Introduction: The alignment between university graphic education and professional requirements is a key criterion for the effectiveness of university curricula. Workshop education, as the primary platform for experiential learning in graphic design, must possess characteristics such as a connection to real-world issues, collaborative learning, multi-source feedback, and professional evaluation. The theory of authentic learning, proposed by «Herrington and Oliver» as nine key components, provides a framework for assessing educational authenticity. This research aims to analyze the content of approved syllabi for workshop courses in undergraduate graphic design in Iran, based on the components of authentic learning, and seeks to answer the question: «To what extent do the official syllabi of workshop courses in undergraduate graphic design at Iranian universities align with the components of authentic learning?»
Research Method: This study was conducted using a descriptive-analytic and mixed approach. The research method was a directed qualitative content analysis based on the nine-component Herrington model. In the first step, the components of authentic learning were identified within the context of graphic design education. Then, 42 workshop course titles approved by the Ministry of Science were selected as the research population, and the official syllabi, including objectives, teaching methods, and evaluation methods, were analyzed. Subsequently, the obtained data were interpreted using descriptive analysis.
Findings: Based on the content analysis of the approved syllabi, the component of «Scaffolding» is present in all courses, and «Reflection» is also observed in a significant portion of the syllabi. In contrast, components such as «Authentic Context», «Authentic Assessment», «Multi-Source Feedback», and «Collaborative Learning» have limited presence or are not structurally included in the programs. This uneven distribution indicates a greater focus of the curricula on educational guidance, compared to the recreation of professional conditions and multi-faceted interactions at the approved curriculum level.
Conclusion: The research results indicate that, in the official syllabi of graphic design workshop courses at the undergraduate level, only a portion of the components of authentic learning are reflected in the program structure, and their prediction has not been systematically carried out. This situation indicates that, at the level of the approved curriculum, a comprehensive, structural link between workshop training and the professional ecosystem of graphic design has not been established, and the degree of alignment with the authentic learning model is relative and limited.