Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions

An Online Experience

Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions is a special kind of multidisciplinary experience created for all incoming first-year and transfer students and their families.

Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions aims to encourage students to discover more about various disciplines, to connect with the broader NC State community, and to apply and reflect on what and how they’re learning.

The experience is packaged as an online course available in WolfWare, NC State’s suite of academic technologies, giving incoming students experience with the technologies they’ll use during their academic careers before they begin their first semester at NC State.

(Y)Our Changing World

We all encounter change. Students new to the Wolfpack members will soon see their personal, social, and academic lives change. We all see large and small changes in our natural world and our built environments that happen every day. In Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions: (Y)Our Changing World, we’ll embark on a journey where we explore the changes we are experiencing, and consider whether and how we adapt and innovate in order to thrive through transitions.

After successfully completing the course, students earn two (2) NC State credit hours at no cost. Yes, two free credits toward your degree. The course has been approved to count toward the Interdisciplinary Perspectives GEP requirement.

The course is not required; however, we encourage students to take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity created just for incoming students. Students can stop the course at anytime with no penalty.

Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions aims to encourage students to discover more about various disciplines, to connect with the broader NC State community, and to Think and Do, applying and reflecting upon what they’re learning.

FEATURED CONTENT

‘A Wicked Success’: Award-Winning NC State Experience Celebrates Five Years of Impact

As Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions marks five years of challenging incoming students to Think and Do, it’s also earning national recognition, including winning the Online Learning Consortium Award of Excellence in Digital Learning Innovation at OLC Innovate 2025.

DELTA News 

Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions 2024 Focuses on (Y)Our Health

Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions 2024 focuses on (Y)Our Health and will be offered June 24-July 26. It is a no-cost, two-credit course that encourages students to explore different disciplines, connect with their professors and peers, and apply learned skills to the world around them.

DELTA News 

(Y)Our Health is Focus of Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions 2023

How can you attract new students to participate in a summer course before attending NC State? Offering two free credits is one way. What’s the catch? There is none!

DELTA News 

Creating Interdisciplinary Solutions

Many of our most difficult challenges are too complex to solve through individual disciplines. Biologists cannot stop pandemics on their own, nor can engineers tackle global change alone.

Provost’s Office News 

Food for Thought

“The Future of Food” is the third in a series called “Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions” launched in the summer of 2020 as a way to help keep students engaged over the summer as well as get used to learning online.

NC State Alumni Magazine 

Looking Back on a Wicked Summer

Five weeks, 47 presenters, and 100s of students later, Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions: Global Change celebrates a summer of learning.

DELTA News 

Wicked Awesome

A new online course — “Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions” — gives incoming first-year students an extraordinary opportunity to learn and connect.

NC State News 

ELI Annual Meeting 2021 On-Demand Session

Wicked Problems Require Interdisciplinary Solutions: The 10-Week Sprint to Create an Innovative Incoming-Student Experience

Wolfpack Solutions Video