UW-Stout Applied Research Center
The UW-Stout Applied Research Center specializes in providing research assistance to other higher education institutions. Three primary types of services are provided:
- Benchmarking surveys: higher education institutions can participate in established surveys and obtain data on their own results, as well as how their results compare with other institutions that have participated in the study. The UW-Stout ARC will also help institutions utilize the results from these benchmarking surveys at their institutions.
- Custom services: ARC staff specialize in providing research in the following areas: mobile technology/ubiquitous computing assessment, socio-psychophysiological studies, student engagement, retention, active learning, teaching and learning research, and program evaluation.
- Data sharing: The UW-Stout ARC also hosts a polytechnic data-sharing in higher educational research (PolyDASHER) consortium, which institutions can participate in at no charge. PolyDASHER is geared toward polytechnic institutions, but any higher education institution can join.
The UW-Stout ARC is unique in that it:
- Not only provides services in data collection and analysis, but also provides assistance with conducting further targeted research, developing action plans, and helping institutions implement these action plans.
- Provides a forum for participating institutions to collaborate with one another and share ideas on how they are using the results of their studies.
- Brings together a diverse group of staff, including faculty, institutional research staff, and graduate students. This diversity of experiences allows the center to specialize in a wide variety of areas and offer services at reasonable rates.
The UW-Stout ARC is operated from the University of Wisconsin-Stout, located in Menomonie Wisconsin. UW-Stout has a strong quality improvement focus, as evidenced by receiving the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality award in 2001.