| dc.description.abstract | Dalhousie University aims to be a leader in sustainability amongst Canadian
universities (Office of Sustainability, 2013). One way that the university is
addressing sustainability issues on campus is by decreasing paper use in
classrooms. Limited research has been conducted to understand the comparative
environmental effects of using paper or electronic resources in classrooms.
Likewise, limited research has been conducted regarding instructor and student
motivations for choosing electronic resources over paper, or vice versa. Our
research project addressed this knowledge gap by conducting surveys and
interviews within undergraduate faculties on Dalhousie University’s Studley
campus. The surveys and interviews attempted to answer the questions, what are
professor and instructor motivations for using paper or online platforms such as
Blackboard Learn (BBL) in their classes, and what are student preferences
regarding the use of paper or BBL in their classes?
We used purposive, non-probabilistic snowball sampling to select undergraduate
faculty members and students from the Faculties of Arts and Social Science,
Science, Management and Computer Science on Studley campus. We used semistructured
interviews to understand faculty motivations and an online
questionnaire to understand student preferences. 12 interviews were conducted
with teaching faculty. We found that interviewees who preferred online platforms
cited reasons such as reduced paper waste, ease of use of online platforms, and
ease of file organization. Interviewees who preferred paper cited reasons such as
ease of reading and marking, versatility, and the possibility that students do not
always have access to computers for class.
We received 154 completed student questionnaires. The Faculties of Arts and
Social Science, Science, and Computer Science each made up roughly 30% of
respondents. The Faculty of Management or other, undefined faculties made up
the remainder of responses. The questionnaire consisted of 15 questions with a
focus on student preferences regarding the use of paper or online platforms, as
well as the general level of concern for environmental sustainability. We
identified common class materials and activities, and asked respondents to state
whether they preferred paper or online methods for each. In general, students
prefer paper for quizzes, tests, and exams; they prefer online platforms such as
BBL more frequently for syllabi, class handouts, readings, and assignments.
Our research is context specific; it cannot be generalized to other campuses or
universities because it is grounded in the specific experiences of our interviewees
and questionnaire respondents. However, it is our hope that this project will be a
catalyst for further research in this area in order to foster environmental
sustainability at Dalhousie University. Furthermore, we hope that this project
helped participants to consider the impact of paper use on campus and the
motivations behind choosing to use paper materials within the university context. | en_US |
