Enroll in a winter or summer session course to explore our Human Centered Design curricula, meet our faculty and learn more about our undergraduate majors. Winter/summer courses are anticipated to be offered online in 2025, and can be taken from anywhere around the globe. Enrollment is open to current students, high school students, and anyone wishing to improve their design-thinking, build portfolios, and address global challenges. 

Course offerings are below. Enroll through Cornell’s School of Continuing Education.  Registration is now open for the 2025 Winter Session, January 2-18, 2025.  Summer 2025 enrollment opens March 17, 2025.
 

Winter courses

DEA 1112: Change-making: Designing Healthy and Hospitable Environments
Designing Human-Centered, Healthy and Hospitable Environments is a three-week course examining design innovations and some impacts on management/operations in hospitality, communication, business, healthcare, and senior housing. During this course students will learn how design impacts organizations and every aspect of daily life. Using case studies, familiar examples, and interactions with a variety of leaders from design, healthcare and hospitality fields, students will engage with design thinking and explore new career pathways.
 

Summer courses

DEA 1100: Design Generation(s)
In this three-week session, students will learn how designers think, solve problems, and improve our world. The need for critical thinkers is great and this course will enable students to better understand the world and their role in creating a more humane and sustainable future. The course also introduces design methodologies for creative thinking and practice design skills: sketching, modeling, prototyping, graphics, exhibition design.

DEA 1110: Making a Difference by Design
This course focuses on how leaders in a variety of fields use design as a social change agent. It interweaves theories of leadership and creative problem-solving through case study examinations of a wide range of design innovations in technology, communication, business, education, medicine, human development and ecology. Students learn how design affects their daily lives from the person to the planet. Additional topics include nurturing creativity, visual communications, values-led entrepreneurship, and designing across cultures.

DEA 1500: Introduction to Environmental Psychology
Environmental Psychology is an interdisciplinary field concerned with how the physical environment and human behavior interrelate. Most of the course focuses on how residential environments and urban and natural settings affect human health and well-being. Students also examine how human attitudes and behaviors affect environmental quality. Issues of environmental justice and culture are included throughout. Hands-on projects plus exams. Lecture and discussion sections

FSAD 1120: Fashion Design and Visual Thinking, aka “The Fashion Studio: Portfolio Development”
In this interactive studio precollege program, you'll develop fashion design skills, deepen your knowledge of fashion tools and trends, and build a professional-grade design portfolio.  Enrollment is limited to current high school sophomores, juniors & seniors. 

FSAD/DEA 1140 Principles of Design Computing 
This course will cover foundational skills and best practices for design communication in terms of the underlying principles of computing technologies. This course will help students become versatile in utilizing various approaches and tools for tasks in Design and Environmental Analysis (DEA) and Fiber Science & Apparel Design (FSAD) programs. Through lectures, class activities, homework and projects, the course will help students build confidence in digital design skills and be encouraged to explore further on their own.

FSAD 1350: Fibers, Fabrics, and Finishes
This course introduces the properties and performance of textile materials and processes and provides a general overview of the textile industry from a scientific perspective. Focus is on materials used in apparel and home furnishing markets.  Enrollment is open to all Cornell students and the community.