freely available to all educators, creating widespread access to high quality materials that support greater equity in our educational system.

Additionally, participants in the process will enhance their capacity to support research-informed practice, to center equity in their work, and to communicate and work across traditional boundaries associated with their role. Ultimately, this increases capacity to work collaboratively across the system to achieve equity goals.

Explore Co-Designed Resources Here

What resources are available to support the use of the Co-Design process?

CREATEd offers a range of tools to support the implementation of this process across a wide range of settings.  These tools will include:

  • A preparation and implementation guide
  • A free, web-based toolkit with downloadable resources for each step of the process
  • A guide for mobilizing the resources produced
  • Public storage of co-designed products to serve as both models and resources for educators and policymakers

How can I get involved?

  • Learn more by becoming a Fellow
  • Access co-designed resources
  • In Fall 2025, CREATEd will be partnering with the Education Knowledge Broker Network on a funded opportunity for Network members. CREATEd invites EKBN members to submit proposals to participate in a co-design using the new CREATEd Co-Design Toolkit – to be publicly released later this fall. The official call for proposals will be out in early November alongside the public launch of the Toolkit.  Proposals will be due in early December, with projects starting in January 2026 and wrapping up by June.