Re: course notes, HW solns, etc online

[green320 <green320@RCN.COM>]

This may sound pretty elementary, but creating .pdf's is rather easy
(although there is more than one method) but you need Acrobat (not just the
reader).  One method involves printing the document to an acrobat file
through the print function (you just select acrobat distiller instead of
your printer in the print dialogue).  As far as scanners go, almost any
scanner these days would do, it's just up to the features, but you can get a
decent scanner for @75$ (like an HP 2300c $70).  For a sheet feeder, it
looks like you'll be spending a couple hundred (standard on 7450c $700,
optional on 7400c $500, but don't confuse photo feeders with sheet feeders
when looking).  Scanning a couple pages doesn't take that long.  If you're
scanning more than 15 pages a day, you might start to consider the sheet
feeder.  I can't imagine that you're looking at a tough project, just a
little learning curve getting the process worked out for your system.  Just
my 2 cents.

Joshua Green
humble student, CCNY

> ...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?