ABSTRACT This paper introduces Proto.IoT, an IoT prototyping toolkit designed to complement teaching in Higher Education (HE) by enabling non-expert users to learn IoT concepts through making within time-constrained lecture settings. The significance of Proto.IoT lies in its abstraction of hardware and software implementations, facilitating accessibility for non-experts through a visual rule-based programming environment and plug-and-play approaches. A pilot study, involving 25 IoT developers from the UK and Malaysia, evaluated the IoT back-end system architecture, revealing that Proto.IoT was perceived as user-friendly and effective in reducing development time. The main evaluation focused on the toolkit's front-end rule-based graphical user interface (GUI), engaging 41 undergraduate students. Results indicated that the toolkit supported prototype ideation and was intuitive to use. These findings illustrate the potential of IoT prototyping toolkits to complement traditional lectures, fostering rapid prototyping and ideation, thus facilitating maker education within formal classroom settings.