Re: course notes, HW solns, etc online

["David T. Marx" <dtmarx@SIU.EDU>]

Our department leases a Sharp AR-287 digital copier for
$149/month and it is networked.  With it, we can feed in pages.
The machine has an option that allows the scanning of the pages
directly into a pdf file, which is then sent directly to any e-mail
address specified.  I have used it to scan a document as large as
400 pages into a pdf file with no difficulty.  Our secretary says that
Sharp may have smaller units are are less expensive to lease.

Take care,
David Marx
Southern Illinois University

> ...our school is gradually moving more deeply into using Black Board (a
> web-based course system) to support regular courses, hence more of my
> peers and I are struggling with the effort of putting traditional paper
> materials online rapidly.  Black Board has individual password
> protected access so we're not immediately worried about the issue of
> open web distribution of solutions, exams etc, though this is a clear
> long term problem).  We are trying to develop or recreate solutions for
> quickly scanning documents into .pdf and posting them; something with a
> photocopier-like hopper for loading and scanning problem set solutions.
>    My dept is motivated enough to purchase a station
> (computer+peripherals) dedicated to this alone.
>
> I've been looking at (fantastically expensive, much-too-high
> resolution) scanners with sheet feeders.  At the same time, I notice
> that there are some similarly priced all-in-one
> FAX/printer/low-volume-photocopier devices being marketed with the
> hopper I want.  I think FAX scan resolution exceeds my needs, and I
> don't need high definition colour photo scanning.  We could also use a
> low-volume copier.
>
> So my questions are: Does anyone have considerable experience getting
> notes and HW solns from multiple faculty into .pdf format for
> webposting?  How do you do it?  What do you think of a dedicated PC
> with one of these all-in-one devices as a station for this purpose?
> What all-in-one model/manufacturer do you recommend?
>
> Dan M
>
> Dan MacIsaac, Assistant Professor of Physics, SUNY-Buffalo State College
> 222SCIE BSC, 1300 Elmwood Ave , Buffalo NY 14222 USA 716-878-3802
> <macisadl@buffalostate.edu>  <http://PhysicsEd.BuffaloState.edu>