Memorandum

To: Dr. Krista Soria

From: Allyson and Jill
Date: April 5th, 2016
Subject: Progress Report
Purpose
The Purpose of this memo is to provide you with our progress regarding research for the feasibility
project. We will provide you with our methodology in finding peer-reviewed resources, list of completed
research and research to be done moving forward.
Summary
We have been researching the feasibility Hamline University going paperless in the classroom. Our
research includes a number of peer-reviewed journal articles, and one case study from a University that
has already introduced paperless courses into their normal academics. We have conducted our research
through both the Hamline Bush Library database and Google Scholar.
We are currently on schedule with our research and our project. We have found six reliable resources that
provide strong data to support our feasibility project. We should have no issues in completing our final
feasibility report.
Introduction
On April 1st, 2016, we received permission to proceed with researching our feasibility project. Once we
received the permission, we initiated the process to find peer reviewed sources for our feasibility project
by looking at databases such as Hamline Bush Library and Google Scholar. This topic is important
because looking at a class size of roughly 30 students, 800 sheets of paper are used per student yearly
(Johnson, 2011). Hamline University has a student base of undergraduate of 2,242 students, that would
mean that Hamline uses roughly 1,800,000 pieces of paper a year.
Hamline Bush Library was the first databased we looked to find our sources. We searched for articles
using the key-word paperless classroom. We got 62 hits within the database. Out of these hits, we only
found two to be relevant and helpful to in regards to our topic.
Since we only found two reliable sources in the Bush Library database, we turned to Google Scholar. We
used the key-words going green in Google Scholar and found more sources relating to our topic. We
received 3.2 million hits on that search. We then modified our search to be going green in the
classroom and got a more reasonable number of 300,000 hits. The first ten were immediately applicable.
Although, after reading through the top ten, we found only four to be pertinent in our feasibility project.
We evaluated all of the articles and case studies that were returned to us in our searches. We chose the
articles that showed the best range of useful data. We drew from articles that related to schools and
classrooms directly, as well as some that were based in the business world. We wanted to have a large
range of opinions from across the board; experiences from professors and students, testaments from
administrators, and realities of making paperless changes from actors in the real world.
Results of Research
In the following sections we will share our completed work, outline specific references and quotations
that will help us to determine if going paperless in the classroom at Hamline University is feasible. We
will also present research that needs to be done in the future and how that will impact our project.

Completed Work
After refining our searches in the Bush Library database and Google Scholar, we successfully found five
articles and one case study. The case study refers to paperless classes that have been created on the
Carleton College campus. Lackie (1998) wrote that students used the computer networks along with
online systems to complete, turn in and receive feedback on assignments.
We also found a helpful article written by a professor at Ohio Wesleyan University. Flamm (2014) wrote
that comments were more effectively articulated to students electronically than they were hand written.
The article also stated that it gave students less of an opportunity to plagiarize any material. Lastly, it
made Flamm a more efficient grader and was able to return work and give students feedback at a faster
pace.
Finally, we found a helpful statistic on the average paper use in classrooms. Johnson (2011) stated that
within one year in an average sized class, over 800 sheets of paper are used per student. Though this
number is not as high as articles that claim that office worker use an average of 10,000 pieces of paper a
year (Valentio, 2013), this is still a useful statistic for our research.
Future Work
We still need to find one more peer reviewed source, to do this we will use the Bush Memorial Library
database. We will try to use different key-words such as going green, seeing how it was effective when
searching Google scholar, we will also use green classroom to see what sources we can find to help
show the feasibility of our topic.
Once we find a few more sources we will read them thoroughly to find the one that best suits our topic.
When we have identified the source that best fits our needs, we will start on our rough draft. We will use
these sources to show the effectiveness of going green in the classroom and how beneficial it will be to go
green at Hamline. We will have our teams listen to our argument and give advice on what we could do to
improve the paper. Once we complete our rough draft we will give it to Dr. Soria, she will look at it and
give us her feedback on what we can improve. We will use all the feedback we receive and draft our final
paper for our feasibility project.
Conclusion
Using Google Scholar and the Bush Library database, we were able to find a substantial amount of
information. After weeding out the articles that supported our least, we were able to find six beneficial
resources that answered our criteria questions. To find our last source we will need to change our keywords, and evaluate a few more articles. Once we have all of our resources, we will be able to effectively
write out a rough draft of our feasibility project.
References
Below we have listed the citations for the resources we have located so far.
Ahmad, S. (2015). Green human resource management: Policies and practices. Cogent Business &
Management, 2(1), 1030817. doi:10.1080/23311975.2015.1030817
Flamm, M. W. (2014). Going Paperless: The Case for Electronic Submission of Student Work.
College Teaching, 62(1), 1-2.
Lackie, P. (n.d.). The Paradox of Paperless Classes. Social Dimensions of Information
Technology Issues for the New Millennium, 198-211.

Schelberg, N. S., Bitman, C. A., & Weinstein, S. D. (2000). Paperless Benefit Plan
Administration. Compensation & Benefits Review, 32(4), 58-64.
Smith, M. L., & Cline, M. A. (2011). Inexpensive Options for a High-Tech Learning
Environment. Journal of Science Education and Technology J Sci Educ Technol, 20(6),
785-789.
Smith, V., & Evans, E. (2011). Should schools go paperless? Learning & Leading with
Technology, 38(5), 6.
Valentino, Jenni. "Going Green and Saving Green at the Paperless University." IncontextMag.com. N.p.,
22 Apr. 2013. Web. 21 Feb. 2016.