A one-day, hands-on design thinking experience.

Design Thinking for Learning Designers

Design Thinking for Learning Designers is an online short course offered through UCT’s Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT), developed in collaboration with d-school Afrika. The course supports participants to work through a design thinking process while tackling a real-life learning and/or teaching challenge - exploring context-sensitive solutions in multidisciplinary groups, prototyping ideas, gathering feedback, and refining outcomes through iteration.

Duration: 6 weeks

Location: Online

Cost:

R6,000

(discounts available)

Spaces: Limited

Apply design thinking to education

Work through a design thinking process to respond to real teaching and learning challenges.

Prototype and test ideas

Build a prototype, gather feedback, and refine your approach through iteration.

Learn in multidisciplinary groups

Collaborate with others to explore context-sensitive solutions and reflect on your practice.

What is this course?

This course takes participants through a design thinking process grounded in design thinking principles and approaches. Working on a real-life learning and/or teaching problem, participants explore solutions in multidisciplinary groups and build a prototype in order to gather feedback and suggest improvements.

It is a collaborative offering that was designed and developed with input from d-school Afrika and is hosted through CILT as part of the Blended and Online Learning Design (BOLD) short course suite.

What you’ll experience

Orientation and onboarding
A Design Thinking Dash
Design thinking principles and ethics
Challenge definition and ideation
Prototyping and testing
Consolidation and assessment

Who it’s for

This course is suited to participants working with teaching, learning, and learning design challenges in higher education contexts, including educators, learning designers, academic development practitioners, and others working in educational innovation. It is also open to current full-time postgraduate students (discounts available).

Why attend?

Practise a structured design thinking process for teaching and learning challenges
Explore context-sensitive solutions with others in multidisciplinary groups
Prototype, gather feedback, and refine ideas through iteration
Strengthen reflective practice around design-led interventions

Certification options

Attended: Attend 80% of workshops
Passed: Attend 80% of workshops, submit coursework as required, complete the course evaluation, and successfully complete the final individual assignment
A letter of recognition of participation is issued to participants who attend 80% of workshops, submit coursework, and complete the course evaluation (no final assignment submitted). Attendance at 80% of weekly meetings is compulsory for successful completion.

Design Thinking for Learning Designers Format

Duration: 6 weeks

Location: Online

Cost:

R6,000

(discounts available)

Spaces: Limited

Upcoming Course Dates

16:00–18:00

Cohort 1 (Short Course):

30 March – 14 May 2026 (Tue/Thu)

Cohort 2 (Mid-year cohort):

22 June – 2 August 2026 (Mon/Wed)

Short course participants enrol and pay via the UCT Learning Store (CILT).

Cost (2026)

Full cost: R6,000

Discounts available:

10% discount when enrolling 5 or more participants
30% discount for UCT staff (R4,200)
50% discount for current full-time postgraduate students (R3,000)
10% discount for HELTASA members (R5,400)

NB: Request a discount voucher code from pgbold@uct.ac.za before enrolling.