Relational co-creation in work-integrated learning: Contextual validation of the DART framework
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64775/ciwil.2026.64173Keywords:
Co-creation, Collaborative governance , DART framework , Exploratory factor analysis , Social learning spaces , Work-integrated learningAbstract
Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) is increasingly understood as a governance-intensive ecosystem in which universities, students, and external stakeholders co-create knowledge across institutional boundaries. While co-creation has gained relevance in WIL research, empirically validated instruments to assess the relational conditions that support such collaboration remain limited. The DART framework – Dialogue, Access, Risk Assessment, and Transparency – was originally developed in commercial innovation settings to capture key dimensions of value co-creation. However, its structural validity in higher education and WIL contexts remain underexplored. This study examines whether the DART framework retains its original dimensional structure when applied to a governance-intensive WIL setting. A Portuguese adaptation of the DART scale was administered to external stakeholders (n = 46) participating in the WE: Working and Envisioning Community of Practice at Bragança Polytechnic University (Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, IPB). The WE programme engages multidisciplinary student teams and external partners in challenge-based collaboration around real-world problems. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted to examine how the framework performs in this context. The original four-dimensional structure was not replicated. Instead, two integrated domains emerged: one combining Dialogue and Access, and another combining Risk Assessment and Transparency. These findings suggest that, in this WIL ecosystem, the relational dimensions captured by DART may be experienced as structurally interconnected rather than clearly distinct. Although exploratory, based on a modest sample, and limited to one institutional context, this study highlights the importance of adapting and validating relational measurement instruments when transferring them across different institutional settings.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Bárbara Barroso, Cláudia S. Costa, Inês Barbedo, Pedro Rodrigues, Fernando Pereira, Juliana Almeida-de-Souza, Celeste Antão, Rebeca Lachovicz, Vera Ferro-Lebres
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