Remember when laptops liberated us from the confines of our desks and gave us the flexibility to work anywhere, anytime? Well, WEPA print kiosks are right up there when it comes to printing anywhere, anytime. Now add “from any device,” and you have the full picture.

Launched at the end of January, We Print Anywhere (WEPA) kiosks “appeared” on campus just prior to the COVID lockdown. “Appeared” is a bit misleading. “In order to make them ‘appear,’ IT first had to replace all the old Conway printers from all locations across campus, a time-consuming task,” said Max Razdow, manager of IT Lab Operations. But, in the end, he said it was well worth the effort.

Razdow credits Lisa Moriarty, project manager, for her involvement in the rollout from start to finish. “Lisa was a great help in getting this project off the ground,” he said.

Prior to the rollout, Razdow and team did a lot of user interface customization with the vendor, testing for compatibility with UMass Boston lab systems and integration with BeaconCard. Also, a pilot program was launched to solicit feedback from students, while Matt McCubbin, IT accessibility coordinator, worked with the vendor to explore accessibility options.

“Student feedback was extremely helpful, not only for us but also for the vendor,” said McCubbin. “The adjustable brackets to raise and lower the touchscreen monitor was a plus for someone who uses a wheelchair. The size of the letters did not receive high marks, and the vendor indicated they would take this feedback into consideration.” “There is no screen-reading capability built into WEPA screens,” said McCubbin. “WEPA was aware of this challenge.” What they did is create a temporary work-around program called ‘WEPA Remote Relief,’ available as of this writing only on a Windows computer in the Adaptive Computer Lab. Touchless printing using a personal iPhone or Android device is in active development.

Thomas Cappelli, ’22, student consultant within the IT Ed Tech & Learning Commons, assisted with the installation. Once all the kiosks were located across campus, his responsibilities shifted to helping students learn the ins and outs of using the new printers.

“After installation, I taught students how to log in using their Beacon card; how to upload documents from the Cloud, Outlook, email, mobile devices, USB drives,” he said. “Often students are printing between classes. They want to get in and get out quickly, and it was my job—and the job of several other student consultants—to help normalize the process.” Bottom line, when it comes right down to it, time saved is gold to students in short supply of it. Add ease of use and efficiency, and it’s a major win.