Research(draft 3) - research PDF

Preview

Summary

STANDARDIZED PDF FILE OUTPUT SUBMISSIONS FOR ATENEO DE DAVAOUNIVERSITY STUDENTS: AN ALTERNATIVE FOR THE EXCESSIVE USE OF PAPERA Research Paper Presented to The Faculty of the Department of School of Engineering and Architecture Ateneo de Davao UniversityIn Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for...

Description

STANDARDIZED PDF FILE OUTPUT SUBMISSIONS FOR ATENEO DE DAVAO UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: AN ALTERNATIVE FOR THE EXCESSIVE USE OF PAPER

A Research Paper Presented to The Faculty of the Department of School of Engineering and Architecture Ateneo de Davao University

In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for Engineering Data Analysis

By Cristine Zandrea C. Dullano Zien L. Doctora

August 2019

Chapter 1 Introduction We breathe and live in the Information age of Modern Era where almost everything is just right in front of our hands; a century of technology revolutionizing each of our days. As much as each invention is evolving, it is also rapidly shaping and changing how humanity used to be. From the prehistory of Stone Age where our ancestors were just carving stones for resources and tools, to Bronze Age, and to Iron Age,

[1]

then into Middle Ages when mechanical clocks,

windmills, guns, paper money for currency, and numbering system where established, to the Early Modern Period of science, great explorations, theories in mathematics, engineering, geography, navigation, and mining, and inventions of toilets and microscopes

[2]

, to Industrial

Revolution of steam engines, telegraph, battery, concrete and modern roads, and locomotives,

[3]

and to Modern Era of airplanes, television, radio, computers, calculators, automobiles, antibiotics, and most especially, internet. [4] In this 21st century, humans already reached to the point where some unfathomable technology with such capability and as much as its use, especially in the fields of medicines: where medical practitioners use artificial intelligence (A.I) for quicker illness diagnosing and performing surgeries, also in convenience: where our mobile phones are engineered and programmed to access data and services in just a touch, can buy, book, and shop instantly, machines in order to replace our labors; and also for entertainment which virtual reality inventions are now dominating, and everything is personalized and individualized, as much as the easy internet access built into our daily routines.

[5]

We cannot deny the fact that sooner or

later, there may be driverless cars, or even flying cars already, or AI taking place in most of our works. Despite of all of these conveniences, developments, and high tech lives, people forget what are its effects to the environment. The Earth is facing a lot of environmental issues, such as the air, water, soil pollution, ozone layer depletion, global warming, climate change, deforestation, and resources exploitation which people choose to overlook to continue living up their own comfortable lives. [6]

According to Sam Martin, the whole world consumes 400% of paper in the last 40 years, wherein about 300 million tons are consumed per year, and about 4 billion trees or 35% every continent is being cut for its production.

[7]

From the Global Forest Resource Assessment,

approximately 80,000-160,000 trees daily are cut worldwide. [8] With the cutting of the trees, the paper production has an equivalent release of highly toxic chemicals, and cause air, water, and land pollution, based from U.S. Toxic Release Inventory report published by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). If the number would grow worse, along with urbanization, spacing for other products, there would an increase in the deforestation rate, where an estimated number of 7.8 million hectares of forest are lost each year according to United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). With these numbers of trees being cut and deforestation, (as much as the carbon dioxide (CO2) emission from power plants, automobiles, and other man made activities) there would be pollution, soil erosion, effect on water cycle, increased carbon footprint, increasing of temperature, greenhouse gases, global warming, loss of biodiversity, and soon, would be the death for us. By far, recycling paper is the most common way of saving a tree, and according to the World watch institute, it recovers 43% of all paper used. Average worldwide annual paper consumption is 48 kilograms per person; in North America, average is about 300 kilograms, and an estimated 2.5 million of paper (5000 reams) are used annually in a Manila, Philippines university. [9] If we take action to lessen the university’s paper consumption (aside from the recycling agenda that is making progress) by starting in the concern of frequent use of paper in thesis papers outputs resubmissions, and implementing a standardized PDF file for format and grammatical checking, just until the final submission; then a good number of sheets of papers, per resubmissions, per semester, in a given quantity of students would be saved, and would have an impact in environmental concern. Moreover, it would save printing costs, time and money, with the aid of technology and electricity.

Statement of the Problem: 1. How many papers would be saved, in a long run? 2. How much costs would be saved? 3. Is the project effective, sustainable, and a good environmental remedy? 4. Is the project effective for both students and faculties? 5. What are the pros and cons of the project? What weighs more? Objectives: This research aims to provide statistical data to evaluate if a standardized PDF file for submissions of thesis paper partial outputs, which are alternative for papers, is a good environmental approach and would save number of paper sheets in a long run, along with the number of trees it would help to save. The researchers also aim to calculate the total costs saved, from printing, paper providing, if the project would be implemented soon. As much as the rise of usage, and accessibility of computers and the provision of the university of internet access and facilities to the students, and electricity, the researchers aims if the project would be in the upper hand of the students and the professionals, and their satisfaction or approval of the said agenda, and the corresponding advantages and disadvantages. Scope and Limitation: This research focuses on using standardized PDF file output submissions as an environmental approach to the excessive use of paper for students at Ateneo de Davao University. The participants of the research will be comprised of 5-10 randomly chosen college professors who manage research courses. The findings of this research are based solely on the participants of this research and should not be used to assess the use of standardized PDF file for partial paper output submissions of students to professors not belonging to the population of this research. The study would be done through conducting interviews to the professors as a survey and reference. By their strategy, the researchers considered working on this study to find out the amount of paper sheets that would be saved in the long run if students at Ateneo de Davao University were using a standardized PDF file for partial paper out submissions.

Chapter 2 Review of Related Literature An average of 300 million tons of paper is produced each year. Also, an average American consumes more than 700 pounds of paper each year. Paper accounts for 25 percent of waste in the landfill and 33 percent of municipal waste. About 68 million trees are cut down each year to produce paper and paper products. [10] In addition, Americans use about 31.5 million tons of printing and writing paper each year, meaning 660 pounds per person, which requires 535 million trees (most from virgin tree fiber) and 12 billion gallons of oil for its manufacturing. According to The World Count statistics, every person uses more than two pieces of paper every hour. In the USA, Japan, and Europe an average person uses between 250 and 300 kilos of paper every year. Studies carried out by Tufts University and the non-profit Forest Ethics estimate that the average American office worker uses a sheet of paper every 12 minutes.[11] Reducing paper waste can help with several environmental problems. As claimed by the Resource Conservation Alliance, 40% of the world’s trees harvested is used to produce paper. The life cycle of paper damages the environment from beginning to end, from it being cut down, to the paper making process which produces high toxic chemicals, to its disposal. In the landfill, where 80% of discarded paper ends up, the decomposition of paper produces methane, a greenhouse gas with 21 times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide. The EPA cites landfills as the single largest source of methane emissions to the atmosphere, with paper representing about 38% of the municipal solid waste stream. [12] Within schools the percentage of paper in the waste stream is even higher. According to the California Integrated Waste Management Board, which analyzes schools' waste on a district-by-district basis, Alameda County schools alone dispose of more than 11,700 tons of paper waste every year. San Diego runs through more than 24,000 tons, and Los Angeles schools go through a whopping 75,600 tons of paper annually. [13] From the Boreal Forest campaign Director, Lafcadio Cortesi, some brands of school notebooks, copy paper, and filler paper come directly from rainforests in Indonesia, temperate

Boreal forests in Canada, and other sensitive ecosystems. Many companies making these products are destroying forests and the livelihoods of local communities. In Canada, home to a quarter of the world's remaining ancient temperate rainforests - the most endangered type on earth, logging for paper production has been identified as one of the primary reasons that one out of eight animal species is now at risk of extinctions. Intact forests are also key regulators of climate, and their protection is critical to reduce global warming. Economically , paper itself may not be expensive, but the costs spent on storage, copying, printing and postage add up expenses. Studies estimate that associated paper costs such as these total to roughly 30 times the actual purchasing cost. The average secondary school produces 22kg of waste per pupil each academic year, while primary schools are even higher at 45kg per pupil based from a website RecycleNow. These wastes are mostly composed of papers, besides food consumption. Industry research firm Gartner, Inc., estimates that as much as 3% of a company’s revenue is spent on paper, printing, filing, storing and maintaining files of information. Furthermore, the average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper a year.

[14]

The Green Schools Initiative, an organization for environmental concerns, reported that each ton of paper made from recycled sources as opposed to made new will save 2,400 pounds of wood and prevent 734 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions from entering the air. [15] Today's technologies offer many opportunities for students to work with far less paper. Instead of printing documents on paper, saving them to PDF files that can be e-mailed to professors will result in significant environmental and cost savings. According to WWFs, estimates show that a 10-30% reduction in paper usage is possible with the appropriate use of available technology.

[16]

Documents can be shared with everyone instantly, enabling greater

transparency and faster communication. Students don't need to hand over documents manually or create numerous copies of their partial thesis output. Using standardized PDF file for partial output submission can save about one tree per year and further decrease usage beyond your original document as all sending, editing and receiving on your desktop or other device can be achieved. [17] Switching to online submission of

outputs is an effective way to cut paper use. In addition, for submission of partial output, students may transfer documents via standardized PDF files and send them to their professors by e-mail rather than by sending a printed copy. Most students nowadays interact with email instead of snail mail; it goes without stating. Not only does it save paper and money, but it also offers efficiency. Personally handing out paper submission is a bit of a hassle, while email submission can be delivered in seconds. The Yale University cut its paper consumption by 25%, according to InformIt Study, by encouraging professors, employees and students alike to share data through the programs such as PDF file and PowerPoint, instead of handouts and using emails to exchange data.

[18]

This is also

an excellent way to save time from printing and stapling handouts together that take a lot of time for professors – time that could otherwise be spent developing students and working on bigger school projects. In addition, digital platform such as standardized PDF file increases productivity and saves students and professors precious time. The paperless initiative encourages thoughts for teachers and students to distribute information digitally. Ed Sherretta, department chairperson of Hatboro-Horsham (Pennsylvania) High School's Business and Computer Science department, resulted the effort to establish a paperless school there. [19] The desire to save trees and ecology led paper to be removed from classrooms. By adopting different technologies, schools move closer to a paperless environment. It allows everyone on their way to a more organized, less cluttered, and environmentally friendly environment to find themselves well.

Chapter 3 Methodology This chapter includes the research design, sample method and population, research instrument, data collection procedure, and plan for statistical tool. Research Design: For this particular research, a quantitative research approach was conducted. According to the University of Southern California, a quantitative research gives importance objective measurement and statistical analysis.

[20]

The data is analyzed through polls, questionnaires, and

surveys, or by manipulating pre-existing statistical data using computational techniques. Quantitative research gives focus in gathering numerical data and generalizing it across a population to explain a phenomenon. A survey method can be utilized for exploratory, descriptive and explanatory type of research. However, for this research, a descriptive survey design was being adopted. Survey is usually used in order to gather information and data for identifying a certain population that is too huge for it to be observed promptly. [21] Furthermore, it gathers data from a sample group of people whom answers a particular set of questions formulated by the researcher.

[22]

In this research study, self-administered interviews were

personally handed out by the researcher to the respondents in order to gather the primary information needed for the fulfillment of the said study. The researchers opted to choose a descriptive type of survey because it administers the estimation of percentage of units in a specified population exhibiting a certain behavior. Thus, this research design was selected to conformed with the objectives of the study which is to evaluate and calculate the number of paper sheets that would be saved and the total cost saved from printing. Sampling Method and Population:

Simple random sampling method will be used in this research. Simple random sampling is a method where each and every member of the population will have an equal opportunity to be randomly selected as a respondent of the said study. According to Gravetter and Forzano, the idea behind the simple random sampling method is that it clears out biases that can arise during the entire selection procedure and ideally developed into representative samples. [23] The selected random samples will then be presumed to represent the population as a whole. For this research, the researchers will randomly select 5-10 participants for the study. This amount was chosen due to the availability of the participants and the time constraints placed on the study. Having only 2 months, the researchers decided the maximum number of samples that is feasible with respect to the current skills of the research team. The participants of this study will be the college professors of Ateneo de Davao City. These participants must handle research courses and a faculty member in the first semester of the 2019-2020 school year. Research Instrument: Personal survey interview was selected as a data collection instrument for this research. A personal interview survey, also called face-to-face survey, is a survey method that is utilized when a specific target population is involved. Information were gathered with the aid of survey interviews in order to explore responses from the college professors and gather deeper information. A statistical method of linear regression would be also used for forecasting the output of paper consumption and as much as how many can be saved. Conceptual Framework: The independent variable listed below is the thesis re/submissions and paper of the Ateneo de Davao University students. The dependent variable is the trend of per semester/annual papers consumed and costs of the students. Illustrated by the following: Independent Variable

Dependent Variable

Trend of Per Semester/Annual Papers Consumed and Costs of Students

Thesis Re/Submissions and Paper

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework Step by Step Process:

1

Steps

Activities Manual counting of Thesis papers pages

Resources Needed: Excel

2.

(Per chapter) The researchers will give questionnaires to

Survey Questionnaires

every respondent who agreed to participate in the study. Tabulating

3

and

Calculating

Paper

Computer with QM

Consumptions and Costs using statistical software tools: Mean and Linear Regression. Students and Professors Survey for The Survey Questionnaires

4

Project Proposal Satisfaction

1. The researchers would get a sample mean of pages per research paper parts from the undergraduate thesis papers of Ateneo de Davao University library (from the introductory pages: Title page, approval sheet, acknowledgement, table of contents, lists of tables and figures, to chapter 1: introduction, to chapter 2: Review of Related Literature, to chapter 3: Methodology, to chapter 4:

Data Discussion and Interpretation, to chapter 5:

Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations, to the Bibliography, References and Curriculum. Out of population of the 17 courses having thesis papers (Social Work, Psychology, Political Science, Nursing, Management, International Studies, Economics, Engineering, Biology, Chemistry, Communication, Mass Communication, English, Information Technology, Entrepreneurship, and Architecture), the researchers chose from Political

Science, Mass Communication, Biology, Psychology, Engineering, International Studies, and Economics 4 samples each, with a total of 28 samples.(1 sample per year of 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015) 2. The researchers would gather first-hand information from a sample of 5-10 professors specializing and has been handling research subjects. The survey questions would be the following: a. How many students are there in a class? b. Is the subject annually? Or per semester? (meaning twice per year) c. How many sections or blocks are there in a semester having the subject? d. Are the submissions per chapter? Or are there cases there is a once submission in 2-3 chapters? e. How often are the resubmissions per chapter or per submissions? The collected answers would be averaged and be used to calculate the summation of all papers used until the final submission of the thesis by algebra. Statistical method would be used in order to predict the trend if this old fashioned way of paper usage per submission annually will be still followed, and compare it to the trend of papers being saved with the aid of elect...