From the preschool classroom to school premises to university campuses, a student ID card is always of great help and importance to students at all levels. Outside of photo identification, student IDs contain some beneficiary personal data, which helps significantly in emergencies. Be it to borrow books from the school library or to get a pass at a college festival; a student ID serves several purposes to get easier access to school or college amenities.
Even except for those academic points of view, with a college or high school student ID card, one can obtain discounts for several purchases at local stores, movie theatres, and restaurants or get free access to many facilities like transport, museums or concerts.
However, in recent times alongside the traditional PVI plastic ID cards, digital student ID is becoming a practical alternative solution. Now though the advancement in technology is bringing automation, here the question comes, does it worth it to choose digital student ID over the traditional ones?
Let’s take a closer look at both the pros and cons of digital and traditional student ID and decide whether the benefits overweight the drawbacks or not.
Digital student ID: benefits and drawbacks
Put simply; a digital student ID is the electric version of a traditional ID, where personal information about students exists online. Let’s briefly survey the advantages and disadvantages of transferring college or high school ID card into a digital form.
Benefits
Offer a complete online solution: From creating to distributing to managing the student’s ID cards to keeping tabs on visitors, all can be done online. You can safely store, modify or remove any student IDs remotely and provide access with no paper identification while accessing the control from the cloud.
Time and cost-efficient: To make student ID card online, institutions don’t need to rely on external vendors. You can complete the task much faster and more efficiently with the help of any digital ID platform. Even if students need to update any of their personal databases, it’s just a few minutes task.
Enables a contactless experience: When digitalised, the IDs of students can never be lost or stolen. No longer students require to carry a hard copy of their traditional ID cards; digital IDs can be easily accessed from any of the devices. It even allows students to pay for purchases without carrying cash or a credit card around.
Drawbacks
Sometimes it gets difficult to make a digital ID: Despite having no manual management task, sometimes institutions find it overwhelming to control everything remotely. Some find the designing process difficult, whereas some get stuck in managing the cards from a cloud-based platform.
There is room for errors: As with digital IDs, students or users get the flexibility to perform in-app photo submissions and gain editing access; it holds plenty of room for errors. Even during the registration period, there is the possibility of input mirrors in typing.
Vulnerable to security breaches: The use of digital student ID raises security concerns due to the misuse of collected data. Since IDs can be stored on a mobile device, it maximises the chances of cyber threats and fraud attempts.Also, there is always a possibility for non-users to create invalid ID cards.
Traditional student ID: benefits and drawbacks
By traditional ID, we refer to the plastic cards, which are often printed on sturdy PVC material, carried by the students as well as the teachers and staff, for daily use in any educational institution. Let’s explore some of the positives and negatives of using the old fashion traditional IDs.
Benefits
Easy identification: No doubt, a printed student ID adds some personality to a student. When someone is carrying it, a student can easily be identified at a glance with no need for constant hands-on supervision. Especially on large campuses where the environment is always crowded and busy, traditional IDs work as a huge benefit.
Work offline: Whether there is any internet connection available or not, a traditional ID card doesn’t require any network to perform because traditional ID cards are physically worn and allow one to see who is who immediately.
Ease of use: Traditional student ID card comes in handy when it’s about gaining access to school buildings, cafeterias, libraries or parking areas. In terms of emergencies, it even speeds up the identification process as well.
Drawbacks
No emergency tracking option: Digital student ID cards for high school, middle school or college students are equipped with an access code system for emergency tracking, which is not available in traditional IDs. So in specific rooms or events where the institution needs to manage access control, it turns difficult to track individuals with standard IDs as who they say they are.
Includes privacy concerns: With printed student IDs, there always remains a high risk of losing the ID cards. And the consequences can be dangerous as identity thefts can use or steal your identity and commit several crimes.
Requires maximum effort: Requires investment in equipment, staff hours, and supplies, including lots of money and time because you have to outsource a third party for the printing process and hire a professional to click the individual student’s picture.
However, the digital student ID market is still growing
Even after all of these pros and cons debates, it comes no doubt that digital student ID is eventually a 21st-century solution. And when online registration and online admission are happening from time to time, educational institutions are adopting this smart, innovative solution as well. Especially. when many ID maker platforms are there to take care of the ID card process for you, why not take advantage, right?
All you require to do is choose the perfect ID card design by selecting a template layout that matches your aesthetic needs, upload the student list and photos and launch the ID cards taking minimum time. Some advanced ID maker platforms allow students to take their own photos and enable in-app photo submission. And some software even keeps both digital and printed ID cards option open for the institutions.
So if you are looking for ID maker software to design student ID card in Australia, look for some defining features that can make your design stand out and turn the process hassle-free.
