The introduction of Coding and Robotics (CoRo) as a subject in South Africa’s basic education system presents significant challenges for teacher education institutions navigating resource constraints, curriculum reform, and post-pandemic shifts toward blended and online learning. This paper reports on a pragmatic participatory action research project in which lecturers and students collaboratively critiqued new credit-bearing undergraduate CoRo modules across four contact-learning campuses within a private higher education institution. The courses extended beyond foundational coding and computational thinking to foreground drawing, design modelling, and computer-aided design, positioning CoRo as a convergence of visual languages. It also explored students’ roles as co-designers and constructive critics of their creative and technological learning through peer assessment and portfolio self-critique. Framed within a pragmatic socio-technical perspective, the study centres around lecturers’ and students’ experiences as novice co-researchers working across face-to-face practical activities and digitally mediated communication spaces. Lecturers developed new manual and online graphic communication skills while collaboratively refining course design through WhatsApp dialogue, online focus groups, shared resources, and synchronous meetings. These platforms enabled geographically dispersed staff to co-design and evaluate a creative module not previously offered within the institution or nationally in modular form. Student participation in course critique amplified diverse voices across geographic and cultural contexts. Data were generated through pre- and post-implementation surveys, WhatsApp exchanges, recorded meetings, and analysis of student design portfolios. Findings show that digitally mediated collaboration mitigated institutional disruption, supported creative learning, and enabled rapid pedagogical adaptation. Portfolio critique and student feedback highlighted both the value of learning practical creative skills and the limits of relying on lecturers as third-party transmitters of student voice. The study concludes by arguing for the earlier inclusion of voluntary student co-researchers in course design to strengthen participatory practice, cultural responsiveness, and sustainable curriculum innovation in CoRo teacher education.