Tech 12000 Design Thinking in Technology is a core course in the Polytechnic Institute at Purdue University. The course exposes students to the design process over 3 projects that scaffold into one another. Projects encompass all parts of design, including building empathy, problem definition, brainstorming, prototyping, and testing. I’ve taught this course 65 times and I always find ways to coach students through the process or come up against a challenge that students need help with. The course is never the same way twice.

While I teach Tech 12000, I am also the course director/program coordinator. I oversee hiring and managing course instructors, design course materials, manage the LMS, train graduate student graders, mentor graduate student instructors, and hire/manage undergraduate TAs. I do not have any grading responsibilities – I train graders on proper assessment, which they can use in future course sections or for their own teaching. Leading with integrity and having realistic expectations is crucial for a positive experience for over 1,400 Polytechnic Students annually. In Fall 2023, I taught the Honors section and facilitated 6 student groups in service-learning projects, addressing community issues. Additionally, as a co-PI on an NSF-funded research grant, I contributed to refining our HyFlex instructional model post-COVID-19, resulting in 11 publications and 4 conference presentations. Our model has been shared with the Teaching and Learning Community of Practice at Purdue (TLCoP) as well.

I created the Honors section of Tech 12000 and have taught it for four years. Since its creation, students have engaged in book reviews, design-related case studies for the scholarly projects, completed service-learning projects, and will be working with global student partners to create solutions that include global perspectives.