Jed Yang::Scanning Homework
How best to scan handwritten work.
Short
- Do use a smartphone app designed for scanning.
- Do NOT take a picture and then try to make it into a PDF.
Long
Guidelines for writing homework for better scans
- Use lined paper (preferred) or blank paper. Grid paper is not as easy to read when scanned.
- Put some effort to write more legibly for those with poor hand-writing.
- Write question numbers clearly on the left edge. Do not write in columns.
Instructions for scanning
- Use a scanning app. Do not just take a picture.
- You likely have these apps on your phone already:
Google Drive (Android), Notes (iPhone).
- Or you may use Adobe Scan (Android/iPhone).
- You may use other apps, but if your results are not good, I will ask you to try these apps.
- Follow the instructions linked above. Scanning is different from taking a picture.
Compared to taking a picture, the scanning functionality of these apps have a lot of advantages:
- deskewing (so your paper doesn't look like a trapezoid shape)
- multiple pages as a single PDF
- smaller file size (by far)
- better contrast
- correct zoom level (so your PDF is letter-sized, not too big or too small)
- Make sure your scan is oriented/rotated properly. If not, correct it by either using the app's rotate feature or by tilting your phone towards you (and then tilt it back slowly once the display auto-rotates).
Guidelines for submitting to Moodle
- Submit a single multi-page PDF. (The above-mentioned apps can all do this.)
- Do not submit photos or multiple PDFs.
- Download the PDF from Moodle, open it, and confirm.
Remarks
- If we cannot read your work, we cannot give you credit. If you need help with the technical side of scanning your homework, ask for help.
- Alternatively, if you are ambitious, you can try to type your homework with LaTeX (which is how I type worksheets). Overleaf is a good place to start.
- If there is a Mathematica portion, unless told otherwise, save your notebook as a PDF file and upload it as a second file to Moodle.