Affordable Content Models
Robert L. Butterfield
by Robert L. Butterfield, University of Wisconsin-Stout (bio)
Introduction
The University of Wisconsin-Stout is one of the thirteen four-year campuses of the University of Wisconsin System. Founded by Senator James Huff Stout in 1891 as the Stout Manual Training School, Stout serves approximately 9,500 students studying in 48 undergraduate and 23 graduate degree programs (University of Wisconsin-Stout, 2017). Programs at Stout range from a large Art and Design program to video game design, vocational rehabilitation, engineering, hospitality and tourism, and education.
Innovation is a key characteristic of the Stout community. The university’s mission and method drive a desire to provide an education that is “hands on, minds on.” A great example of this is Stout’s designation as “Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University” in 2007 (University of Wisconsin-Stout, 2017). As a polytechnic, Stout offers its students a combination of applied learning coupled with a strong liberal arts education. The applied learning approach is supported by an environment that provides more lab spaces than classroom spaces.
Another way Stout differs from a traditional higher education campus is that it is a “laptop” campus. Every on-campus undergraduate student is issued a laptop, preloaded with the software students will need to pursue their studies. Each laptop is refreshed every two years, and a student can purchase the computer upon graduation.
Innovation, however, does not come without preparation. UW-Stout has dedicated itself to a robust practice of strategic institutional planning, which is practiced from the bottom up and the top down. Stout strengthens itself by encouraging input from all stakeholders, whether they be external, faculty, staff, or students. The culmination of this dedication to successful planning resulted in the university being the first higher-education institution to be awarded the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 2001.
One of the strongest and most unique innovations at Stout, however, is a program created specifically to serve students: the UW-Stout Textbook Affordability Program. Implemented at the university’s founding, it has endured in one way, shape, or form for well over one hundred years. This chapter provides an overview of Stout’s historic textbook rental program, describes the development of a digital resources program to augment the print rental system, discusses the inclusion of the university’s open educational resource (OER) program, and, finally, provides insight into how Stout has melded these elements into a comprehensive affordability program.
The Textbook Rental Program
From the school’s inception, Stout’s founding father, James Huff Stout, understood the importance of affordability. He committed not just to providing an opportunity for young people to earn an education, but to their success afterward. This is very much in evidence in his plans for the Stout Manual Trai