What Is Canva’s Design School? How to Get Started

Have you ever found yourself on Canva’s design platform and felt overwhelmed by the number of features and options available? It has Visual Suites, video and photo editing software, a Brand Hub, and so much more. There’s even a printing service.

Well, luckily for you, Canva knows it has a vast platform and has created a school to help. There’s everything from full courses to targeted tutorials to get you educated on everything that Canva has to offer.

Keep reading to learn more about Canva’s Design School and what you can gain from the experience.

What Is Canva’s Design School?

Canva’s Design School is a free online educational resource for creators by one of the largest online design platforms. There are many different courses and tutorials that you can choose from to learn about all types of subjects, from choosing the right font to mastering social media.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner designer or you’ve been using Canva’s creative elements for a while, Canva’s Design School has something for everyone. Canva is also constantly innovating its platform with new features, so there’s always something new to learn.

Where to Find Canva’s Design School

Canva’s Design School is only available on a web browser. From Canva’s main page, on the upper toolbar click on Learn > Design School. From here, you’ll be able to navigate toward the courses and the tutorials.

The Difference Between Courses and Tutorials

You can use Canva for many different things, and thankfully, the platform is aware of it. Within the Design School, there are a couple of different ways to learn about what Canva can offer you, whether it’s building designs or trying to figure out your way as a creator.

Canva Courses

You can choose to take a full course. A course will teach you about a specific topic and includes several lessons to break down the subject into a more digestible way to learn. For example, you can take a Canva course to help grow your business or even get a grasp on social media.

You don’t have to view the whole course in one sitting either. You have the option of learning at your own pace when it’s convenient for you—whether it be watching a video or simply reading the transcript. It’s up to you how you learn.

Additionally, the courses are led by experts in the subject that you’re trying to learn more about, so you can be confident that you’re getting accurate information from a reliable source.

Canva Tutorials

You also have the option of using guided tutorials. In Canva, tutorials are smaller instructional lessons for something specific you want to understand more about, like creating a line chart or using Canva Docs.

For instance, if you’re a student, there are several tutorials that show you how to use Canva to assist you with school projects and even make studying a bit more fun.

When looking through the tutorials that Canva offers, you’ll see an array of display styles. Some are videos explaining how to create something while others show a guide on Canva’s Editor page like a presentation.

The tutorials are categorized within detailed groups like “New Canva Features” and “Designing with Canva.” To find a specific tutorial, though, you’ll either need to search through each of the groups or type site: canva.com/designschool “whatever you’re looking for” in your web browser.

Taking a Course

The courses can be found first thing on Canva’s Design School page. If you see a course you want to take on the screen, click it. If not, select See All, and you’ll be able to choose from the whole selection.

For this article, we will select “Become a Pinterest Creator with Ashley Schroeder.” Once the course is opened, you’ll see lesson one’s video with its title underneath the video. You can jump right into the lesson by clicking the play button on the video.

On the right, you can see all the lessons available for the course. Each lesson is filled with information and relatively short in time. Just enough to allow you to take in the details without overwhelming you.

Within the lessons, you can also see links that correspond with what will be discussed—this helps to give you a more hands-on learning experience if you need it.

Below the video, the lesson’s overall information is displayed. You’ll see the video’s Key Learnings, the Transcript if you wish to read along, and details about The Experts giving you the information.

The courses are straightforward and contain a lot of details. If you feel a need to stop and take a rest or rewatch a lesson, do it—there’s no pressure with Canva’s Design School.

Walking Through a Tutorial

To find tutorials, scroll down on the Design School page past the courses, and you’ll see the groupings listed. There are so many tutorials to choose from, so take your time browsing through them until you find something that catches your eye.

For this article, we will look at “Choosing the Right Font” located in the “Designing with Canva.” This tutorial appears as a slideshow on the Editor page. When the Editor page opens, you’ll see the slideshow within the canvas area. All you have to do is scroll down to go through the pages.

These types of tutorials are considered hands-on because each slide incorporates a learning component alongside a do-it-yourself activity. In other words, Canva tells you how to do something, and you mimic it.

In the font tutorial, slide four explains how you can use shapes and scaling to create a fun effect with your words. Then it gives you a shape with some words to practice with.

Tutorials are incredibly short learning resources, but they do give you the opportunity to grow as a creator.

Is Canva’s Design School Worth Your Time?

Canva’s Design School has something for everyone—whether you’re a beginner or you’re looking for something new to add to your creations. Even if you have questions about print advertising or what new features have come out, Canva can help.

So in all, yes, the courses and the tutorials are worth investing some of your time into.

Consider Taking a Course or Tutorial With Canva’s Design School

Canva is filled with so many features and products that can be used in a variety of different ways. However, if you only stick to the basics when you’re designing, you’ll miss out on all the impressive things that the platform can do.

Instead, take some courses and explore the tutorials to see what cool elements you can add to your next creative project.