Mobile printing is great, but only if you know about it
03 November, 2014
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St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is now providing its students with mobile printing at the university’s many computer labs. There’s just one problem, students are yet to take advantage.
The office of information technology at Saint Joseph’s was behind the mobile printing launch in the spring of 2014. The mobile functionality was designed to make printing services on campus easier to access, but the university IT department is now reporting that students are not yet utilizing the service to its full potential.
According to a report from university newspaper, The Hawk, students access the wireless printing feature by emailing his or her document to [email protected] Once the email is delivered, the student receives a reply email with a link to a website and login information.
It’s with this username and password that the student can then use the mobile print website to send their print job to any university printer. Once the job has been sent to a printer, however, the student must still swipe a student ID card as they normally would to access and pay for the print job.
Part of the reason for the relatively low adoption could be a lack of information and awareness of the service. According to university officials, announcements have been posted at or near print stations across campus, but it still seems as though a majority of students remain unaware of the mobile printing service.
The slow adoption rate could just be typical growing pains associated with a new service launch. Nevertheless, St. Joseph’s office of information technology says that in addition to the signs around campus, a greater effort to advertise the service to off-campus students is in the works.
The mobile printing service does not yet have a native mobile app, only the ability to email documents to a desktop computer, but the university also has its eye on a mobile version of the service to better enhance the user experience.
