Category: Teaching
The Students' Union should lobby the university to make it policy that all programme/module handbooks and handouts are electronically available and not printed out unecessarily. This would urge the university to follow national sustainability policies and be better for the environment.
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Comments
If this idea was implemented it would be only be in favour of the total gadget minded person and not in everyone's interest, as people we have grown up in different surroundings and therefore a percentage of people would favour a paper print out. As a University we should be fair and maybe have the option of both.
I understand your opinion Nathan however as a university we should be constantly promoting sustainability and that means using less paper. As students of WGU we should all be using Moodle and if people find difficulties then they should ask for support from library. Also, there could be 10 to 60 students on a course and printing a module handbook (for example) for every student is wasteful and costly. If the student would like to have a physical copy of the module handbook they are free to print it out themselves. #GreenGlyndwr
I agree about sustainability however, for those who are not as comfortable with technology or have some forms of learning difficulties such as needing a different colored screen, and even those who simply can not afford all the gadgets needed, it is simply not practical. Perhaps people should be given the option individually on how they want their infomation given to them. As most people do use technology such as smart phones or ipads this would be useful to them and for those who can not afford or are unable to use such technology they at least have the ability to recieve the same infomation. And lets face it, if you drop a paper copy of a module handbook, at least it won't smash to smitherines.
The idea is good, however we have at least two lecturers on my course alone who refuse to use moodle. A third more senior member of staff hasn't even bothered to upload a module handook (noted in the recent review) so it's not going to be a simple job. Some like to make notes on paper, as pointed out some simply can't aford the gadgets to view things on during class. At this time of year, even accessing a computer in L100 can be difficult (I know there are more around the place but after hours option are limited). On a different line, perhaps promote those things which do help sustainability-for example, how many people are aware that you get a discount on your hot drink from tFellows (he cafe at the front of the main block) if you bring your own cup?