Making Great Strides, 2002-03 Annual Report

 

Digital Learning

Goal 1
Academic Programs

Goal 2
Active Learning

Goal 3
Academic Excellence

Goal 4
Promoting Diversity

Goal 5
Campus Climate

Goal 6
Improved Facilities

Goal 7
Educational Support

Goal 7:

Provide responsive, efficient and cost-effective educational support programs and services

 

Promoting academic success for freshmen

A student leads a "Fresh Success" activity.Fresh Success, a first-year-student residential program at UW-Stout, continues to help freshmen transition to college life by providing a highly social and dynamic setting. The programs and activities sponsored by Fresh Success residence hall staff are designed to help students get to know one another quickly, and to help make UW-Stout feel like home to them. In addition, the staff helps freshmen work through specific transition issues, such as homesickness, achieving autonomy and budgeting.

The fall 2002 expansion of the Fresh Success program to a second residence hall increased participation from 480 freshmen to more than 600. Approximately 50 percent of all freshmen now live in a Fresh Success residence hall.

In addition, Fresh Success's fifth year was marked by the following program enhancements that targeted academic success:

  • Student Academic Mentor, a peer mentor who works with students on a number of academic skill areas, including note taking, time management, goal setting and calculating grade point averages. Fresh Success students met at least once per semester with a SAM to talk about their academic experience.
  • Courses taught in the Fresh Success residence halls, including several sections of fundamentals of speech and strategies for academic success. The popularity of these courses has led to plans for future residence hall course offerings, such as freshman English and introduction to service management.

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Developing online course resources

Instructors develop online courses or enhance traditional courses through WebCamps.UW-Stout WebCamps and a new e-Scholar course delivery tool have helped many instructors develop online courses or enhance traditional courses by posting resources on the Web.

At this year's Extreme WebCamp, 25 instructors with advanced computer skills gained a full command of Blackboard course development software. The extreme campers participated in a WebCamp Blackboard course as students and created their own Blackboard courses as instructors.

Two other WebCamps piloted the new e-Scholar course delivery tool developed by UW-Stout staff. This unique tool was created to:

  • automatically produce a Web presence for every section of every course offered at UW-Stout.
  • offer instructors templates for ease of use.
  • standardize online course presentation, allowing students to anticipate course elements.

The two WebCamp pilot groups were instrumental in improving the e-Scholar course delivery tool to meet the specific needs of UW-Stout instructors. During the January 2003 camp, 27 WebCampers plus 6 "control group" participants who piloted the tool generated an amazing 171 Web-enhanced courses, making Web resources available to nearly 2,300 students.

UW-Stout also offered an additional 599 Blackboard courses during the spring 2003 semester, totaling 770 Web-enhanced or online courses.

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Creating a dynamic entry

In keeping with the university's digital environment, UW-Stout redesigned its Web site, making it more dynamic, and easier to use, maintain and alter. The new site features:

  • dynamic content displayed prominently on the home page — more effectively markets the university.
  • a fresh image — highlights a consistent identity, including the signature navy blue and copper colors.
  • a new information architecture — makes the more than 35,000 files on the Web site more accessible to all users.
  • rollover navigation — eliminates clutter on the main page while leading users to the information they are seeking.
  • new user-friendly page templates — maintains a consistent site identity while allowing individual departments and offices on campus to easily customize their pages.
  • a content management system — allows campus Web page developers to generate and update dynamic content from central databases.
  • an automated 404-error reporting system — detects dead Web links and notifies the page owner, reducing errors from 2.5 percent of total site hits to less than 1 percent.
  • a do-it-yourself survey Web page — allows staff and students to easily create surveys, administer surveys, gather results and view statistics.

UW-Stout's own Web Site Usability Testing Center provided usability consulting for the new design. The center helped determine whether external audiences, such as prospective students, parents, business partners and other visitors who are unfamiliar with UW-Stout, could find the information they want on the new site. Their findings were incorporated into the new design.

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Supporting excellence

Stout University Foundation logoThe Stout University Foundation is a vigorous organization that plays a key role in positioning UW-Stout as a leader in higher education. The foundation's rapid growth directly relates to the loyal friends and alumni who recognize the importance of supporting UW-Stout and its talented faculty, staff and students.

The foundation has the largest endowment of the UW System comprehensive campuses, providing support for laboratory equipment, student scholarships, library resources, faculty grants and an expanded student emergency loan fund.

The foundation also leads the UW comprehensives with seven endowed professorships (Figure 1), two endowed chairs and grants awarded to the university for diversity initiatives.

Donations to the foundation during the recent fiscal year totaled more than $1.8 million, which is positive considering the downturn in the United State's economy.

Scholarships

In 2002-03, the Stout University Foundation awarded $467,000 in scholarships to 380 students. These awards ranged from $500 to $6,000. The foundation also established 12 new endowed scholarships and 18 new annual scholarships in 2002-03.

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Connecting students and alumni

To improve interaction within their profession, a group of alumni, instructors and students from UW-Stout's interior design program developed the Interior Design Connections Web site. The IDC offers a way for past, present and future students of the program to communicate with each other, and provides an educational tool to help them stay current with innovations in the industry.

The IDC Web site also:

  • answers future students' questions about interior design and what UW-Stout's program offers.
  • strengthens Stout's presence in the profession.
  • enables current students and alumni to create strong networks.
  • promotes the dynamic, expansive nature of the interior design profession.
  • provides links to professional resources and organizations.

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