Just come across this open access article by Holen et al about the 'student as partner' idea (with which the students as producer idea has something in common). It talks about different meanings of the concept and different ways of enacting it.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03075079.2020.1770717
I think our own students have recently shown a willingness to engage in consumer-type partnership when they have actively looked for ways to shape the debate about assessment practices in the lockdown period.