Vega School

Vega is an educational brand of The Independent Institute of Education (The IIE), SA’s leading provider.  Qualifications ranging from higher certificates to masters degrees in design, brand communication and management are delivered at our four campuses in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban

The following qualifications fall within Vega’s design portfolio:

  • Graphic Design
  • Fashion Design
  • Interior Design
  • Multimedia Design
  • Game Design and Development
  • Copywriting
  • Photography

Vega’s approach to learning focuses on creating an academic environment that is based on experiential learning, and consists of interactive lectures, small lecture groups, the use of technology to enhance the educational space and lecturers who are passionate about their work and industries.

All campuses are equipped with digital studios, libraries, creative and photographic studios, exhibition facilities, sound studios and cafeterias. Students have the opportunity to work collaboratively on real life briefs and experience the influence of transdisciplinary team work. This ensures Vega students graduate industry ready.

The Independent Institute of Education is registered with the Department of Higher Education and Training as a private higher education institution and is responsible for quality assuring and conferring all the qualifications offered at Vega. The IIE is accredited with The British Accreditation Council guaranteeing students complete confidence about the value of their qualifications.

Website

Visual mapping and meaning-creation: Making research visual for design-based thinkers

AuthorInstitution
Simpson, JodyVega School
Pretorius, NarethaVega School

Keywords: 

Discipline: 

Design Education Research
Simpson - Visual mapping and meaning-creation Making research visual.pdf

In exploring the significance of metropolitan open space systems in building meaningful city brands, the researcher utilised Visual Narrative Inquiry to explore the opinions, perceptions and lived experiences of Durban residents and its’ metropolitan open space system. As a design-based practitioner, the researcher grappled with finding suitable ‘meaning-making’ methodologies that would answer to both the academic rigour required of a master’s dissertation as well as their own needs to visually make sense of the ideas, theories, models, and metrices.

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An exploration of co-creating South African city brands to revive the tourism industry post a global pandemic

AuthorInstitution
Sabre, SallyVega School
Burger, YolandiVega School

Keywords: 

Discipline: 

Media & Communications Design
Sabre - An exploration of co-creating South African city brands to revive the tourism industry.pdf

City branding involves establishing unique identities for cities using branding principles. While Johannesburg and Cape Town are among Africa's best-branded cities, their branding strategies were largely top-down, lacking collaborative stakeholder engagement. In the wake of the global pandemic that severely impacted tourism, there is an urgent need to revise these strategies through a co-creative approach.

In South Africa, city branding activities can benefit the local tourism sector, which was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with strict lockdown measures leading to a standstill in tourism activities throughout 2020 and 2021. As restrictions eased and businesses in the sector aimed to revive tourism, innovative approaches became necessary.

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Fostering design students’ professional confidence for workplace success through transdisciplinary online collaborative problem-based learning

AuthorInstitution
Cronje, FranciVega School
Enslin, CarlaVega School

Keywords: 

Discipline: 

Design Education Strategy
Cronje - Fostering design students’ professional confidence for workplace success.pdf

This paper builds on previous research and the insights gained from thematic analysis of reflections by students and educator panels on an online collaborative problem-based learning (CPBL) project across four campuses at a South African private higher education institution. The research found a strong connection between student and educator reflections and reveals that collaborative project-based learning (CPBL) is crucial to building students' confidence in transdisciplinary collaboration within a real-world online setting. Consequently, the researchers begin this paper with a proposed framework for fostering confident transdisciplinary CPBL online.

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Flipping the script: Using artificial intelligence to design authentic assessment rubrics

AuthorInstitution
Carstens, LizetteVega School
Geyser, MarethaVega School
Graaf, ChristiaanVega School

Keywords: 

Discipline: 

Design Education Research
Design Education Strategy
Carstens - Flipping the script Using artificial intelligence.pdf

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is a key driver of innovation across all sectors and in education it has the power to optimise teaching and learning to benefit educators and students alike. However, the increasing prominence and influence of AI in domains previously exclusive to humans, such as design, raises urgent questions about the assessment of learning in design education. Recent writings in the field of design education agree that in the age of AI, educators need to revisit existing assessment practices. Conversations about AI and assessment practices appear to revolve around upholding academic integrity and defining what should be assessed when students can create design outcomes using generative AI.

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Communication design industry – in search of unicorns or new pathways?

AuthorInstitution
van Zyl, RiaVega School
Carstens, LizetteVega School

Keywords: 

van Zyl - Communication design industry – in search of unicorns or new pathways.pdf

An integral part of curriculum design is continuously reviewing workplace and industry needs and requirements. International design research and research of a general nature provide some guidance for curriculum developers and lecturers, but research on the local design industry is fragmented and scarce. This lack of available and rigorous research on the local design industry provides a gap for this paper that explores the nature, needs, and requirements of the local design industry and the changing career pathways of designers.

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Collaborating online with strangers

AuthorInstitution
Cronje, FranciVega School
Enslin, CarlaVega School

Keywords: 

Discipline: 

Design Education Research
Collaborating online with strangers

This paper reports on a qualitative case study exploring design student reflections about their experiences of a transdisciplinary online collaboration in a real-world learning project implemented in October 2020. The spread of a global pandemic that caused a primary and rapid shift from a contact-based learning model to fully fledged online teaching marked the year and learning for student participants. Applying an interpretivist paradigm, the researchers thematically analysed reflection essays from a sample of thirty-two design students to expose dominant perceptions.

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Towards 4IR and African scholarship: Exploring research capacity in the widening discipline of communication design

AuthorInstitution
van Zyl, RiaVega School
Carstens, LizetteVega School

Keywords: 

Discipline: 

Media & Communications Design
Towards 4IR and African scholarship: Exploring research capacity in the widening discipline of communication design

Scholarship has many dimensions, such as the scholarship of research/discovery; the scholarship of integration, application, and teaching; and the scholarship of public and democratic engagement where knowledge is co-constructed. These broader notions of scholarship challenge the traditional understanding of a university and position scholars and researchers in a broader socio-economic, historical, and cultural context. Design as a field developed and widened as a result of new challenges and opportunities – for example the fourth industrial revolution – and changes in the discipline.

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Postgraduate Communication Design Education in South Africa: Challenges and opportunities

AuthorInstitution
van Zyl, RiaVega School
Naude, LoffieThe Da Vinci Institute

Keywords: 

Discipline: 

Media & Communications Design
Postgraduate Communication Design Education in South Africa: Challenges and opportunities

The study qualitatively explored the local communication-design-education landscape and identified the structures, nature, challenges and role players. Theoretical models with the potential to guide the development of postgraduate design education were analysed. These are the Mode 1, 2 and 3 models, Innovation Triple, Quadruple and Quintuple Helix models, as well as research approaches that have the potential to better align academia with industry, such as practice-based and practice-led research, recognition of prior learning and work-integrated learning.

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Paying it forward: Practicing Scholarship of Engagement in Design Education

AuthorInstitution
Enslin, CarlaIndependent Institute of Education
Cronje, FranciVega School

Keywords: 

Discipline: 

Design Education Research
Paying it forward: Practicing Scholarship of Engagement in Design Education

This paper reports on a project named Platform 6, which was designed to facilitate teacher development and thereby to develop teachers as scholars. Initiated within the context of Boyer’s Scholarship of Engagement (1991), Platform 6 is a training programme and awareness drive devised for secondary school design teachers on the pedagogy of teaching design thinking and practice.

The exploratory first leg of Platform 6 was limited to a sample of National Senior Certificate (NSC) schools in the Western Cape. Qualitative-exploratory research methodology was employed to gain real world insight about the teaching and learning environment of design teachers in South Africa. It was useful to understand the dynamics of design teaching in grades 10 to 12 in Western Cape schools.

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Towards human-centered design solutions: Stakeholder participation during brief development

AuthorInstitution
Carstens, LizetteVega School

Keywords: 

Discipline: 

Graphic Design & Visual Art
Towards human-centered design solutions: Stakeholder participation during brief development

"...the [designer's] task is to design for the individual placed in his or her immediate context." (Buchanan 1998, p. 20)

This  paper  about  a  graphic  design  case  study  discusses  the  positive  impact  of  stakeholder participation during the problem-setting phase of the design process on the designer's ability to reframe the design problem and to conceptualise human-centered design solutions that add value and enrich people's everyday lives.

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The Importance of Cultural Exposure for Designers

AuthorInstitution
Berger, JanetVega School

Keywords: 

Discipline: 

Design Education Strategy
The Importance of Cultural Exposure for Designers

As South Africans, we have often taken a somewhat perverse pride in how complex our society is. It is with a macabre delight that we talk about our population of approximately 43 million people being made up of about 8 different cultural groups speaking 11 official languages and practicing many different religions. We have 1st and 3rd world infrastructures, incredibly diverse literacy levels and ethnic affiliations and we are in the process of re-inventing ourselves as a nation and a new democracy. How complex, how colourful, how diverse we pride ourselves in being.

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Latest News & Events

DEFSA conferences

DEFSA promotes relevant research with the focus on design + education through its biennial conferences, to promote professionalism, accountability and ethics in the education of young designers. Our next conference is a hybrid event. See above for details.

Critical skills endorsement

Professional Members in good standing can receive a certificate of membership, but DEFSA cannot provide confirmation or endorsement of skills whatsoever. DEFSA only confirm membership of DEFSA which is a NPO for Design Education in South Africa (https://www.defsa.org.za/imagine).