Some Wharton courses have, in one sense, become paper-thin recently.
A number of Wharton professors have offered course bulk packs online to students this semester. By going the paperless route, professors say they are giving students a convenient, cost-effective and environmentally friendly way of acquiring their course material.
The online course packs are free for students to access and are available on the Wharton webCafe.
Wharton and College sophomore Balvir Singh had no problem with his professor's decision to offer a course bulk pack online.
"It lowers both the physical and economic burden," said Singh, whose Stat 101 class gave students the option of buying a hard copy or getting the course information online.
"For one, it's very convenient, in the sense that you no longer have to carry a bulky book in your backpack," he said.
Singh added that, had he decided to purchase a hard copy of his course bulk pack, he would have had to shell out about $80 for it.
Still, some students would rather pay for a hard copy than have to learn course material from a computer screen.
"I'm a better learner on paper," Wharton junior Olumide Onafowora said.
His Finance 101 class opted to post its course bulk pack online, and Onafowora said he was disappointed a hard copy was not available at all.
"I wanted to use a hardcopy to study, but when I went to Reprographics they didn't have it," he said.
Accounting professor Robert Verrechia said he believes the option should be left to students whether to purchase a hard copy or get the information online.
"I posted my bulk pack on my Web site in Wharton webCafe, but students have the option of either downloading the bulk pack from the class Web site or purchasing a hard copy from Wharton Reprographics," Verrechia said.
He added that his course pack, which has more than 700 pages, costs over $80.
Wharton Reprographics course pack manager Frits Damerink agreed with Verrechia's assessment of the issue.
"The ideal is to have the material online as much as possible . and use a hard copy," Damerink said. "One group likes electronic copies, one group likes hard copies, and the biggest group likes them both."
Damerink also lauded electronic bulk packs for the positive impacts they could have on the environment.
"From a practical point of view, it is environmentally friendly because fewer students will print out a hard copy," he said.
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