1. While preparing your ETD, where did you find answers to your questions?
Please select all that apply.

		through e-mail	(44/1511 responses)
		from ETD tech support	(27/1511 responses)
		Other/Comments	(126/1511 responses)
		by telephone	(63/1511 responses)
		from friends	(275/1511 responses)
		at an ETD workshop	(122/1511 responses)
		from my committee	(69/1511 responses)
		from New Media Center staff	(109/1511 responses)
		other Web site(s)	(29/1511 responses)
		VT ETD Web site	(647/1511 responses)
97.33% of the people who took this survey (765 / 786) answered this question.

Other Responses (126 for this question)
"a computer scientist"
"advisor"
"also bought adobe acrobat program support manual"
"Andrew Garnar is the God of Lightning"
"author of dvips program"
"Bob"
"brett"
"Chemistry electronic shop"
"Connie Lowe in Geological Sciences"
"defense date field did not have 1995 option"
"Department Secretary"
"Dr. Eaton"
"Dr. Ken Potter and staff at War Memorial"
"ESM Graduate Secretary - Loretta Tickle"
"etd video"
"ETD videotape"
"ETD workshop and websites need to be reformatted to apply to Architecture graduates whose theses are primarily images and secondarily text. We use Pagemaker to produce our books, and some help to convert Pagemaker files to PDF files would be useful in the workshop and the ETD website."
"ETD workshop film"
"found it hard to find the etd web site"
"from dept. secretary"
"from Paulette Gardner"
"Gail McMillan"
"Geoffrey Knobl"
"girlfriend"
"graduate school"
"graduate school staff"
"graduate secretary"
"Gwen Ewing assisted me."
"I am not on campus and did not have easy access to the programs I needed. The web site has links that go nowhere and I found that I had to use Distiller for it to work properly (I had landscape tables and figures). However, there is some old information that talks about using Exchange. Also when I finally figured out that I needed Distiller it was even easier than what you had in the instructions. I simply printed to the Distiller Printer icon and it did everything for me."
"i feel this process was much more difficult than it needed to be and the support was terrible"
"I would rather reserve my comments"
"Information about the New Media Center should be posted in a visible site on the etd homepage."
"Justin A. Davenport, Sys Admin, NVC"
"Loretta Tickle"
"Margaret Kenny"
"matt johnson, PhD"
"my advisor"
"Nancy in the Grad School!"
"Nancy Nolan"
"Nancy Nolen"
"NMC staff helped most"
"no questions"
"none"
"other"( 62 ) responses
"other ETD's"
"Paperwork during Defense"
"Patrick VanMetre was the best support overall. He was very helpful, by telephone, by e-mail, by the video he made from the ETD Workshop he moderated and in person. Tremendous help!"
"Paulette Gardner, secretary, ELPS"
"please update the site with the working help adresses"
"practice upload did not allow log-in; real one did"
"self-study"
"Shannon"
"SPAREC Secretary"
"Student's guide to electronic thesis submission"
"Tech Help Desk was great!"
"tech support @vt"
"Tell people not to have spaces in the names of the files"
"The staff at the new Media center went above and beyond the call of duty to help me submit. They desrve a pat on the back and a "good Job" well done statement of encoragement. Darren, Shannon, and james were extremely helpful and courteous."
"the staff at the new media center were terrific shannon Darren and James did far more than I ever espected to help me submit ...they deserve a pat on the back and good job statement of encouragement."
"The T.A. at Alexandria Center was the most helpful. The printed info available here conflicted with what the professors said, and waqs otherwise rather unclear. It required the use of five different computers and two different types of data transport disks to complete the filing due to technical incompatabilities. It would have been impossible on my own, not to mention that the VT website seized up on 3 out ofour computers."
"this thing is horrible"
"through PSychology department tech support/ Jason Fortney"
"trial and error"
"video"
"Why does one set of instructions indicate merging chapters into one document while the final submission allows uploading them separately?"

2. If you consulted the VT ETD Web site, please indicate if the site was useful.

		Not useful	(17/759 responses)
		Very useful	(328/759 responses)
		Did not consult VT ETD Web site.	(55/759 responses)
		Somewhat useful	(205/759 responses)
		Useful	(154/759 responses)
96.56% of the people who took this survey (759 / 786) answered this question.

3. If you attended an ETD workshop, please indicate if you found the workshop useful.

		Did not attend ETD workshop.	(447/699 responses)
		Somewhat useful	(91/699 responses)
		Useful	(72/699 responses)
		Very useful	(47/699 responses)
		Not useful	(42/699 responses)
88.93% of the people who took this survey (699 / 786) answered this question.

4. If you used the New Media Center, please indicate if the staff was helpful.

		Very helpful	(118/693 responses)
		Somewhat helpful	(26/693 responses)
		Helpful	(24/693 responses)
		Not helpful	(8/693 responses)
		Did not use the New Media Center.	(517/693 responses)
88.17% of the people who took this survey (693 / 786) answered this question.

5. How many ETDs did you consult while preparing your ETD?

		more than 10	(14/755 responses)
		Did not consult any ETDs.	(266/755 responses)
		3-5	(155/755 responses)
		1-2	(292/755 responses)
		6-10	(28/755 responses)
96.06% of the people who took this survey (755 / 786) answered this question.

6. Compared to what you expected, how difficult was it to create a PDF file?

		Much more difficult	(61/757 responses)
		Somewhat more difficult	(110/757 responses)
		Somewhat less difficult	(186/757 responses)
		Much less difficult	(273/757 responses)
		Neither more nor less difficult	(127/757 responses)
96.31% of the people who took this survey (757 / 786) answered this question.

7. My computer is a

		Other	(20/771 responses)
		Unix	(16/771 responses)
		PC	(696/771 responses)
		Mac	(39/771 responses)
96.95% of the people who took this survey (762 / 786) answered this question.

Other Responses (20 for this question)
"All of the above"
"Both PC and Unix"
"Document created on Unix, PDF created on Unix, ETD transferred to VPI on WINNT"
"Laptop"
"Linux"
"Mac and PC"
"other"( 11 ) responses
"P.O.S."
"PC at home, Mac and PC at school"
"TC computers"

8. Where were you when you submitted your ETD?

		Campus office	(287/859 responses)
		Campus residence hall	(6/859 responses)
		New Media Center	(91/859 responses)
		Tech Connect lab	(24/859 responses)
		Northern Virginia Center	(12/859 responses)
		off-campus workplace	(99/859 responses)
		Off-campus residence	(111/859 responses)
		Another university	(30/859 responses)
		Other	(199/859 responses)
97.2% of the people who took this survey (764 / 786) answered this question.

Other Responses (199 for this question)
"Alexandria Research Institute"
"Alexandria, Virginia"
"another state"
"AOE Grad. Lab"
"AOE Graduate Lab"
"Architecture Lab"
"architecture library"
"architecture studio"
"Architecture thesis studio in Cowgill Hall"
"AREC office"
"At a Kinkos in Detroit"
"at my office PC"
"at work"( 2 ) responses
"Because of problems with my computer and Adobe Acrobat, Patrick VanMetre did the final submission from his computer."
"BSE computer lab"
"campus computer lab"
"campus engineering computer lab"
"Campus ISE Lab"
"Campus Lab"
"Campus research facility"
"Campus Research Lab"
"CCM Lab"
"Cears Lab"
"Cears Lab (Cheatham Hall)"
"CEARS lab Cheatham Hall"
"cears lab in Cheatham hall"
"Cears lab, Cheatham Hall"
"CEE computer lab"( 2 ) responses
"Chemistry department computer lab (Davidson)"
"Chemistry Dept Lab."
"chemistry lab"
"CIMSS, 310 Durham Hall, Blacksburg"
"CMMID computer lab"
"cowgill"
"Cowgill Hall"( 3 ) responses
"CPES Laboratory"
"CSES Grad Student Lab"
"CWT lab"
"Department"
"department comp lab"
"Department Computer Lab"
"departmental computer lab"
"Dept. computer lab"
"Digital Library Research Laboratory"
"Durham Hall"
"Environmental Engineering Laboratory"
"Forestry computer lab"
"Geosciences Computer Laboratory"
"Hillcrest Computer Lab"
"home"( 5 ) responses
"home in Nevada"
"Home, Northern Virginia"
"Hotel in PA"
"HRGC"( 2 ) responses
"indiana"
"Kinkos"
"kinkos in MN"
"lab"
"Leesburg Campus. Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center"
"MECA Lab"
"Mentor's office"
"Minneapolis, Minnesota"
"Missouri, home"
"my house in Chicago"
"New Job"
"Ohio State"
"other"( 96 ) responses
"Philosophy Department PC Lab"
"planet"
"Psychology department computer lab"
"Research lab"
"Residence - Florida"
"Residence in another state"
"Rutgers University"
"San Jose, California"
"Smyth Hall"
"Southern Piedmont AREC"
"SPAREC"
"Tidewater campus"
"Tidewater HRGC"
"VA Tech on-campus Lab"
"vet school computer center"
"Veterianry college computer"
"Virginia Tech Alexandria Center office"
"Virginia Tech Transportation Institute"
"Virginia View"
"visiting out-of-state"
"vmrcvm"
"War Memorial 220"
"Williams CIC"
"Wisconsin"
"work"( 2 ) responses
"Workplace in West Virginia"
"Workplace, Rockville, MD"

9. Compared to what you expected, how difficult was it to submit your thesis/dissertation electronically?

		Neither more nor less difficult.	(128/761 responses)
		Much more difficult	(48/761 responses)
		Somewhat more difficult	(96/761 responses)
		Somewhat less difficult	(205/761 responses)
		Much less difficult	(284/761 responses)
96.82% of the people who took this survey (761 / 786) answered this question.

10. Within the next 1-2 years, what do you intend to publish from your ETD?
Please select all that may apply.

		Will not publish	(30/1020 responses)
		Journal article	(538/1020 responses)
		Conference proceedings	(198/1020 responses)
		Other	(21/1020 responses)
		Don't know yet	(175/1020 responses)
		Book chapter	(28/1020 responses)
		Book	(30/1020 responses)
97.07% of the people who took this survey (763 / 786) answered this question.

Other Responses (21 for this question)
"2-3 articles"
"Abstract followed by content in Professional Organization."
"Conference paper"
"Electronic version"
"Most info already summitted for publication previous to ETD"
"other"( 11 ) responses
"patent"( 2 ) responses
"Reserach Report"
"web page"( 2 ) responses

11. If you restricted access to your VT ETD, what did you base your decision on?
Select all that apply.

		Advice of others	(64/660 responses)
		Patent pending	(32/660 responses)
		Advice of publisher	(40/660 responses)
		Advice of faculty	(305/660 responses)
		Personal choice	(150/660 responses)
		Other	(69/660 responses)
59.67% of the people who took this survey (469 / 786) answered this question.

Other Responses (69 for this question)
"advice of committee chair"
"Advice of Sponsor"
"coin toss"
"Confidentiality"
"Confidentiality of client"
"contract monitors"
"Copyright material"
"did not restrict"( 3 ) responses
"Did not restrict access"
"did not restrict any parts of the thesis"
"dont' know"
"had no clue"
"I did not"
"i did not restrict"
"I don,t like having vita information on the web. It is a security risk."
"I want to publish some of it and know some publishers will not publishe any of my thesis after being published by VT"
"image use from a source"
"N/A"
"NA"
"no restrictions"
"other"( 35 ) responses
"Paper pending"
"Proprietary concerns of corporate sponsors"
"Proprietary Data"
"proprietary information"
"publication of information concerning product tested"
"restricted for one year to allow me to publish"
"Restriction from the company I worked for"
"sponsor"
"this work is not peer reveiwed, and therefore (like most dissertations) not suitable for release."
"want to conduct more research on same topic before releasing this information"
"Want to publish so can't release it yet"
"Web page reassurances"

12. Please include any comments or questions that you have about ETDs?

Text Responses (156 for this question)
"1)What is hyperlink? 2)Please, include information about Acrobat 4 on your website"
"A Student's Guide to Electronic Thesis Submission is generally quite helpful, though I did get a bit confused about installing a PS printer driver (though that is as much due to Adobe's free wheeling use of Abode Distiller this and Adobe Distiller that, etc. Also, the guide seemd at times written to a larger audience (i.e. not just VT) which was somewhat de-nerving. Overall though, great as a single coherent comprehensive document vs. fragmenting instructions on webpages so that you don't know if you have the full story. Thanks"
"Actual submission process very easy....web pages and instructions were straightforward. Creating pdf files of my dissertation was difficult. Adobe routinely messed up figures, inserted blank pages, added unwanted lines. Reasons for these mistakes were almost impossible to determine, as a result I spent approximately 2 days making 4 pdf files. Whereas this process saves library space and promotes free exchange and access to information, it is not very convenient for the student and increases the frustration level at the end of the doctoral degree process."
"after all information is entered, show the information in text format to confirm before submission."
"After putting a lot of effort into creating an electronic document with distinguishable lineweight and clarity of detail, I was very dissapointed in how it was all but lost when the "PDF" was made."
"Although my ETD submission went smoothly I felt it was not helpful to submit a 180 page document with no bookmarks. I however had no time to deal with doing this and htought it would be helpful if there was an office which prepared the ETD's so they would actually be useful to others interested in viewing them. Although such facilities may seem excessive I think it is also excessive to expect students from all disciplines to become trained in preparing the ETD to the specifications suggested when it is possibly the busiest time of their entire graduate program. Although the ETD is supposed to make it easier for the entire world to view someone's research, I feel the amount of time to do this has been overlooked and only increases the time for a student to finish all the final details necessary for graduation."
"Better than binding a book."
"better than written bound theses"
"Considering how poorly the Virginia Tech computer system works, it would be more appropriate to take the thesis submnitted on a data disk."
"Converting .VDI to .pdf is very painful!!!"
"Converting the thesis from .doc to .pdf was a very arduous and time-consuming process."
"Create a way for students to enter "practice" etds so that they have experience with it and it is not another "unknown" item hanging over their heads at a time when they are dealing with all the other pressures of finishing up a masters or PhD."
"Dr. Eaton and his team at the Graduate School office were very helpful in bringing my work to completion."
"DVI to a searchable PDF file conversion is very very difficult."
"ETDs are one of the great resources for other knowledge seekers"
"Fix the Error that states the Invalid Cookie when trying to log in!"
"For commercially-funded research, it would be helpful to provide an option to delay release until a specified date. This is done by UMI, and would seem easy to implement"
"Formatting was AWFUL!!! Really had difficulty making things understandable to the pdf writer. Plus...quite different from what the committee would have required"
"great idea!"
"great tool and easy process to follow. A little redundant when it comes to filling out the paperwork and then re-filling out the same data (committee members etc..) on the etd"
"Great way to have so much usefulf information at a students fingertips."
"had problems logging into ETD and uploading files"
"How long does it take to find out if submission was successful?"
"How long it will take for staff to check and approve my ETD?"
"How will others be able to access my ETD?"
"I am happy with ETD submission."
"I am so happy this is over!!!!"
"I am very pleased with the ETD site."
"I attended the workshop a year before I was ready to submit, so it was helpful given the circumstances. The practice web site is very helpful but it did not accept my PID and the PID I created at the practice site was not accepted by the permanent site."
"I believe this is a better process than the one creating the printed form of the dissertation"
"I did not receive any advice from my advisory committee on how to create the ETD. I wish that the ETD course was made mandatory for graduate students because I would have known what to do, ahead of time, and this would have saved me a lot of trouble. An ETD workshop could be part of the initial GTA training workshop."
"I find the instruction to be clear and comprehensive, and the personnel at the centre to be very helpful."
"I found several problems with the way Adobe Acrobat handles formatting lines in tables. I was using athe double-line option in MS Word for my tables. Adobe would show them as thick lines, but print the double line. I solved the problem by removing the double-lines and replacing them with single lines. In future workshops you may wish to address this issue with students. The transfer of bookmarks from MS Word to Adobe Acrobat is an issue that should be addressed more in the workshops. I had some trouble with this using Acrobat 4 and Distiller in both Acrobat 4 and 5."
"I found that using an up to date PDF writer made this process a lot simpler than the graduate school had made it sound"
"I found the coversion process frustrating and time consuming. I consider myself to be computer savy, however I found converting to pdf to be a tedious process. I have sympathy for students who do not have good computer skills and do not know how to trouble shoot the problems that can arise when using Adobe Acrobat to conver documents to pdf."
"I have no additional comments. It was a scary process--but I hope it worked."
"I have yet to add two graphs that were created with SPSS software that I haven't figured out how to add them."
"I personally feel that ETD is the best way to submit dissertations. I am submitting my thesis to Virginia Tech, akthough I am in California. What more can I say regarding the convenience that ETD has provided me."
"I restricted access to my submission to give me time to publish. Is this appropriate?"
"I spent nearly two full days attempting to create the PDF file. There seemed to be issues with Acrobat Distiller and several different Postscript printers. Some printers would add lines to graphs that did not exist. On other printers, Distiller simply failed to complete the process. I spent alot of time reformatting my dissertation because I had to try using alot of differnt computer-printer systems. It seems like it would be easier to have one person at the graduate school do all converting that way I don't have to spend 2 days relearning how to get around Distller-Printer problems that someone with alot of experience would already know."
"I think ETD's are a wonderful idea. I was working on my thesis over the summer at home and the electronic submission was very convenient and easy!"
"I think it is a great idea to be able to share thesis documents among students, especially from other colleges being that we would not have access or exposure to these thesises."
"I think that this entire process is incredibly unfair and that graduate students and their work are being used. First of all, we are required to write our dissertations according to a certain format, i.e. APA or MLA. We buy hand books and spend a lot of time formatting the document for our committees. Then we essentially have to reformat the entire document so that it can meet your requirements in the pdf format. Second, we have to pay a $75.00 fee to meet a requirement to submit our dissertations to further build Tech's and UMI's databases. Our work is being used as a resource and yet we are being charged to submit it. Usually libraries have to pay authors for their works, not the other way around. I understand that these databases are worthwhile areas for research, and I wouldn't even mind paying the fee to make sure that these services continue, but if we do have to pay for it, then why do we have to do the work to convert and upload the material? For $75.00, we should at least be able to send our document files and have someone else convert them to pdf. Not everyone is technically skilled enough to get through the Adobe Acrobat process without a lot of trouble. We've spent years working on our degrees and writing our dissertations, we go through the defense, and yet there is still one more hoop to jump through, and we have absolutely no recourse but to pay the money and go through the headache in order to build someone else's database."
"I think the ETD initiative is just great. There isnt a more effective way to disseminate knowledge."
"I think the ETDs are a very helpful tool during the research. I saved a lot of time checking out thesis on the web rather than going to the library or having to buy them. The time I spent doing it is definitely worth it considering how convenient it is."
"I was on a defending student status this semester and had trouble loggin on to the Secure Submit page. I needed to know what had to be done to create my PID (as I left VT two years ago). Did not get any response despite two mails to etd@vt.edu Would have been easier if a phonr number or specific contact person's email address was there on the login page."
"I was unsure of who to grant access because my committee mentioned no restrictions on access to my project; therefore, I granted full access. I hope it was the right choice."
"I was worried that I wouldn't be able to convert to pdf format because I am off campus, but Adobe has a free trial on their webpage where you can get 5 free pdf conversions. That might be a good thing to mention on the ETD website."
"I would offer a page on your etd website with the html codes. You only offer a few, however those students within the science fields use many more subscripts and superscripts."
"I would think that a college know for it connection to the web capabilities would have a server that would not shut down during etd submittions."
"I'm not sured how long I can access my VT e-mail. So, I provide you my another e-mail, which is kangwal@hotmail.com , in case you may need to contact me. Thanks."
"I'm not too sure where the restriction access I selected is appropriate. Just wanted to restrict it for one year to enable me to publish papers from it. Can someone let me know if the choice I made is the right one?"
"I've requested that access to my VT ETD be limited to only Virginia Tech because I'm planning to submit a version of my thesis for publication in a scientific journal. Worldwide access to my VT ETD is acceptable after January 2002."
"If a collection of ETD files are submitted, will they be integrated into a single ETD file?"
"If Virginia Tech is going to require that we submit our thesis eletronically, then they should provide us with the appropriate software to do this. At the very least, information should be readily available on this web site to tell us which computers on campus have Adobe Distiller on them. It should not take you a week to track down someone who can help you."
"If you could give suggestions on how to resolve page number issues between pagemaker and acrobat/pdf files, it would be fantastic."
"In general is a lack of communication to graduate students regarding what they need to do to graduate- forms to submit etc."
"In zipped PcTex form, my dissertation took up 119K and after converting to post script (23M) and having to reformat my hard drive due to a crash it caused you get a 10M PDF file. The Statistics department provides consultants (I was a consultant) to help people with their research but with this I felt on my own and it was very aggrivating."
"instructions in ETD web don't print right"
"Is it possible that put on a sample for pepople to know the format?"
"It is a good system."
"It is good."
"It is May 10 and there are hardly any campus computer labs available. The New Media Center is closed. The War Memorial Lab is closed. The Torgeson Bridge doesn't have PDF Writer. Three residence hall labs I checked convert my bullets in my document to question marks. This was a terrible experience trying to find a computer. The graduate school should keep a computer avaiable to students in Sandy Hall to convert their documents to PDF."
"It should be easier than it was for me to submit my ETD using Internet Explorer. After several failures, I had to find another machine with Netscape, and use that as my browser for transmission purposes."
"IT TAKES TO MUCH TIME"
"It was a BIG pain in my ass, not something I wanted to deal with after writing a 200 page dissertation"
"It would be helpful to be able to view the cumulative information (be it committee members or pdf files)as it is input/uploaded."
"It would be helpful to future students if ALL requirements and Deadlines for ETD and graduation related issues were posted in ONE place."
"It would be helpful to have a workshop dedicated to "dressing" up your ETD (i.e., with video, audio, etc.). I indicated a high level of difficulty with the conversion process, but feel that it was mainly due to problems with my own personal computer. I was especially appreciative of the major support I received from Patrick VanMetre."
"It would be much easier to understand what is happening during file upload if you would include some type of progress window. I tried to upload MANY times and it just looked like I was trying to connect to the server. Finally, I just let it go and it did upload. If you showed a small window stating that file uplaoding was occurring, that would be nice. Also, I have Adobe 4.0, and was not able to create my .pdf file using your instructions. I had to use instructions from another university to successfully create the file."
"It would be nice if we could drop off a CD to a VT service and they downloaded it to meed the desired formats instead of going back and forth. It was very difficult for me to get the CD converted to a PDF file."
"It would be nice to know information regarding the people who download my ETD."
"It would have been helpful to see examples of formatting. For example, I went to ODU's web site and all of their information on formatting and submission was actually formatted in a document that looked like a thesis/dissertation and thus became the example. Very ingenious idea and worked really well."
"Its a very easy process, though converting from word to PDF was a pain."
"LaTeX was not directly supported when I called New Media Center, but I was told that they might be able to give me a number for someone to contact. I had problems converting my .dvi file to .ps. The instructions on the ETD site are four years old, and they assume a Unix system, or a Mac. I finally got it to work when the author of dvips (dvi to ps) answered my email question. Stronger support needs to be made for LaTeX, as it is with MS Word. LaTeX is very good with large documents, and I chose it over MS Word because MS Word usually crashes (sometimes fatally) with large documents and many figures, footnotes, references, etc. The solution to convert to ps from dvi is to execute dvips -Pcmz -D1200 dissertation.dvi. One may have to install the outline fonts on the VT site if one does not have outline fonts. Installation of the fonts comes with no directions, other than Unix, or an obscure document written for Macs and assuming you know Postscript font technical information. After all is done, I strongly support the ETD effort, and I congratulate the school for moving ahead with it. Best Regards,"
"Living in Oregon while completing my doctoral dissertation made it difficult as Adobe software was not available (not even at Oregon State or Univ. of Oregon). I had difficulties preparing the pdf file (I am computer literate). The New Media Center was helpful. Please make the process more helpful for those not on campus. Assistance at the Graduate school was helpful as well."
"Make ftp possible"
"More help should be available regarding LaTex and ETDs. I contacted the person who created the on-line LaTex template and they were no longer with the project. It seems like an obvious step to set up an updated LaTex template and provide some FAQ answers, like what packages are available to incorporate different types of graphics. This may get a little out of scope of just ETD, but there should be some LaTex workshops for technical majors. Thanks!"
"MS Word is the problem, not Adobe in getting the ETD finished!"
"Much more precice information regarding this form of submittal needs to be supplied by one's department before the writing of the draft document in order to preclude all the later adjustments at submittal time."
"Need better facilities to convert to pdf"
"New Media center was wonderful--I was able to hire someone to do this for me since I am long-distance and that worked beautifully!! Thanks."
"No comments."
"No Va. campus had few people that had complete information on what to do. In particular, the Adobe Distiller software was hard to find. After three visits to campus, I found it on four unmarked computers in the back of a room full of computers."
"none" - ( 3 responses)
"None."
"Not too bad for me and nice to have when I'm looking for info. on other research."
"On the ETD website a clearer differentiation between suggestions for document fromatting versus requiremnts would have been helpful"
"PostScript file created by LaTex on UNIX are difficult to convert to the PDF files."
"problems with converting greek letters to html equivalent"
"Providing more examples would be helpful"
"Required too much time!"
"Response was not prompt and was inadequate when I submitted a question through the etd web page"
"Sara was extremely helpful. She was very cordial and professional. She is an asset to the New Media Center and should be considered for a raise or promotion. Good people are hard to find and I would definitely hold onto her."
"Should have description of defense procedure"
"simple, quick, easy, great!"
"Since I go home to Germany right after graduation, it would be nice if the reviewing process is finished by May 10th. Is this possible?"
"Some data points in graphs (diamonds) created using MS Excel don't show up properly when I convert to .pdf I had to change all of my graphs which was annoying. However, color images showed up beautifully!"
"Sometimes the ETD server is down and the students outside VT with remote computer could not submit their thesis/dissertation in time."
"sometimes there is conflicting information on the etd web site between old info and updated info, get rid of the outdated info and links."
"Submitting interface could have been more user friendly"
"Submitting outside Blacksburg is harder."
"Tell other individuals that they can go to adobe.com and download three free trials for changing word documents to pdf files. I found this easy to do and it was free!"
"Thank you."
"Thanks for providing this service."
"Thanks to my professors at Rutgers, they were of tremendous help in the simplification of converting the files to pdf format, Virginia Tech's instructions are painful and frustrating."
"Thanks to Troy in the Media Center for his tremendous help"
"Thanks!"
"The abstract shown on ETD looks awful. The PDF documents are listed as alphebatic sequence. One can not put tables.pdf in front of chapter1.pdf easily as I know."
"The answers to my survey will change drastically if I receive an email telling me to do it again."
"The choices for restricting access of the dissertation on this website do not match the choices on the ETD approval form."
"The conversion and submission was easy, but formatting in Word and getting my figures in was very time-consuming."
"The directions were straightforward"
"The ETD creation and submission process, in my opinion, is one that need reviewing. I think it has been in place for about three years now, and it may be time to take a retrospective look at the entire system. 1) Little to no specific support for issues concerning conversion problems (word processor to PDF) 2) a *UNIFORM* style guide or template should be made available to students. (See the latest "any old style guide you want" at the library is not a sufficient standard) 3) I think it University is remiss in requiring students to buy the Distiller software. Surely, with the current nationwide effort to go digital (and Adobe PDF being the popular choice) some sort of Beta grant or limited time version could have been made available to students for free. 4) No apparent sole source for dealing with the more technical issues, especially graphics, word processor techniques, and WORD to PDF issues. 5) Instead of waiting for the software to come from an outside source, had anyone thought of using the vast info. tech. resources on campus, including the Comp.Sci. department to DEVELOP it's own app that could convert Word or WP docs. to PDF (a la Adobe PDF Writer)? 6) Need to incorporate electronic signature capability into the submission approval process to eliminate the legacy paper form that is still required. 7) How can you charge a binding fee for something that is no longer required to be bound???? 8) Creating and publishing the PDF was a very educational experience, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. Now I know how to do this with other documents, AND I am somewhat of an MS Word guru. I know how to do things with Word that I had no idea could be done."
"The ETD submission proceess is excellent. As an information systems consultant, I am very impressed with the ease of use, UI and speed of the web page. It is very professional and well done."
"The ETD website frontpage should be more organized and clear."
"The folks at the Media Center, especially Shannon Craig were very helpful. Other students to take advantage of the services provided by the Center"
"The hardest time I had was with finding information about making the right decision about copyrighting and which options to use. Dr. Eaton finally gave me some helpful advice."
"The help desk was great! However, you need to figure out why you can't convert files to PDF using Explorer -it won't work and so I had to send it to the help desk adn the help desk had to convert it and send it back to me."
"The info. given by the grad school about UMI publishing was vague... my committee and I were not sure how to restrict publication in this area. I had to specifically ask a grad school employee to clarifty that the ETD restriction would also apply to this UMI/Bell & Howell stuff. More info on the web site about the difference and the relationship between these would be very helpful (UMI required for doctorate only)."
"The Mathamatica code was very difficult convert to a readable PDF ...you might want to include something like that on the web page."
"The only piece of information I am missing at this point is when do the signatures need to be in and the $20 dollar check. I have been able to submit my thesis thusfar without any hinderance. I am in Indianna and I have made provisions for this to occur but do not know exactly when this will happen. Therefore I hope there is not a set chronology to when the form and payment is due versus the ETD submittal via the web."
"The pdf is a good idea because my word documents are far too big to include in one file. I would however like the ETD seminar to focus more on word file management techniques. For example how to link several documents to a Master file where all the style information can be set and the heirarchy could be organized."
"The personnel at the New media Center were very helpful to me in the making of the PDF file and the submission of the Dissertation. They are a great staff"
"The process should only take 1 hour at most. I felt the website was too verbose with links that were not descriptive enough and links that were positioned improperly. For example, on the home page you've got the "submission form" link on the far bottom right. Futhermore, the text is not justified so it's hard to read. The position should top dead center and the link should read "to submit an etd click here". The process doesn't take long but understanding the process according to the way the text has been written takes awhile. I still think the website to be very useful; the word sentences just need to be more concise for easier reading. Good job."
"The use of the four computers in the No VA Center cyber cafe which are loaded with Acrobat to convert Word to PDF was most useful. The major problem I am having is converting Excel files to pdf. The only way I know how to do it is to break up the Excel files so that they are still readable and then load them into Word. This has taken hours, I am about 2/3 complete and it has taken me about 15 hours so far to do it."
"The Virginia Tech site is very cumbersome - please just use a single interface for all information pertaining to ETDs and list ALL of the information in an index on the left hand side."
"The VT ETD web site needs a lot of updating and revisions. It was very difficult to obtain the information I needed from it because I had to click on a link for every little piece of information. I finally found a page on this website that allowed me to download the Student's Guide to Electronic Thesis Submission (pdf document). A link to this latter document needs to be provided on the home page for the VT ETD website. This pdf document was 10 times better than trying to use the website. Once I obtained this pdf document, converting my thesis to pdf and submitting was very easy."
"The website could be better organized. What date should appear on the title page of my thesis: the date that I defended my thesis, or the date that I submitted the thesis?"
"The website had some misleading information concerning the PID log-in. It suggested the ability to sign up for a new PID online when in fact I needed to contacht 231-help."
"There should be instructions on the page where one add files. For example, it would have been helpful it there had been an instruction that stated, "After uploading all files, click on add files." It was confusing to me because I didn't know if "add files" meant to add other files beyond the numbers of fields that were provided or if it meant to add the existing files that were already placed in the "browse" field."
"There should be one person in each department that can handle etd if the student don't have time to do them especially foreign student."
"They increase accessibility of information across campuses."
"This converting to a PDF has to be improved, my graphs looks fuzzy, by God, their JPGS"
"This is a busy time of year, and in the digital world, if even one key piece of information is missing it can take a person days to get it figured out. I know you are working very hard to help everyone out, but I still found the process time consuming, irritating, and frustrating. Could the step-by-step instructions include how to make a pdf file from a word document, and a print document indicating the steps required to load it? Thank you"
"This was too difficult to do from away from campus without resources for on-campus students. I think that VT should take Word documents and transfer them to ETD for students; Most of us would be happy to pay a fee for this and forget the hassle especially when the turn around time for changes and submission is so tight. It creates yet another stressful event on top of just finishing and defending the dissertation."
"To make the site better add a file upload status window that would show the progress of the files being uploaded. This would help if large files are being uploaded and will take a long time"
"Took me a while to find a computer that could create a PDF file successfully. Many failed."
"Unnecessary"
"Very good initiative. I am glad that VT decided to go electronic. GO HOKIES"
"Very good way to store theses and Diss."
"Very good."
"Was not able to successfully use Distiller with my thesis, either from the Hillcrest computer lab or New Media Lab. Ended up using PDFwriter with the help of personel in New Media Lab, who were very helpful. When I was looking at the website, I saw that pdfwriter was not recommended..why is this..it ended up working for me."
"Was not able to upload the pdf files from home. Could not connect to scholar.lib...."
"We generated the PDF file here at work (GE)with the help of some experts at XEROX who we have here on site. I had lots of WORD hassles. I just uploaded the thesis - hope it's all OK... I would like to see in the ETD web page help information on formats for references. Even if it is department specific the info should be there stating exactly what is required."
"What is an "ETD"?"
"When will I know if my etd was approved?"
"Why do we pay a microfiliming fee when it's electronic? Thank you."
"why is it not explaine dbetter at the beginning so tat we allot the proper amount of time to accomplish it?"
"Wonderful."
"You need to make Adobe exchange more accessible. I couldn't find it in several of the computer labs I checked."
"you should be able to access the Acrobat distiller even if you are not able to use a "vt.edu" computer!!! This is my major complaint!!!"
"You should tell the user to add ther PDF file in the add files window, it is not clear"
"Your website was of great help! However, some links to your site from other vt-websites did not work. Maybe one can notify those sites to adjust them to the new links."

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Generated at 04:44 pm on Monday, October 26th, 2015