COURSE CURRICULUM

The Master in Innovation Design (MID) at Wichita State University is structured as a minimum 30-credit-hour interdisciplinary graduate program that blends design thinking, creativity, entrepreneurship, and applied prototyping through coursework and a major culminating experience. All students complete core required courses such as ID 513 Human-Centric Design Thinking and ID 752 Innovation Studio 1: Product Development, which establish foundational skills in human-centered problem solving, iterative design, and collaborative innovation practices. Beyond these shared requirements, the program offers flexible elective selection, allowing students to customize their academic pathway in consultation with faculty advisors by drawing from relevant graduate-level courses across disciplines such as psychology, human factors, graphic design, and other innovation-related fields within Wichita State University. A key feature of the MID program is its dual plan-of-study structure, which must be formally approved within the first 12 credit hours of enrollment. Students may choose either a thesis option or a directed project option depending on their career goals and interest in research versus applied development. The thesis option requires at least 24 credit hours of coursework plus 6 credit hours dedicated to ID 842 Thesis, culminating in a formal thesis defense under Graduate School policies. This path is typically suited for students interested in deeper research, academic progression, or advanced analytical design inquiry. Alternatively, the directed project option requires a minimum of 27 credit hours of coursework plus 3 credit hours of ID 841 Project, culminating in a substantial applied deliverable such as a prototype, portfolio, business plan, process innovation, or even a patent application, making it highly practice-oriented and industry-focused. Both pathways emphasize applied learning as a core graduation requirement, ensuring students gain hands-on experience in real-world innovation contexts. Additional program components include Professional and Scholarly Integrity Training and an optional zero-credit practicum that facilitates networking among students and faculty. Unlike many traditional graduate programs, MID does not require a formal internship, instead embedding experiential learning directly into studio courses and project work, making it especially suitable for students aiming to work in product design, UX/UI, entrepreneurship, innovation consulting, and cross-disciplinary creative technology roles.