As the new spring semester starts up, more people at Pierce College are becoming environmentally conscious. Students are recycling plastic bottles, resorting to paper straws and professors are looking to new techniques that are earth friendly.
Teachers all over campus are starting to deliver electronic syllabi to their students in an effort to save paper.
Unfortunately, for many students on campus, this modern method of receiving a syllabus is an ineffective technique.
Since the digital age has arrived, it has brought many changes to the immense amounts of paper used in schools. Professors are beginning to turn to the internet to provide notes or important documents to their students.
However, some students are lacking internet at home or just outright never look at their emails because of the immense amount of spam already received.
Many students are not sure about the policies professors and the college have implemented on the use of laptops in the classrooms. While teachers can pick and choose whether to clearly encourage students to use their laptops to pull up important documents such as the syllabus, these unset guidelines can leave students feeling unsure on whether to rely on the use of their laptops for future important documents.
There are computers and Wi-Fi provided to students on campus, but most often than not the Wi-Fi is “down” due to usage overload or may just be processing too slow to navigate the internet.
Margarita Pandoe, an arts major student, expresses her frustration with trying to get important documents, such as her syllabus, using the college’s wifi.
“It is easier to keep track of,” Pandoe said. “Especially when you are doing homework in the library and you want to pull it up on canvas, and the wifi isn’t working. Having a tangible syllabus makes it easy because you can just pull it out.”
Although professors are resorting to electronic syllabus to save paper, a handful of students on campus still prefer a printed copy because it is easier to keep up with.
Boris Questman, a sophomore at Pierce, conveys that a hard copy of the syllabus is reliable, efficient and a great way to help gauge where they need to be in the curriculum.
“Having a hard copy makes it much easier for us to keep track of things, such as assignments, quizzes, and future papers. If you don’t know what your assignment is better to have a hard copy than online,” Questman said.
Multiple professors will still provide a tangible copy of the syllabus to students in need of it, as well as the electronic version to the students that are able to print one from home. This method will reassure that the professor’s students are set up for success in any situation.
