1. Digital Media Design Technology scholar
2778 Meadow Brooke Dr.
Brownsville, Texas 78526
April 16, 2010
To: Mr. Garnet Gaither, Department Chair
Digital Media Design Technology
TSTC Harlingen
1902 North Loop 499
Harlingen, TX 78550
Subject: Selling Adobe Student Edition Software to DMDT students
This report encloses a series of information dealing with the Digital Media Design Technology
issue of not selling Adobe Student Edition software to the students attending in this program. It
will pertain on some of the issues affecting with students because the software is not always
accessible to them.
This report covers on how much the software costs in a regular price of the Adobe software. It
will also make note to see if the faculty’s decision in not selling the program is affecting the
students. Some of the factors affecting students are the time they spend lab class, the time the lab
closes, also how students deal with the disadvantage of have the some labs full or not having
enough time to work on their projects. Recommendations have been made that can help this kind
of issue the as it has being said to sell a cheaper edition that contains only the applications used
in the classrooms.
Over all this report is not to be found as a way of criticism, but a way to have some of the
disadvantages that students have and changing them into ways that they could elevate their
knowledge of education dealing with this program. I hope that with my recommendations with
could work something out since it is only for a good cause of education. Please let me know if
you have any questions or if you need further information. I may be reach at (956) 544-2256,
a.caraveo@yahoo.com
Andrea Caraveo
2. Report on:
Selling Adobe Student Edition Software
Prepared by Andrea A. Caraveo
Digital Media Design Technology Scholar
Report Distributed April 16, 2010
Prepared for
Mr. Garnet Gaither
Department Chair of the Digital Media Design Technology
3. ABSTRACT
The report contains explicit information and data about the DMDT program not selling Adobe
student edition software to students attending this program. The purpose of this report is to
assure the decision the faculty made in this program was an advantage for the students attending
this program. This is very important because making right decision about this issue will make the
students knowledge greater causing their education level to increase. Reports show the high cost
of buying the software directly from the company than buying a student edition from a college at
a cheaper price. There are some issues that deal with the class labs. The lab hours are very few
and the time of closing is at 5pm, making it impossible to work on a project if the student has
any outside activities such as work that unable the student to stay and use the labs. This make is
hard for students since the spare time they have left is away from the TSTC campus and many of
the students live in other cities. A recommendation is given to the faculty and chair department
in selling a student edition that would allow students access the software in their personal
computers saving time and money in going all the way to the campus.
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4. Table of Contents
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. iii
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...........................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................2
Analysis of Student Activities .............................................................................................4
Analysis of Student’s Time Use ..........................................................................................5
Lab S-130 .............................................................................................................................6
Analysis form the Student Body and Faculty ......................................................................7
Faculty......................................................................................................................7
Studnt .......................................................................................................................7
CONCULSION AND RECOMENDATIONS .............................................................................8
WORK CITED ...............................................................................................................................9
5. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The report contains explicit information and data about why staff members in the DMDT
program should sell Adobe Students Edition software to students attending this program. The
purpose of this report is to assure that the decision the faculty in this program made was an
advantage for the students attending this program. This is very important because making right
decision about this issue will make the students knowledge greater causing their education level
to increase.
Trying to buy each of the software needed in the course year would be very expensive and it
would take time for the software to arrive for students, but selling the student edition from
college would make it cheaper and faster for students to buy it and install it.
There are labs in the building that have the software installed in their classroom computers; the
problem is that not all the classrooms have the same applications in their hard drive. This makes
the rooms get full when having a major project that takes a lot of time making students loose
time that could have been use to get ahead in their work. The labs in that building close at 5pm
so that the students that need more time can stay, the problem is that not many can stay to work
on their projects. Many students have to go to work leaving only their nights at home their only
spare time.
It is hard for students that live far away from the TSTC campus because they have to drive all the
way to the campus which in most of the cases is in another city. A recommendation is given to
the faculty and chair department in selling a student edition that would allow students access the
software in their personal computers saving time and money in going all the way to the campus.
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6. INTRODUCTION
The report contains explicit information and data about why staff members in the DMDT
program should sell Adobe Students Edition software to students attending this program. The
purpose of this report is to make sure the program is making a good decision in not selling the
software and what would the advantages be in doing so. I will also show some recommendations
on how to improve this situation that will help students in the DMDT program upper their
education level.
Time is Money
Trying to buy each of the software needed in the course year would be very expensive and it
would take time for the software to arrive for students, but selling the student edition from
college would make it cheaper and faster for students to buy it and install it. Looking at some of
the websites in the internet I saw that each application had a price:
Adobe Application Software Price US
Adobe Soundbooth CS5 $79.00
Adobe Illustrator CS5 $199.99
Adobe After Effects CS5 $349.00
Adobe Flash CS5 $179.00
Adobe Photoshop CS5 $199.00
Adobe InDesign CS5 $199.00
Adobe Premiere CS5 $349.00
This information from Adobe.com shows the price of each of the apps. As you can see from this
table trying to buy an application of the software is really expensive and I listed all the ones that
we use in every class.
Away
Also it is hard for students that live far away from the TSTC campus because they have to drive
all the way to the campus which in most of the cases is in another city and that takes time a lot of
time away that could be use to work in a project.
Crowed Labs
When classes are not in use they become labs for students to work on their projects. Not all the
classes have the same software applications installed on their hard drives. Many students take
advantage of the time and use the computers when the rooms are available. The problem is
that when a lab like the one on room S-130 gets full there is no other class available that has the
same software. For example After Effects or Encore are the applications that only the computers
in that lab S-130 has and many students need it for their projects. Even if it was available the lab
closes at 5 in the afternoon not making enough time to finish a project. Other students do not
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7. have time to stay because they have to go to work, making evenings the only spare time
available. By having the Adobe software on a personal computer would make it more accessible
for students to work on their projects in their spare times.
The Tests
I also provided primary/secondary research that was done to show graphs that give credibility to
this issue. An interview was created and filled for a student in the DMDT program. It had couple
of questions like:
• What do you think about the labs? Are they accessible?
• How much free time after college do you have left in the rest of the day?
• How many classes dealing with your DMDT program do you have? How many projects
do you get per class? Do they more time?
• Would you think it would make a difference in your projects if you had the software you
use in class installed in your personal laptop?
All the answers where submitted and created into a charts which show the percentage of students
who have free time and have a need for the software application which can’t be use because
series of situations occur.
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8. Analysis of student activities
What students do after class
Get out
from class
at 5pm
9%
Stay at labs
12%
Drive back to their
hometown
44%
Go to Work
35%
These chart on top shows the percentage of students who either can’t or can stay after their
classes are done to use the computer labs. Basically 5 out of 10 students have to drive back to
their cities, 3 have to go to work, 1 stays in the lab and one can use it because they still are
having a class session.
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9. Analysis of student’s time use
Students Time Availability
10
9
8
7
6
Hours
5
4
3
2
1
0
Home Work Stay in Lab
Free time 7 4 9
Busy 5 8 3
This column chart shows the hours a student has busy in after 12 pm and how many hours they
have free being away from the campus. Students who go to home either because they have to
babysit, pick up their kids from school, or need to do house chores use only about 5 hours to do
this things and they have a spare time of about 7 hours. By having the software in a personal
computer they could of make good use of this time and could have gotten ahead in their projects.
Also for the people who work and have approximately 4 hours left even in 1 hour they could
move on in their projects. People who stay in the labs can get ahead and they benefit of that by
having good grades.
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10. Lab S-130
The lab S-130 is one of the three labs that the DMDT department has for the program. The other
two classes have the same applications as the computers of this classroom, but with the exception
of Adobe After Effects (AE), and Adobe Encore. This class room S-130 has 5 five classes every
week, 3 Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays and 2 Tuesday and Thursday. Each session has about
24 students that attend which occupy the 24 computers that are available in that class. This
makes approximately 120 students who use the class room/ lab daily. The problem is when 24
students are using the computer in the lab and the other 96 students want to use the computers
there is no other classroom that has that same applications. For the students that is just a waste of
time which would have been use in doing their projects.
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11. Analysis of from Student and Faculty
In order to know what other students and faculty did aside of just giving what I saw in this
process. I sat and talk to some of my classmates and my instructors to see what where their
opinions about the decision TSTC had made.
Faculty
I talk to an instructor of the DMDT department who also gives classes in the room S-130 and he
told me that the reason TSTC did not sell students editions to student was because they had to
buy first licenses from the company in order to sell a cheaper edition to the students. He gave me
an estimate of about two thousand five hundred million dollars to buy the licenses. The reason
TSTC did not buy was because
• TSTC knows that not all the students in the TSTC campus are going to buy the software
because only the DMDT department is the one who makes use of these applications.
• They believe out of this department only a very small part of students would buy the
student edition.
For those reason TSTC didn’t buy the licenses, but did bought the software for those classes in
the DMDT building.
Students
I also talked to some of the students about how would they feel about not being able to buy a
student edition for their personal computers, I had several different answers. One person said that
that would be a good idea since they could do their work on home when they can’t come to class.
Then some other people said they didn’t have to worry because they downloaded the software
for free from a website. That is when I ask them all that if they could sell the software would
they buy it, and most of them say they would because they would feel better buy the cheap
software than being caught using the software and being reported for using pirate software.
If the Adobe Company would make an agreement with TSTC directors and sell a student edition
software the company wouldn’t be losing money because the students would be buy the software
and not downloading it for free.
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12. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
After reviewing all of the information, data and the analysis made from evaluating the program’s
decision of not selling the software, it has come to my attention that it was not a best solution
because it affects the student’s lack of incrementing their knowledge and skills.
A recommendation given is that TSTC department chair talks to the TSTC directors and make a
decision of going to talk to the company Adobe to settle an agreement. This agreement would
allow only students in the DMDT department to be eligible to buy the Adobe Student Edition
software in order to use it in the class room.
I am aware that in order to fall into an agreement with such company the college will have to buy
a license that allows them to sell the software to students. The cost can be elevated but I believe
that students will take advantage of this benefit since either in the beginning of the semester or
the next one they are going to start to notice that the software is needed to finish projects of
such length of time.
TSTC should let the company know that the software is only for the DMDT department, maybe
that way the company could make a cheaper offer for the TSTC College. This department is the
only one who uses the this software in the whole campus to work on their projects, if for some
reason the company thinks that they don’t want to get into an agreement because of few people
who would buy the program, then it could be open into the whole campus including staff
members of the TSTC college.
Another reason the TSTC staff could let the Adobe company know is that many students that
need the software download it from websites that give them all the full programs for free, this
makes the company loss immense amount of money, when they could be earning more by selling
a cheaper edition. Students will feel better because they will know that they are able to work on
their personal computers inside the building without any instructor reporting him/her for
downloading any pirate software.
Many of the students that attend to college get financial aid money and the DMDT classes do not
need students do not need to buy book for that department, so having that amount of money
makes the student the benefit of buying the software.
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