The purpose of this session is to present learning and teaching innovation relating to the inception and delivery of GSA’s First Year inter-disciplinary collaborative course, Co-Lab 2, which introduces students to research and practice through a variety of collaborations using themes of sustainability and global justice.

Using aspects of the course as a case study we will pose provocations to consider how this approach can inform and be applied to other areas of higher education. We will present the evolution of the course and how it has been modified through iterative developments over its first 3 years. We will share examples of collaboration by both staff and students, discuss the benefits of these, and what we consider constitutes good collaboration and best practice.

We will discuss the opportunities the experience of cross-school collaboration presents to students and will consider how comfort and discomfort has a role to play in this. We will include approaches taken to the design of the curriculum that support students to become informed creative practitioners and responsible global citizens.

We will review some of the challenges staff have encountered, such as tutoring students of mixed disciplines, dealing with modes of submission and assessment, and acknowledging the complexities of assessing collaborating individuals against intended learning outcomes.

Through presenting our experience of delivering a collaborative course, and what we have learned from this, we hope to encourage participants to consider how collaboration, and aspects of our approach, can in turn inform their own teaching practice.