This qualitative study explores the effectiveness of employing a design thinking approach in enhancing graduate students' creativity in an instructional design course in the Department of Educational Technology at King Saud University. The study addresses the problem of monotonous ideas and limited creativity often observed in student projects, as traditional instructional design models tend to discourage innovation. To provide a more experiential learning environment, the intervention integrates design thinking pedagogy through the use of real-life case studies in instructional and training design. These case studies require students to work collaboratively through the five stages of design thinking—empathizing with users, defining problems, ideating solutions, prototyping, and testing—to produce innovative training products. Research participants included 32 female postgraduate students. The research tools were observation, semi-structured interviews, and student records. Analysis was conducted through thematic analysis. The research findings demonstrated improved empathy, improved creativity dimensions (fluency, flexibility, and originality), and stronger collaboration, along with challenges such as time constraints and initial resistance. This study contributes theoretically by extending design thinking applications beyond design education into instructional technology, and practically by providing educators with strategies to cultivate creativity in postgraduate classrooms. Data analysis is ongoing, and the results presented are preliminary.

Keywords: Design thinking, Creativity, Instructional design, Postgraduate students, Higher education, Qualitative research, Innovation, Case study.