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Monitored Printing Service - FAQs for Students

Answers:

1.    How do I get a "Monitored Printing / Photocopying Account" set up?

  • Your UNISA STUDENT ID CARD is automatically linked to your own personal MONITOR account. Your MONITOR account may be used to hold funds which can be used to pay for any PHOTOCOPYING carried on out MONITORED PHOTOCOPIERS,  and for any PRINTING carried out on  MONITORED PRINTING SERVICE printers, including the POD.
  • NB - you CANNOT print using funds held on a "Casual User Photocopy Access Card" which has been purchased from the Autoloader. Such cards are "anonymous", and can only be used  for PHOTOCOPYING on Monitored Photocopiers.

2.    How do I "Add Value" to my "MONITOR Account"?

  • You can "add value" to your "MONITOR Account" by using your Student ID Card and adding cash (coins or notes) via one of the Monitor "Autoloader" machines located in the Library. Please refer to the "Using the Autoloader" link for further information.

3.     Is there any relationship between my "Monitored Printing / Photocopying Account" and my "Print Quota" account?

  •  your "Monitored Printing / Photocopying" account has NO RELATIONSHIP to the UniSA Student "Print Quota" system in use in Student Computer Pools.

4.    Can I transfer credit between my "MONITOR Account" and my "Print Quota" account?

  • No

5.    Where are MONITORED PHOTOCOPIERS  and PRINTERS located on which I can use copying / printing credit contained in my "MONITOR Account"?

  • MONITORED photocopiers are located in the Library. These provide a range of both B&W and Colour photocopying services. At various other locations in the university, a number of monitored STAFF photocopiers have also been made available for Student use.
  • MONITORED Printing Services are available at the POD centre at City West campus. Full details of the City West POD Centre services may be found via this link.
  • MONITORED Printing services are ALSO available in the LIBRARY on selected MFD Copier / Printers.

6.    How can I determine the Account Balance and "Printing Usage" information from my "Monitored Printing / Photocopying  Account"?

  • An "Account Balance" window will normally be showing on your logged on PC, which will look similar to the graphic shown below:

     

  • The "account balance" shown represents the value of funds available in your MONITOR account.
  • These funds which can be used to pay for any PHOTOCOPYING carried on out MONITORED PHOTOCOPIERS,  and for any PRINTING carried out on  MONITORED PRINTING SERVICE printers.
  • These funds may ALSO be used to pay for printing services from the POD centre at City West campus.
  • NB - funds held in your MONITOR account bear no relationship to your UniSA Print Quota balance (see answers to questions 3 and 4 above.)

If the "balance" window is NOT showing, simply click on the "balance" icon in the system tray in the bottom right of the screen and the balance information window will "pop up".

Alternatively, you can determine the balance of funds in your MONITOR account by swiping your swipe your card through one of the AutoLoader machines in the library. If you do this, the balance of funds remaining in your MONITOR account will be shown on the AutoLoader display.

(Note: an AutoLoader is a machine in the library through which you can add funds to your monitor account.)

The "Account Balance" window ALSO contains two useful links:

  • clicking on the "System Information" link causes an "information" web page to be displayed.
  • clicking on the "Details..." link and then entering your normal "logon" username and password causes details of your recent "Monitored Printing Service"  printing history to be displayed.

7.    Should the "Account Balance" pop-up appear on EVERY UniSA Computer to which I am "logged on"?

  • In due course, we hope to arrange for "Monitored Printing" to be available from every UniSA PC used by Students. From any such PC, the "Account Balance" pop up will be visible.
  • Initially, we will be rolling out this functionality through particular Computer Pools and Library PCs as "Monitored Printing" services" become available.
  • Currently the "Monitored Printing" service is available at the POD centre at City West campus, and on selected MFD printer/photocopier MFDs in the Library.

8.    How do I know what an individual print job will cost?

  • A few seconds after you print to a MONITORED printer which is part of the "Monitored Printing" service, a "Printing Confirmation" popup will appear.
  • This popup will show the number of pages and associated cost of the job just submitted.
  • When you see this popup, you have the option to either CANCEL the print job or CONFIRM that you understand the cost and wish for it to be printed.
  • At this point, the cost of CONFIRMED jobs will be deducted from your "MONITOR Account" balance EXCEPT when printing to a POD Printer. (NB - In all cases, if your "MONITOR Account" balance does not contain sufficient funds YOU WILL BE UNABLE TO PRINT TO ANY MONITORED PRINTER.)
  • CANCELLED jobs are NOT sent to the printer, so no costs are deducted from your "MONITOR Account".
  • For full details on how POD print jobs are charged, please see later FAQs

9. How are POD printing jobs charged?

  • Jobs sent to any POD printer are not actually charged to your MONITOR account unless they are subsequently RELEASED from the POD "Print Release Station"

10. How does the "Print Release Station" work?

  • When you print jobs to any printer controlled via a "Print Release Station", no charges are deducted from your Monitor Account at the time they are "printed" from the PC.
  • Instead, ALL your print jobs are queued on the appropriate Print Release station. They are not ACTUALLY  printed or charged until you specifically release them FROM the Print Release Station.
  • Thus you may:
    • Print "many" jobs to the Print Release Station, from "many" computer sessions, where they will be "held" ready for ACTUAL printing at a later time.
    • When convenient, you need to "logon" at the POD Print Release Station. This is located on the front counter of the POD centre.
    • You will be presented with a list of ALL of YOUR jobs which are waiting, pending release and printing.
    • The cost of each separate job also clearly shown, along with the CURRENT cash balance on your personal "Monitor Printing / Photocopying" account.
    • NB - unless you have sufficient funds in your account,  jobs cannot be printed.
    • However, if you have insufficient credit,  you may ADD funds to your Monitor account via the AutoLoader.
    • At the Print Release Station, select those jobs which you actually wish to print. They will be printed immediately on the POD printer and handed to you by the POD centre operator. The cost of each job is deducted from  your Monitor Account ONLY when it is printed.
  • Jobs NOT selected for printing at this time may will be left in the queue for "release" and printing at a later time. Jobs explicitly CANCELLED at this time will be removed from the Print Release Station queue.
  •  NB - jobs which are left "unreleased / unprinted" will remain in the Print Release Station for up to 3 hours from the time they were originally submitted for printing from the PC. After this time "unreleased / unprinted" jobs will be automatically purged and will therefore be unavailable for later printing.

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