Print Credits, how mean are you.

[K.C.Leblanc]

We're going to start running PCounter.

 

How many credits do you generaly give your students, and which other restrictions do you apply?

 

What do you do when students feel they need more credits, has it caused a rise in accout sharing?

[localzuk]

Kids here get 5 mono prints a week. Teachers get 20 colour prints a month, and unlimited mono.

 

The rule here is 'no extra prints to pupils, at all!'. This is due to the fact that teachers can access pupil areas, and can therefore print extras as needed.

 

If teachers need more colour credit, they have to go and ask the Assistant Head (Finance), who can issue them with 30 more credits if needed (on pre-made cards).

[danrhodes]

Try running PCounter in unlimited mode for a few months to see what usage is like you will then be able to get a better picture of how things are going and how many credits you should issue.

 

D

[K.C.Leblanc]

Try running PCounter in unlimited mode for a few months to see what usage is like you will then be able to get a better picture of how things are going and how many credits you should issue.

 

D

 

We do have figures, how many credits do you give your students?

[Mako]

We use Print Manager Plus. I'm not sure how helpful this will be to you.

 

An A4 sheet of black costs 5p. Colour is 10p.

An A3 sheet, of colour or black, is 15p.

 

Students have job restrictions in place that prevents any more than 5 pages being printed in a single job. If they're printing a large document, they need to specify pages 1-5 first, then 6-10, etc.

 

Each term (not half-term) each student is given £3.00 complimentary credits. If they run out, they are required to pay in cash to top up their own balance. If they are printing the absolute final coursework, then the department is to pay for that (As some subjects print up to 100 sheets for coursework, which is unfair to expect students to print drafts and the final piece which is generally in colour) and subsequent credits are deducted from departmental budgets.

 

Some students try it on and attempt to swindle us into believing they've "lost their credits" by printing something which hadn't come out, etc. PMP logs all print jobs, and they soon turn red faced when we print a report of their printing activities, and their proposed document isn't in sight.

 

Same rules apply for staff, although some staff have unlimited and unrestricted printing due to their position. If they require more credits, it's a simple phone call and we deduct the money from their budget.

 

That's about it, off of the top of my head.

[mb2k01]

We take a slightly different approach and give a blanket coverage of 50 credits per pupil and 100 credits for staff.

When the individual runs out they have to request more. At that point we do a quick check of print history and pick up a good idea about if they are abusing the system or not (at which point if they are, we will refuse to top up or take payment).

 

Perhaps strangely, we have found that our pupils do not generally abuse the system, it is the teaching staff which use departmental printers as make-shift photocopiers etc....

(Our departments pay for their own toner, so in these kind of instances reports are given to the Head of Dept who either limits printing or speaks with the staff member etc)

 

One thing I would add - if you are using PCOUNTER with some Konica Minolta printers, make sure you have tested thouroughly before purchasing!

We have just moved from PCOUNTER to Papercut NG - which I think is a much more reliable product.

[fafster]

We were going to assign a set amount of credit to pupils, and have them pay extra if they go over the limit. However I don't think we're allowed, from a legal standpoint, to force pupils to pay for something that's required in pursuit of their course.

[K.C.Leblanc]

One thing I would add - if you are using PCOUNTER with some Konica Minolta printers, make sure you have tested thouroughly before purchasing!

We have just moved from PCOUNTER to Papercut NG - which I think is a much more reliable product.

 

There's no Konica Minoltas here , what sort of issues did you have with PCounter.

 

We actualy purchased it a few years and then management desided to backtrack on the idea so it was never implemented. It's going to cost us about £400 to update our license, which I'd assume would be a lot cheaper then starting from scratch with Papercut.

[joe90bass]

We were going to assign a set amount of credit to pupils, and have them pay extra if they go over the limit. However I don't think we're allowed, from a legal standpoint, to force pupils to pay for something that's required in pursuit of their course.

 

I think you're right on that. But could you 'turn it on it's head' and when they run out of credit, bill them for the pictures they've previously printed of latest favourite popstar or fast car!?

[mb2k01]

There's no Konica Minoltas here , what sort of issues did you have with PCounter.

 

We actualy purchased it a few years and then management desided to backtrack on the idea so it was never implemented. It's going to cost us about £400 to update our license, which I'd assume would be a lot cheaper then starting from scratch with Papercut.

 

The issues were with some of our newer Konica Minolta drivers. I believe it was down to PCOUNTER only working with PCL 5 drivers and newer Konica Minolta drivers not being PCL5 and being some other flavour. Essentially the accounting didn't work at all with them.

 

On the price, I am fairly sure you're not talking significantly different money - maybe a hundred more, if that. I think there is a 60day trial available if you want to give it a go first.

[Soulfish]

There's no Konica Minoltas here , what sort of issues did you have with PCounter.

 

We actualy purchased it a few years and then management desided to backtrack on the idea so it was never implemented. It's going to cost us about £400 to update our license, which I'd assume would be a lot cheaper then starting from scratch with Papercut.

We paid around that for Papercut last year. Been a great product for us

 

Currently been running papercut without any quotas since September. From the start of the next term (June) we'll be recharging all staff printing to departments. Through papercut staff that are in more than one department get a pop-up asking which department to charge the print to. It'll be up to department heads to come down hard on staff to reduce their printing. For staff colour will be charged at 9p/page and Mono at 2p/page.

 

Students will get an amount of credit given at the start of each half term which will then be topped up each week. Mono prints will be 4p and colour 20p. Currently looking at about £5 at the start of term and then 20-50p/week extra.

[K.C.Leblanc]

We paid around that for Papercut last year. Been a great product for us

 

Thanks, we're going to have a look at it, and probably do some trials.

 

Now back to credits, who's a proper Scrooge.

 

There must be someone out there who makes the kids pull reeds out of the school pond and then process them into parchment.

[Kipling]

We tried being very tight with printing and it backfired to a degree with endless pupils whining for more credit because they “have to print their homework for the next lesson”; we’d then go trough the ritual of checking what they had printed that week and finally give them more credit. It became more trouble that it was worth.

 

We then started giving lower school £1 per week, upper school £2 per week and sixth form £3 per week with colour pages costing 20p and mono 5p.

We found teachers were topping-up pupils a lot (too much) because by the end of the week many pupils had used up their credit printing junk for teachers earlier in the week.

 

So we are now trying a flat £1 per-pupil-per-period throughout the school with no top-ups, teachers can access the kids areas and print work for them if need be.

 

We are also looking at using release stations, so the pupils won't have any credit and the teacher will have to (bulk) release printed jobs each lesson, thereby having all that lessons printing charged back to them. Hopefully that will be the ultimate solution in kerbing excess printing.

 

 

As an aside, I can’t recommend papercut highly enough. I haven’t found a single scenario it hasn’t catered for.

[maniac]

We use papercut here.

 

We're quite strict because the amount of waste when I first started here was appauling.

 

Students get 100 prin credtis per term, staff get 200, departments get a base of 1000 with a couple of departments getting 1500 this is allocated on a termly basis. When staff print they can charge their personal budget, or their department budget depending on what they're printing.

 

Print jobs aren't done by cost, we found this confused people thinking their budgets were being directly charged for printing costs. Insted it's done simply by credits. 1 credit per B/W page, 2 per colour page. There's a copy limit of 3 printouts, a rule to stop work beng printed without being saved, a rule which stops the same print job being printed withinn 60 seconds.

 

For students we also have a release queue system which staff control so they can monitor what's printed in their room.

 

After some initial uproar when this was introduced, it has settled down and staff have generally accepted the system, bar one of two. It also has the full support of senior management because of the amout of money it has saved the school so far this year.

 

Handing out more credits is treated on a case by case basis, we only get a few of these torwards the end of the term normally.

 

Mike.

[Edu-IT]

Students will get an amount of credit given at the start of each half term which will then be topped up each week. Mono prints will be 4p and colour 20p. Currently looking at about £5 at the start of term and then 20-50p/week extra.

Why do you charge the students more than staff, if you're not actually making them pay?

[FN-GM]

Most of ours are Colour Lasers.

 

All the printers are paused by default so students can't print when they like, staff have to allow the jobs. - No limits on print jobs

Staff no limit also. The department pays for paper and toner so they see fit how they use it

Edited April 22, 2010 by FN-GM

[rad]

We are to open and it has cost us loads last year.

 

Each student gets 500 credits, each staff member 1000 and some are unlimited, but mainly admin computers.

Only networked printers deduct credits, the standalone ones dont.

 

A mono costs 6 credit, a colour 20. If a student runs out, they just ask for more and get it, normally another 200, depending on what they are printing.

 

Last years toners costs us the price of a very nice car, so this year we are looking at turning off the colour printers altogether and only turning them on when being asked for them, this will have to come via staff and be for a very good reason. I am all for it and when we explain to staff the reason, i am sure they will understand.

[Hightower]

Our 'policy' is 200 credits per week here for students - 5 per mono (40 pages), 20 per colour (10 pages). If a student runs out they simply come and ask for more and they get another 200 without questions asked.

 

Personally, I don't see the point of using printer credits if we give users more as and when without any squabbles - all it does is waste my time from having pupils come hassle me for more. But I can't change this as the boss has put this in place.

[featured_spectre]

Now back to credits, who's a proper Scrooge.

 

There must be someone out there who makes the kids pull reeds out of the school pond and then process them into parchment.

 

Not quite. Kids got a resounding £0.00 and had to justify to the teacher and myself why their work should be printed. I also had a script set up to say that anything more than 40% colour on a page meant that it wasn't printed, as that was overkill and a waste of ink. Also if they justified it and then subsequently went and printed something else (as the case has been before), we sent an email home or phoned home asking for the cost of the paper (10p per page) as it was wasted and against our environmental policy.

 

Now though we removed all but 6 printers in the whole school (coming down from 27) and the kids cant print at all. They send their finalised work via the VLE/VLP (whatever you wish to call it)

[cookie_monster]

Our 'policy' is 200 credits per week here for students - 5 per mono (40 pages), 20 per colour (10 pages). If a student runs out they simply come and ask for more and they get another 200 without questions asked.

 

Personally, I don't see the point of using printer credits if we give users more as and when without any squabbles - all it does is waste my time from having pupils come hassle me for more. But I can't change this as the boss has put this in place.

 

 

We do the same here but I still think it works as if a student is printing loads then it comes to our attention and we can actually charge them for more if they're shown to be wasteful on multiple occasions. It also prevents anyone printing hundreds of pages maliciously or as a 'joke' on someone else’s account when they aren't looking etc

 

We also prevent staff printing more than 5 copies of a document to stop them using our printers instead of the photo copier when preparing resources.

[broc]

We give students a print balance of £6 per week, reset every monday. Staff have unlimited quotas unless a subject dept head demands otherwise. Our goal is not to prevent a student from printing essential work, but to manage waste.

 

PCounter is set to charge at A4 monochrome 2p A3 Monochrome 4p A4 Colour 60p A3 Colour £1.20.

 

Our finance dept bills curriculum depts for staff printing at the same rate; this had a dramatic effect on cutting down waste after a few dept heads got some serious bills .....

 

We do get GCSE students (Media, Art, Technology) who regularly exceed their quota & have to come and ask for more. Generally we have a quick look at their print history before giving them more credit. At certain times of the year (when portfolios need printing) we may increase the weekly amount for target groups of students.

[enjay]

We found half-termly quotas to be more appropriate than weekly ones, as printing often goes in bursts, especially for upper years - they would spend weeks writing coursework and printing very little, then in one week print 20 pages out. May review this again some time though.

 

K-9 get 60 pages/half term

10-13 get 150 pages/half term

Staff get 200 pages/half term (SLT and HODs get more)

 

When pupils run out, we will always issue more credits, but will look at printing history and speak to "print offenders". Now that people know we monitor printing, we don't get nearly as much full-page colour prints of Robert Pattinson; our wastage comes from people printing things out then spotting errors and re-printing. Staff who run out have typically been using the printers as photocopiers, possibly more so recently with reduced departmental budgets and printing paid for by me, thus making it "free".

 

If you don't have anything in place at present, I would advise strongly against what others have suggested of monitoring your current throughput and allocating accordingly, as this won't train people to print efficiently and will achieve nothing. When we first introduced credits, we gave 150/half term and lots of people ran out; we now give 60/half term and people rarely run out.

[Hecate]

We use Print Manager plus and allow 5 prints per week - lower school, 20 upper school and 100 6th form. If they need more they can come to the help desk and request it but have to explain why. When we first introduced this there was a huge decrease in waste printing - stuff just left lying on the printer but now they are much more careful with it. Staff have unlimited credit but departments pay for their own office toner and photocopying. It's only if they are really mean and use the library or IT room printers that they aren't charged but we can spot it in the reports if it's happening regularly

[enjay]

We use Print Manager plus and allow 5 prints per week - lower school, 20 upper school and 100 6th form.

 

What are your Sixth Formers doing which means they need 100 pages a week?! Ours don't that in a month (yet you give your lower school half what we do!)

[Iain.Faulkner]

We're running Pcounter here, but believe it or not I've been told that I am not allowed to set quotas for staff or students as that would interfere with the learning process (!!). So all people on site are allowed to print as much off as they like.

 

Couple of things I have set in Pcounter though, no more than one copy of any document and any documents of the same name going through at the same time are blocked as well.

 

One nice little thing I've added as well, is to use the Pcounter "Document Name Pattern Matching" to block any documents containing the words "Document" and "Publication" as this forces everyone to save their work before printing. What we have found is that if people are printing out reams of waste, we can go back to their print history and pull up the name of the document they have printed (because they've been forced to save it) and use it as evidence for them to be charged for the waste that they have caused.

 

Our students don't appear to have worked out that once the document has been saved, they can simply nip into their home drive and delete it once they've finished printing it out hundreds of times :-)