Notebook universities do not have to be expensive

Abstract

Most notebook universities have a process to provide notebook computers for a large portion of its students. The universities charge each student a notebook fee which is typically around $1,000 per year. Usually, each university owns or leases the computers and tries to replace them every two years. Northwest Missouri State University has implemented a system to provide notebooks to every student living on-campus by increasing residence hall and tuition technology fees for a total cost of about $300 per year. Students living off-campus also have the option to rent a notebook computer at a similar cost.Northwest's model for providing notebooks to students has several key features. First, the notebooks are purchased by the university and the expected life cycle is three years. Second, the notebooks are purchased with a three-year warranty and students are responsible for providing damage and theft insurance. Third, the university owns the computers and utilizes volume independent licenses for most software. Finally with 2,500 student notebooks to support, Northwest has only 2.5 FTE staff positions for maintenance and repair of these units.With Northwest's computing model, higher expectations can be set for freshman academic assignments, since they are required to live on-campus and faculty can depend on students having access to standardized computing resources. Experience has shown that upper-classmen try to stay compatible with the computing model they have used for one or more years.This paper will discuss the challenges and benefits of implementing a low-cost, university-owned notebook computing model.