Table 1.

Selected quotes from student composed reflection essays that illustrate key characteristics of curriculum co-creation. Co-creation characteristics were extracted from the following frameworks: Bovill C. Students and staff co-creating curricula: A new trend or an old idea we never got around to implementing? In: Rust C, ed. Improving Student Learning Through Research and Scholarship: 20 Years of ISL. Oxford, UK: Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development; 2013:96–108. https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/students-and-staff-co-creating-curricula-a-new-trend-or-an-old-id. Bovill C, Cook-Sather A, Felten P, Millard L, Moore-Cherry N. Addressing potential challenges in co-creating learning and teaching: Overcoming resistance, navigating institutional norms and ensuring inclusivity in student–staff partnerships. Higher Education. 2016;71(2):195–208. Cook-Sather A, Bovill C, Felten P. Engaging students as partners in learning and teaching: A guide for faculty. San Francisco: Jossey Bass; 2014

Co-creation characteristic	Representative quote from student reflections
Greater RESPONSIBILITY for their own learning	The papers addressing teaching complex tasks and using visualizations to teach anatomy both led me to consider how I have directed my own self-study of both anatomical topics and other non-anatomical ones, and provided me with some ideas of how I could be more efficient in doing so. This is especially true as it relates to how I set up my studying in terms of breaking up topics to study, how and when to implement repetition and quizzing, and how to best visually organize material. I also feel that I am able to better analyze resources that I am considering to use for study, and will be able to make a more informed decision on which are superior with some knowledge of these cognitive theories and qualities that promote and detract from learning. [171802_2]
META-COGNITIVE awareness of their learning process	Learning has always felt like a natural process. Even when learning difficult material, I never stopped to consider how I was learning, or what steps were involved in the learning process. I did not even consider if I was approaching the material effectively for my personal learning style; I just tried to take in, synthesize, understand, and then remember the information I was provided. My readings this week forced me to take a step back and be thoughtful about the process of learning. [192003_1]
Enhanced ENGAGEMENT, MOTIVATION for teaching and learning	The final reading inspired me to practice teaching as much as possible now, as a medical student, through peer teaching and outreach programs. I’m now even more excited about a new teaching project we are starting in which we plan to teach health-related topics to elementary-aged children. [192003_2].
Enhanced student–staff RELATIONSHIPS	However, sometimes, it may be difficult for teachers to reflect without student feedback. In medical education, this has been a tricky area because of the fact that students and teachers work so closely together. As mentioned above, the individual training and the ability to work one-on-one with our teachers makes learning more engaging and accountable. [192001_2]
Curriculum is NOT 'OWNED' by institution	Learners need to feel like their feedback is being heard. In addition, learners should likely have some say in the curriculum, as that is an important activity for self-reflection. What do they wish to learn from the educational experience? How will this serve them in the future? Only by considering and practicing material in an active and realistic environment, can students be well trained for their future endeavors. [202104_3]
CHALLENGE existing views of the world	Foremost among them for me is the idea that we do not in fact want “perfect” education. [Skinner] states that if everything written down on a syllabus is learned perfectly with no variation by every student, then that is tantamount to brainwashing. This point resonated with me... that variance in absorption of information and subsequent opinions on a subject (while troublesome for testing) may in fact be healthy for a field (and society) even when there are universal standards to be adhered to. [192002_2]