Nowadays, co-creation increasingly takes place in digital environments, as the physical distance between the actors in a global collaboration does not always allow for a face-to-face meeting. However, to date, collaboration between HEI and NGOs in the digital sphere has been somewhat neglected, leading to a lack of insight.
To close this prevalent knowledge gap, qualitative interviews with 45 digital co-creation experts from HEIs and 35 experts from NGOs were conducted. It has been shown that here is a great variety of digital platforms available, and the problem is rather the lack of knowledge on how to use this variety efficiently. Users often are unaware of the variety of functions they could work with. In addition, they lack time to study new platforms and methods in depth, resulting in them using the same platforms repeatedly, which may not provide them with an optimal solution.
In consequence, the expert interviews have emphasized a high need for an all-in-one platform that serves as a knowledge base on available digital platforms and methods for digital co-creation: The CoCreAid Kit 4.0. Our graphical user interface (GUI) aims to open up the connection between the platforms, leading towards a successful digital co-creation.
Research conducted by MUAS have shown that due to the pandemic situation, a large number of co-creation projects fail due to a lack of appropriate methods and tools for collaborations. Therefore, a digital CoCreAid Kit could support the collaboration between HEIs and NGOs to overcome these barriers and to continue and strengthen the cooperations. Depending on the course of the project, individual co-creation methods help to overcome transfer barriers. This will be done by providing a graphical user interface (GUI) with digital co-creation tools. Co-creation tools are methods that enable the co-creation activities along the whole process of co-creation, in consideration of the characteristics and barriers of cocreation projects.
