From Print to Electrons: Tell Us What You Think!
In recent years, colleges and universities have been increasing the number of traditional publications they deliver electronically (online or on CD/DVD). The reasons for this shift are varied:
- Reduced publication/postage costs
- Sustainability and environmental friendliness
- Searchability of electronic publications
- Student preferences
- Access
- Longer preparation periods/Shorter production periods
As the technology landscape shifts, President Giles-Gee has encouraged College Relations, the Budget and Resource Council, the Sustainability Council and the Vice Presidents to consider opportunities to reduce printing costs. To this end, I have been asked to solicit feedback on the potential move of four publications to electronic formats only. The publications are: the College Catalog, the Student Handbook, the Faculty Handbook and the Adjunct Faculty Handbook.
These four publications cost about $20,000 annually and generate nearly 4 million pages. Moving to electronic versions of these documents would potentially give departments, faculty and staff longer times to assemble information. Moving to an electronic version of the catalog, specifically, would increase flexibility for the curriculum process, as well.
That being said, not everyone is comfortable using these publications at their computers. Whether on CD or the Web, faculty and staff would need to be at computers to use the publications. Additionally, for some students having a printed copy of their catalog or handbook gives them the security of knowing which version applies to them.
So, we are soliciting feedback to gauge the campus’s response to moving some of our print publications to the Web. We are capturing this information on the Academic Affairs Blog (www.keeneweb.org/academicaffairs). Specifically, we’d like to know:
- How do you feel about moving any or all of these publications to electronic formats?
- If you support moving our publications to electronic formats, which format works better for you: online Web page, online PDF, CD?
- If you don’t support moving publications to the Web, what are your reasons? Could anything be done to make the move more attractive?
- How do you feel about electronic versions accompanied by a small run of printed versions that would be available to departments, but not widely distributed?
Please click on the “add comment” link directly below and give us your thoughts. You can also see others’ comments.
Save the trees. Minimize toxic ink usage. Go electronic. This is the new world, after all. Be brave!
I’m comfortable with electronic delivery, and I support it as long as it actually reduces resource expenditure. I’m not sure how the latter can be easily determined. For example, what share of the electronics-related resources can be reasonably assigned to these publications, and/or how many recipients will print out the publications anyway (and on what - inkjet, laser), and where does the balance point (between individuals printing on laserjet and mass printing and distribution) lie. Complicated enough? I just think we need to keep in mind the larger picture. Any idea how much less paper we consume since we became a paperless society?
I say publish the faculty handbooks on CD, but make it very easy for people who want/need a paper copy to get one–how about including a postcard that they could just write their name on and drop in campus mail?
As to the the student handbook, I kind of like the idea of students having it on their bookshelf without having to make any special effort. Maybe distribute hard copies to first year students and electronic to returning ones?
Some might say I’m old school; I like a printed Student Handbook. You can sit with a student and show them where they find something, you give them their own copy as they leave your office. It’s a souvenier. Trying to show them something on a computer screen, adjusting the monitor or removing the privacy screen seems to make it less personal in my mind.
Additionally, while parents are technologically advanced as well, odds are their higher education experience involved a hard copy of a handbook, and when their student needs to find something they are probably going to ask them to check their handbook.
With this said, I do think we need to go with the virtual documents. But in doing so we need to be prepared, and to better prepare students and parents for it. I still frequently deal with conflicts/frustrations from students and parents that start with “I never got a copy of that!” How do we change this mind set, I don’t know. Putting the onus on the students and parents is not easy; what I have heard from many is that it is the College shirking it’s responsibility to inform the students and parents and by saying you should have looked for it on-line is a cop out. This seems to me to be a the philosophy of the current generation, I think we are up to Generation BB now.
So I say go forward; but let’s be prepared. Develop an e signature program that requires a student to sign off that they have read the materials so that when they say “You never told me!”, I can pull it up on my computer and show them where we did.
Perhaps this goes without saying, but if these publications were provided in an electronic format, it would be helpful if the format were printer-friendly, so that individual pages or sections could be printed with ease. Some of us may never give up paper altogether.
If we want to reach the students, we need to reach them electronically. 93% of college students are on Facebook at least once a month, and most average 13 times a day; we may need to consider linking to that somehow. (Facebook was started by Harvard University as a way to link their students, only four years ago.) Working in the judicial area, it is clear that many students have not read the Handbook they were issued. When students come to me for information, they expect to be directed to the college website.
Although the College uses e-mail as the primary communication tool, my college-aged daughter tells me that e-mail is for 50-somethings.
When I get calls from parents, many times they are currently at a computer, and love to be directed to the appropriate web page for the information they seek. I have only run into two or three parents who cannot use a computer. The one concern I have about adding more to the college web page is that there is already so much on there, and it is often hard to find what I am looking for, even though I know the information is on there somewhere. This is not a criticism of IT, just something we may need to look at in the web page totality.
Would love to see us try this out - yes some folks will print their own copies - some will want hard-copy but even if we save a few trees and dollars we are moving in the right direction.
I’d like to have a hard copy of the catalogue, because I sit down with students and dicuss the requirements in it. On the other hand, I think it would be fine to put the student and faculty handbooks on line. I have a copy of each in my office, but I rarely refer to them, and when I do, I have trouble finding the proper page to look at. With an electronic version, I could search electronically for the right page, and it would be fine with me to get those two rarely-used volumes off my shelf–especially if they are costing the college thousands!
I’m all for the Student, Faculty and Adjunct Faculty Handbooks going to a purely electronic format. I have years’ worth of each of those publications scattered about my bookshelves, but never refer to any but the most recent edition as its rules apply to everyone.
The newest KSC Catalog, however, does not replace the older versions. Any changes are for the students entering the college that year, so all the old catalogs I have in my desk are still functional…at least the last 4-6 years’ worth (I have some real antiques as well).
In addition, when I am working with students - either in my office using Datatel to view their academic information or at one of our computer stations with them logged onto MyKSC - I need to work with what’s on the screen and catalog information simultaneously.
That, however, is due to my function, not the catalog’s. For the most part, I think an electronic version would work well for the student population (it is their realm, after all) and perhaps for others on campus. In an advising setting, however - either in faculty offices or here in the ACA - being able to use multiple resources simultaneously is key.
BUT…I don’t need the entire catalog on paper to do good advising - just the majors, minors and course descriptions…in a loose leaf notebook if you like as the print would be larger (my eyeballs are aging as I type) and addenda could be inserted. Of course, corrections would no longer be needed as we could wait until everything is baked before we print this new streamlined functional non-catalog.
So we could save the planet, large amounts of money, and our sanity, while still serving students well. Bingo!
Seems that a phased approach is the best alternative. We can consider delivering electronically for all publications but still printing a reduced quantity of hard copies. As time goes on (2009-2010), the phasing in of totally electronic versions would be easier on all audiences. Still think that the College Catalog should forever be in print (hard copy) as a bookshelf wonder!
Electronic publication has proven to be a cost effective environmentally sound practice. The syllabus and written exam are the only printed material my students see besides their textbooks and even those are changing with the addition of much more electronic content.
• One can download as many copies of a file as needed
• files are often kept in a central location that is easily found
• electronic files are easily searchable
• electronic files can be selectively printed saving many resources
These are just a few of the important assets electronic files provide that every organization should consider when making the decision to print or not print. I always wonder when I see a person “running off” copies in our copy room if those copies can be just as easily used by the instructor and the student in electronic form (typed answers are certainly easier to read). Because the original file is most likely a word processor document I feel that using our paper, ink and electric resources is unnecessary and frivolous.
I feel there is no substitute for certain printed publications like our catalog and “select” recruiting material. I feel we should not scrimp on these “tools” which project our institution’s very important image to prospective students. We have a very attractive, comprehensive Website that provides a lot of user interactivity. Yet when recruiting, there is no substitute for an attractive, well designed printed catalog.
Each of these publications (especially the catalog) should be available in several formats, including the suggested online Web page, online PDF, and CD, with a limited number of paper copies for the Elliot Center, departments, students who prefer the format, and, especially, from my perspective, for archival purposes.
We do not have an archivist or a records management program. We build the archives by scrounging, and I don’t see us being able to keep up with migration. (Even PDF might go away someday.)
While NH Municipal Records Laws probably don’t apply to us, we should probably at least take advice from them. All such records must be able to “be read without use of any equipment other than the human eye.” (Mur 302.02 (a).) Microforms that meet specific standards may also be used, I suppose with a high power magnifying glass.
The fourth question represents the best idea - “electronic versions accompanied by a small run of printed versions that would be available to departments.” Beyond that, as mentioned above, there should be a limited number available for students who prefer the format. My son was a Computer Science major, and preferred the paper catalog that had the specific degree requirements he was following (CS was changing each year!).
I think having all of the publications in electronic format is a great idea. My only reservation is that, even with a printed copy in hand, students are prone to use the excuse “nobody told me that”. I worry that a significant majority of students will not even look at them. (We have put the student handbook in the student’s mailboxes and invariably pull at least 30 - 40 copies out of recycling every time).
Open question: How do we ensure that students (and faculty) read and are held accountable for the contents of the applicable publications?
Certainly move the Faculty and Adjunct Faculty Handbooks to an electronic format. An employee of the College will embrace this sustainable format.
Course Catalog should remain in paper as well as electronic. For current students the catalog is an integral part of orientation programs that are mobile events. The catalog is a marketing tool and the paper and electronic may attract a wider readership which may encourage more applicants as declining enrollments are approached.
A paper and electronic format for the Student Handbook is appealing. Will this mean more students referring to the publication?
I think ALL of the mentioned documents should be electronic only. This is a great idea. We don’t need phasing, let’s just do it now. Our students are quite electronically adept and this seems to be how all of my students get their information now anyway. Most of them don’t even know what the printed catalog looks like. Information access through electronic documents and the web is the major way that information flows these days and it will only increase. Ask any librarian. Also - the environmental benefits should not be underestimated or minimized. Doing this will have a huge impact on resource use and ultimately CO2 production. Shouldn’t this be our highest priority?
I find the idea of a catalog that only contains the programs, but not the courses or policies, a really intriguing option. Students do the course browsing through Web Advisor, and the website always has the most recent policy — the only piece that needs to be preserved for posterity is the programs section.
What does that mean? Maybe programs would be produced as a PDF and also be available through on-demand printing, and the other sections would exist in beefed up versions of their current on-line incarnations?
Just thinking out loud here…
Let’s be innovative — electronic everything - but invest resources in making those .pdf files easy to locate, up-to-date, intuitively designed, and user friendly - and then let’s just make a huge effort to stop printing everything out.
The only paper-copy item I would miss is the course catalog which I like to have handy when I advise students. I can adapt for the good of the order.
As a full-time user of the printed catalog, electronic-only versions would add significantly to the time needed to complete my job. My concerns center on the length of time electronic version would be available. The need for research in previous catalogs (at times going back several years) is an integral part of my job. I often have the need for more than one catalog to utlized at one time when researching issues/concerns of students. Additionally, it is often necessary to bring a catalog along to a meeting, which makes the printed version indespensible. And, most significantly, although students today are electronic-minded, the printed versions fly off the shelves as soon as we make them available. Students DO use them. Parents also want them and ask to take one home to have there. I have no issue with providing the catalog in an on-line version, but please keep the printed version as well.
I am also concerned about the length of time the electronic version(s)
would be available. And would agree that there are times
when we must have printed versions available as per the
message above.
My greatest concern: we are being asked to consider
a very important matter in the last few days of the semester.
This is not the time.
Margaret Langford
I am also concerned about the length of time the electronic version(s)would be available. And would agree that there are times
when we must have printed versions available as per the
message above.
My greatest concern: we are being asked to consider
a very important matter in the last few days of the semester.
This is not the time.
Margaret Langford
I like the possibility of digital only documents, for the good of the planet. The hard copy catalog seems to be the one publication commenters find most difficult to completely relinquish. From the perspective of prospective students, Upward Bound high students have been researching colleges on-line without using print publications for the past half dozen years. They access webpages, and most institutions offer on-line catalogs. KSC Upward Bound has discontinued its extensive library of college catalogs and viewbooks. I agree with those commenters who are concerned with readability and printability. I have found myself fighting with U.S. Govt PDF documents that are even-odd page format and hard to skim and scroll on a 17 inch monitor.
All new students should receive a paper copy of the college catalogue. This is their “contract” with the College for their graduation requirements. We need to remember that the catalogue is a contract. The student is expected to complete those requirements and the College is promising to make available the course/degree offerings published for those matriculating that academic year
.
Faculty and staff who work with students(doesn’t everyone) should receive a printed catalog and be expected to read and understand it annually. Things change. We are responsible for knowing correct answers to student questions - or aleast know where to find the correct answer.
Pulling out a catalog with a student and helping them find the information they need is teaching a skill and making a connection with a student.
Student and faculty handbooks should be paper as this is also a contract between the College and our students and faculty. - Do handbooks change each year? - if changes are minimal - just distribute the updates for returning students/faculty. Make the handbooks somehow “loose-leaf” where pages can be pulled and the updated pages inserted.
Having print friendly versions of the documents does not reduce the impact on resources. It only distributes the production to a method that has no ‘controls’ on waste.
These items are costly - in people resources, environmental resources and in direct dollars. These items are not frivolous and are tangible records of what Keene State College is and promises to be.
Let’s work on smaller margin requirements, printing on both sides of the page, smaller print (eek!), electronic campus news, turning down the thermostat, recyclable meal containers at Lloyds and the faculty/staff dining room, shutting off the lights when noone is in the room….I bet we could come up with the equivalent of cutting 4 million pages and $20,000.
go electronic…there are many benefits and few, if any , reasons to use paper for the documents in question.
For example, having electronic versions makes the documents easier to search and utilize when needed.
This morning in our staff meeting we discussed the topic at hand. We have close to 7,000 visitors come through the Admissions office on a yearly basis. Close to half of those visitors take a course catalog. When we visit high schools, we see numerous catalogs on the shelves of Guidancce Office’s just collecting dust. We are all for having the catalog go to an eletronic version. Just thinking about the savings in postage and printing alone is reason to move to this format.
As for the other documents, they too should be in an electronic format.
P.S. The admissions office has started a blog, please feel free to check us out at www.keeneweb.org/watt
I too agree with publishing the Student, Faculty, and Adjunct Faculty Handbooks electronically. Any electronic format for these publications would be useful for me.
I do agree with others that a paper as well as electronic format of the Course Catalog would be helpful. I too often use several different years of the Course Catalog to advise students, including during Orientation. It was quite a challenge to advise students during the two Orientation sessions in which we did not yet have a print Course Catalog this past summer. In addition, the Course Catalog is a contract between the college and the students, in a way that the handbooks are not.
Perhaps the printed version of the Course Catalog could only be given to students once they are enrolled, their parents (?), and anyone who works with advising rather than handing out Course Catalogs to anyone who expresses an interst.
Since I’m responsible for the design and production of these four publications, I’d like to add a little background for perspective.
• All of these publications have been available online for a number of years … the catalog since 1997.
• Each of these publications has a different target audience and purpose and, therefore, different considerations.
• Improvements in technology have not been limited to electronic delivery. Improvements in printing technologies and environmental considerations have meant that we can use a mix of technologies to meet our needs. I would like to think that we are using technologies to find solutions that work for us and are not just following the trends of other colleges.
Faculty and Adjunct Handbooks
With the goal of having a computer on every desk accomplished, these handbooks fit the profile for online publication only. They are internal publications with a small target audience and can be easily printed on demand through Redball. Rather than seeking campus-wide approval, it seems to me that the decision should rest with the Provost, the faculty, and the unions.
Savings in printing costs: a little over $1,000 annually. Savings in personnel time: none (someone still has to prepare files whether they are printed or published online).
Student Handbook
Historically, we printed and mailed handbooks to each student every year. When we looked at offering an online version only, we were advised by USNH counsel to continue printing enough copies for first-year and transfer students and to send postcards to the remaining students to let them know where the information was available. This year, we were able to drop the postcards, again with legal counsel, because MyKSC has been established as an acceptable platform for student notification.
To be considered: Have we met our responsibilities to students and their families? Violations of the Student Code of Conduct can have serious consequences. Do the Student Affairs staff find the printed version useful in their work with students? We’re looking at a targeted audience here as well.
Savings in printing costs: approx $10,000 over 5 years. Savings in postage: not known. Savings in personnel time: none
Catalog
The catalog has obviously become the focus of this forum. That’s because it affects everyone on campus and is used in multiple ways.
The cost of printing the catalog has gone from $20,134 in 1996 to $12,771 in 2006, decreasing each year. How was this accomplished? By taking advantage of the formerly favorable exchange rate and having the catalog printed in Canada. By taking advantage of improved technology. By monitoring how many catalogs were recycled at the end of the year and reducing the number printed. Savings in printing costs: several thousand dollars (I can’t give an exact figure because some of my files are still in Hale). Savings in personnel time: none
Last year I looked at the cost of printing 2,000 catalogs and 8,000 CDs vs. 10,000 catalogs. The cost: $11,475 vs. $12,771. Not a substantial difference. The unit cost of printing goes up as the quantity goes down.
This year’s catalog, with its many changes, still took about 40-50 hours to design and prepare for printing. The revamped website took closer to 400 hours. It’s unlikely that this will be a recurring cost but keep in mind that online doesn’t equal free.
Other considerations:
• Students can graduate on the catalog of their entering year or subsequent catalogs. How easy will it be to contrast and compare programs online or with CDs?
• A paper catalog is portable, requires no special equipment, and works when the power goes off or the server is down.
• How many potential users are still stuck with dial-up?
• What are marketing considerations? Certainly, an online catalog gives us greater reach.
• Would admissions counselors be happier loading a box of CDs or several boxes of catalogs into their cars when they go on the road?
• What is the environmental impact of CDs?
• Who uses printed catalogs? It’s no surprise to me that the Registrar’s Office and Academic Advising have made clear their need for a printed catalog. Theirs is not an easy job.
On a personal note
When I became a matriculated student at Keene State, I was presented with a catalog at my first advising session and that has stuck with me. I don’t think being presented with a web address or a CD would have had the same impact. A catalog has heft. It contains just about everything you need to know about the College. I think of that every June during Orientation when I see students carrying their catalogs around campus. It seems to me that $1.30 is a small price to pay to present each student with a catalog as they are accepted into our community of learners. Didn’t we have an opening convocation this year to welcome students in that way?
I think Nancy is on target with her comments. Certainly, her experiences as a student, and also the designer of the print catalog, add a unique perspective to the conversation.
I’ve worked on the online counterpart of the catalog for five years. Until I took on that task I had no understanding of its multiple functions and no appreciation for its complexity.
Having gained that insight, I would like to suggest that this conversation should focus first on what the aim, goals, and objectives are for each of these publications.
Then the discussion can more accurately determine whether the current media are both effective and efficient.
It seems to me that what each of these publications have in common is that they deliver terms and conditions – for getting an education, for being a student, and for being a faculty member.
A student pays the college tens of thousands of dollars and implicitly agrees to abide by the catalog and the student handbook. In exchange for that, the college agrees to abide by the catalog with the goal of educating the student and granting a degree.
As Nancy illustrates, the challenge is that neither the student nor the college is governed by one, static, permanent catalog.
Yet the obligation to effectively deliver the terms and conditions of the bargain between the college and the student is not diminished by this complication. Informed consent is not only still required, it is even more desirable.
I’m not sure that most of us would agree to buy a cell phone contract, an insurance policy, or undertake a mortgage if the terms and conditions were published on a Betamax video or an 8-track cassette. Even if we admit that we’re never going to read them, we expect that we, or our lawyers, will be able to read them.
Embracing a particular medium, even the most cutting-edge, most environmentally-friendly, does not eliminate the obligation to ensure an accurate and effective communication, a respectful, mutual understanding, between students and college, faculty and college, or citizen and municipality. Does it?
This is an interesting discussion! Many good ideas and viewpoints.
My own preference would be to go electronic on the faculty, adjunct, and student handbooks, using multiple ways of informing and reminding readers where to find the information pertinent to them. (Postcard mailings to new students, notices on MyKSC, e-mail, Campus News, and other ways of reaching out.)
I also like the idea of some kind of electronic check-off on the student handbook for new students, at least acknowledging that they know of its existence! (How do we know if they read the print version?)
For the catalog, I can see the value of having some printed copies, especially as a transitional approach, but like the idea of leaving out the course descriptions, since it is so hard to keep them accurate and updated. It is really only the programs of study that form our “contract” with students matriculating in a given year. The print catalog would include prominent information on where to find the current course descriptions online.
This reduced-size printed catalog could include everything in the current catalog up through page 93, plus the Appendix materials (234-258). We could add a resource page giving the web links to the rest of the information (academic policies, support programs, resources, admissions, student financial services, and student life).
We could also consider making this compact catalog more of a showpiece for KSC, adding photographs and perhaps some short feature material.
In a survey conducted this fall (reported on collegewebeditor.com), 73 percent of respondents favored moving their school’s course catalog to an electronic version. However, I’m sure it is rarely a simple or uncontroversial change, and it is a good thing to air the pros and cons. Thanks.
To echo what many have said in one way or another…it is not a solution in itself. As long we don’t assume that “technifying” the content will make it better we are safe.
Provide a good “portal” type view to students that help them find what we need them to. Spend some time thinking about keywords so web searches provide relevant results. Reworking existing documents to be web (and print) friendly is imperative – otherwise never mind those who print out the 300 page documents…beware the ones that print it multiple times because they don’t like how it came out and/or don’t see the “printer friendly” link on the bottom of all our web pages already and or don’t use double sided printing.
I routinely move my monitor to discuss an electronic document and it is not as convenient or friendly. How about planning for this and for areas with high meeting frequency have it set up to make it more friendly (e.g. second monitor) if appropriate.
The look and feel of it is where most of the work comes in, not just getting it to electronic format – but it can and should be done.
I ike having the printed catalog at my finger-tips when I’m advising students; actually I use two, one to hand to the student and one for me. When I have a student in my office, I find the computer to be an intrusion; almost like having a third party there. So, I would prefer to have the option of having a hard-copy of the catalog. Having said that, however, it would be very efficient to have past catalogs on CDs.
I think that the handbooks should definitely be published electronically; if we want to refer to something from the student handbook; we can include it under course documents in Blackboard.
Recently I uncovered my 50-year old college catalogs and student handbooks. What fun reading! It was a quite a nostalgia trip. I shipped them off to my children as examples of what college life was like in the mid ’50s.
What relics of KSC will the class of 2012 have to pass off to their own children and grandchildren?
As we go electronic, perhaps we should print only enough copies of each (catalog and handbook) to hand to graduating seniors as they receive their diploma and Alumni card.
By the way, the Library frequently receives requests from patrons (alums, prospective students) for catalogs from years back. And we have them.