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3 Reasons to Adopt Student Handbook Software

August 25, 2019

At Clean Catalog, we offer stand-alone digital, searchable student handbook software that's responsive and easy to update and maintain -- while still retaining a PDF version you can print whenever necessary. While many colleges and universities choose to have their handbooks integrated with their catalogs — which we do as well — stand-alone student handbook software can be a big win on its own.

Accessibility for All Students

Our student handbook software let's students access the handbook whenever, wherever, and however they need to. Today’s students will never be the ones to carry a printed copy of a school policy in their backpack, but they do want easy access to their school’s governing documents. By putting your handbook online with Clean Catalog’s software, you’re helping empower students to seek out answers to important questions whenever those questions arise. Our software works on desktop, tablet, and mobile browser platforms, so students can access it at home, in class, or on the go.

Additionally, all of our software is WCAG AA 2.0 compliant — that means it meets accessibility standards for students using screen readers or other assistive devices. Making your student handbook accessible not only helps you make your products available to all students, but it can also help you meet legal and accreditation requirments for accessibility and access.

Depending on your college’s specific policies, some handbook sections may be several pages long, making it difficult on paper to quickly find a relevant passage. Online, students can simply ctrl+F to search for the phrase or subheading they need to look up, and instantly find every instance of that phrase within the chosen section. Clean Catalog makes it easier for individual sections to refer to other parts of the handbook, as well. Instead of saying “See pg. 121 for further information” and requiring people to flip through cumbersome pages, an embedded hyperlink can connect readers instantly to the relevant content.

An online handbook also makes it easy to share specific sections. For example, professors who are inundated with several dozen questions about the grading system each term can simply include a Grading System link in their syllabus and move on.

Quick and Easy Updates

In today’s age of rapidly changing national policies, the ability to update a handbook without a costly reprint is crucial. An online handbook makes such updates a breeze. Whether it’s to fix a small typo, or implement a complete reversal of Title IX, you can go into the individual section of the handbook, edit the necessary passages, and hit Save.

Generate a PDF Handbook from Your Digital Content

Of course, there are still instances when it’s helpful to have a hard copy of the handbook in front of you. Clean Catalog allows you to generate a PDF version of the online handbook, whether you need to print off an individual section or the entire document. It’s as simple as hitting Save. And whenever you have edits or updates to individual sections, in order to update the full PDF version, all you have to do is open up the PDF Generator page and hit Save again. Online, each section will show a “Download as PDF” option on the page, so anyone who needs a printout can make one whenever they need.

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