Spring 2027

Design Thinking for Transformation

Design Thinking for Transformation teaches techniques for creative analysis and problem solving, applied to human-centered design challenges through prototyping and testing real-world projects.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Samuel Dennis3.9/5

Summary

1 / 5

Past student reviews · Samuel Dennis

Attendance was somewhat mandatory and the class relied entirely on group work, but no textbooks were required.

Grade history

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average GPA
letter grades
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
DS 341

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 5.00/5 from 4 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 5.0/5 raw quality · 1.5/5 difficulty · 2 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Samuel Dennis

Students described Samuel Dennis as an incredibly understanding and easy grader who made the course an easy A, provided attendance was maintained. The class relied heavily on group work and did not require purchasing any textbooks.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.77 GPA, 88.5% A/AB (n=26 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.74 GPA, 93.5% A/AB (n=31 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.69 GPA, 91.7% A/AB (n=36 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Lesley Sager

One student noted Lesley Sager had a passion for the material but dropped the class because she felt uncomfortable and left out. The reviewer claimed they were picked on despite paying attention.

LESLEY SAGER is recorded teaching in Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

SAMUEL DENNIS JR is recorded teaching in Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 400
LEC 002Classroom Instruction0 / 500

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Samuel Dennis

Students described Professor Dennis as incredibly understanding and an easy grader who made the course accessible.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.77 GPA, 88.5% A/AB (n=26 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.66 GPA, 83.6% A/AB (n=61 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.69 GPA, 91.7% A/AB (n=36 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Samuel Dennis

Attendance was somewhat mandatory and the class relied entirely on group work, but no textbooks were required.

Past student reviews · Samuel Dennis

A non-design major found the teaching high quality, rating it the best professor experience at UW-Madison.

Topics

  • Design thinking techniques
  • Human-centered design challenges
  • Everyday situation improvements and community issues

Skills

  • Design thinking techniques for creative analysis and problem solving
  • Applying design techniques to human-centered design challenges
  • Innovating, prototyping, and testing designs under real-world constraints

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

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AB
B
BC
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D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
DS 341 · Spring 2027

Design Thinking for Transformation

Recorded 2026-10-29
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261029T213040-0fa85c20",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-29 21:30:40.248904+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:359:024854",
    "course_id": "DS 341",
    "course_uid": "course_bc15af5ed86c36d93f9f6c04",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "024854",
    "source_subject_id": "359",
    "title": "Design Thinking for Transformation",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-29

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "0c914e721ae469cce52292c23bc5fba094798dd156732777b5dadf05247615ca",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "c9cd06eaa45f9ddf7e69faa38b89ff3d3dd995dd",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-29 21:30:40.248904+00:00"
}