A panel of students from George Mason University, University of Missouri, and the University of North Carolina shared their thoughts and experiences with mobile credentials. Each student attends an institution that recently migrated from plastic campus cards to mobile IDs, and each has a unique perspective on the transition. To listen in as they share their thoughts, click the image at the top of this page.

New students don't have to wait in line for hours with 40-plus students. Instead it's like, hey, just get logged in, download you ID, and you're set.

 

TRANSCRIPT:

Personally, I'm excited for this session.

You know, we all have administrators and folks that kind of push and call us to do a thing, but you've got to really wonder what the students think.

So, I want to thank our students for being here, for volunteering their time, and putting up with us.

Q: HOW DID YOU LEARN THAT MOBILE CREDENTIALS WERE COMING TO YOUR CAMPUS?

For us, they kind of did a beta testing over the summer of 2023, and I was living in a dorm over the summer at the time, so they notified everyone through there, and then in August, they fully rushed it out.

And I believe we were notified through email, but I also knew just because I worked in the office.

For me, it happened in a bar. End of semester celebration, me and the other influencers, we got invited out to this bar.

It's one of like the Patriot Park locations, which are 10% off for Patriots, which is George Mason students, and it's like, you know, we're sitting down, and they're like, guess what?

You won't need your ID anymore. And we're like, why?

And they're like, yeah, just take out your phone, and it's going to also be connected to your Apple Watch too.

You won't need it anymore until access, the gyms access, you know, the dorms, even going to work too.

I use the same thing. It's like the same card readers.

And so that's what it was told to me, and it kind of broke out into the following semester of like, okay, how do we start advertising it? You know, are we going to use signage like all around campus? Are we going to use videos?

And there was just an implementation of all those combined.

Actually, since I'm a grad student, I don't have many friends around campus, but, I'm not saying that.

I know the grad students do not use the one card as much, as often as undergrads, because you do not sign a family plan, they will be on the campus, they live off campus and stuff like that.

They will probably need more access to the facilities or labs, and so that is where they use their one card mostly.

But I see more adoption among the undergrads.

I guess I have seen a trend, like where the younger generation are more open to it because we have a good family relationship, but the older generation, like the middle, like, maybe the millennials, I guess.

They are used to both, they want both, but the older folks, they want the card.

So I have seen this has been that option with the teenagers.

Yeah, I fully agree. A lot of my friends don't live on campus anymore, so they don't use it as much.

And we still both have the classic card and the mobile credential, so I find myself using both … a lot of the times for my ID card, but I do use the mobile credential a lot.

It just really depends.

It's also hard because you have to make sure you keep your phone charged all the time, or it won't work, and you'll get locked out.

So, if that's not fun, so I have seen a lot of freshmen use it as well, just because they're new, and so they're like, oh, exciting.

So it has been a pretty good option for me.

I think it'll get to the point where it's not even a question of which one.

I think probably by next year, two years from now, it's just going to be the common thing for you know, going electronic. And probably the adoption rate at first was a bit iffy. They were like, oh, is there going to be technical difficulties?

I personally have never experienced any technical difficulties, whether it's my phone or my Apple Watch.

So, all those questions of how reliable is it, it all went out the window once the semester actually started rolling, and then everyone saw that it's pretty reliable.

Q: DO YOU FEEL LIKE HAVING A CREDENTIAL ON YOUR PHONE IS MORE SECURE THAN A PLASTIC CARD?

I don't ever let anyone hold my phone. That's a personal choice. But, yeah, someone could potentially take your ID, right? You lose your wallet, lose your ID.

Who has access to my dorm? I have no idea, right? And so I know where my phone is.

I can find it using the Find My device, right?

But that ID doesn't matter when it was tracking things, so if you lose it, oh no.

Q: WHAT DRAWBACKS OR CHALLENGES HAVE YOU FOUND WITH MOBILE CREDENTIAL?

Like I said, I haven't personally run into any technical difficulties. I know that some people, it wasn't like working and you don't have to hold the phone in a certain type of way towards the door.

But I feel like it was just like like first stage type thing with the new card readers, because there was like thousands of card readers around campus that you had to keep on changing, right?

And so just that first initial stage might be, you know, a bit rough. But eventually it works out.

Yeah, I mean I haven't really experienced many drawbacks. There was one experience where a student her phone just simply broke.

And so that's one of those situations where, you know, like luckily she did have her ID card, but she did carry it around all the time so someone didn't have to let her into her room because you can't control, you know, your phone just was a white screen, like she couldn't do anything, so that would be one of the drawbacks.

I would say like mobile connection.

There are different kind of phones out there, but most of the people use Apple in the US, but there are so many international students who come to the US who have an Android phone.

I had an Android phone! So that would be a drawback where they could not they want to do it.

They want to get the mobile connection, but they can't keep it up because they don't have the right technology. That would be one drawback.

Second would be the marketing aspect of it.

Like some of it are just accustomed to a phone, so they can just like navigate how to put that in the phone, but some of them do not know that.

They are not into their phone so much. They like their work. They just want to function as a phone.

So for them just adapting to that whole technology is just instructing them at the card office like, you know, go to this app scan this and do that, and like demonstrate how to use it.

That was helpful for them.

Q: WHAT WAS THE ROLLOUT LIKE AT YOUR CAMPUS?

I will say like the focus was on the freshmen.

Like I said, I used to be a summer orientation leader, so I knew about what they were doing for this upcoming class where it was in the presentations, it was in the slides, it was like within the orientation process that they would be, hey, this is how you guys are going to do it.

You guys don't have to wait in line with like 40 plus like students and just have to wait there for hours. Instead it's like, hey, just get this logged in and you're set.

And so freshmen was the, you know, target. But I was junior and I got it like immediately when it started. So it wasn't like a restricted thing. It was just more focused towards the freshmen incoming.

Yeah, I think ours was similar. It was primarily just the people who lived in the dorms.

Actually, for us it's majority freshmen who live in the dorms, but anyone could necessarily live in the dorms.

And it did take some time to roll it out. We just had flyers and stuff like, oh, download the whole credential, like all that jazz. And it did take a little bit because we still have the ID cards. There was like some swiping.

And so, you know, we were still kind of like that balanced throughout at least the first semester.

And then now we're pretty much all like tap card readers.

In our campus, we implemented the tap windows like one and a half year ago.

So it was like during that summer, everybody were understanding the function of the tap card. But then we shifted to the mobile credential, which was like at the beginning of fall. So it was started to the freshmen.

But the word spread pretty quickly. Everybody started on the phone.

We had a lot of phone calls at the beginning of fall and so many emails about like, how do we get the mobile credential? How do we do it?

We have also observed a trend among the freshmen that they wanted to vote. Like, they want the mobile officially, but they also want a physical token. Like, they want that token of having that physical card with them.

Yeah, so that that's a trend that we have observed during summer.

Q: WAS THERE A COST THAT WAS PASSED ON TO YOU?

No, there was no cost. So, we pushed it out, like, if you get a card, it's a $10 charge, but if you get the mobile credential, it's free. So that was kind of like a sales pitch. And it worked. People took it.

They were like, we are going to get it for free.

So they wanted to get the, so the mobile seems like premium, you know, ready to get a card on your phone to tap. So that seemed like a premium feature.

So they were open to getting it for free rather than, but some people I guess, they had labs.

They were working in labs, doing experiments where they are not allowed to take a phone inside that particular place.

They were like, we need to get a phone.

And there was another trend of people where they are not used to the smartphones. They are still using flip phones. They don't want to give it out due to the technology. They are like, I want to have a healthy relationship with my phone.

So they're going to keep it all school. So they were They are using flip. You would be surprised.

Wow. I am so surprised.

I see like four or five people using flip phones.

I'm curious like on the cost question, because this has come up.

I'm curious what you guys think like with you.

Let's just say a university still gives you a card, but if you wanted mobile, did you pay for a mobile credential knowing what you would have? Because of the convenience and everything. If they came and said, we're going to charge you $20, would you pay for the mobile credential?

Honestly, I would get it because I'm like, I'm going to use it.

I honestly wouldn't. There's nothing wrong with it. I just, I'm organized enough and because I had to have my ID card on me all of freshman year, I'm just so used to it. And so, I wouldn't. But I love it. It's just not something I need to spend $20 on.

I would just hope it's like a one-time purchase and not a subscription. $20 a month? No, that'd be horrible. But it's like the next Netflix or something.

No, but I think I probably would. I mean, like I said, I don't like carrying my wallet everywhere. Don't really need it.

I have my Apple Pay as well.

And it's just nice to have like, it's all just in one screen really, on like the Apple wallet. And like, you don't even have to have your phone like unlocked either. Like, I mean, here's my ID and it shows it from here.

You can just show it like right on the, like if let's say a restaurant asks for it again, you can just show it in the wallet.

No Wi-Fi needed, nothing like that.

So, it's useful. I'd pay for it.