Open Education 2017

Open educational resources are a direct path to student savings at almost every institution. This is not strictly the case at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

UW-Stout has a long tradition of providing its students with low-cost textbooks. For over one hundred years, that program has been delivered through different variations of a print textbook rental system provided through a student fee funded model. UW-Stout's students pay about $360 per year for course materials.

In 2012, digital textbooks and adaptive learning platform access codes were included with textbook rental to provide a broader range of classroom tools for faculty and students. The move to digital course content has complicated the landscape of providing a student fee funded textbook program at a low cost. Digital content often costs twice as much to provide to students than in the traditional print rental system. UW-Stout has implemented several strategies to combat the increase in cost. One of these strategies is the inclusion of a vibrant open educational resource program.

OERs offer an excellent opportunity to include quality, low-cost resources to the Stout curriculum and stabilize cost. The decision to utilize OERs has resulted in the Stout Open for Learning and Value in Education (SOLVE) program. The SOLVE Program has been developed to make OERs a critical component of a three-pronged approach to ensuring course content affordability at UW-Stout.

This session will share insight and techniques of how UW-Stout is utilizing strategic vision and a century of institutional knowledge about providing low-cost content to provide a comprehensive, sustainable approach to making OERs an integral part of their affordability approach for the next one hundred years.