As of today, UF students and faculty are officially able to remotely access programs such as Adobe Photoshop and AutoCAD without having to pay.
UFApps, produced through the Office of Academic Technology, is an online network that allows UF students to use thousands of dollars worth of software for free on any platform.
“We wanted to make software more accessible for students,” Jameson Johnston, project coordinator for UFApps, wrote in an email. “Students have more and more access to mobile devices and laptop computers, and UFApps allows for access to popular computer software from anywhere at any time – it is the next step in the evolution of computer application technology.”
According to the proposal, the startup costs for the program totaled more than $150,000. Licensing alone cost about $37,000.
The program is funded through the Student Tech Fee proposal. All UF students pay this fee, which costs up to 5 percent of the tuition per credit hour. According to the UF Factbook’s breakdown of student tuition and fees for the 2010-2011 school year, this fee was $4.78 a credit hour.
Every January, faculty, staff and students submit proposals regarding a technical idea in need of funding. Last year’s proposals included UFApps, written by Michael Kutyna, and since its approval in Spring 2012, developers have handled all aspects of the program launch, said Tracy Gale, UF Information Technology spokeswoman.
“This is a one-year pilot to see if it is a valuable service for students,” Gale said. “If we find that the interest is there, we will look for university funds to make it a broader project.”
Students must first install the Citrix program, which is also available in the Apple apps store. A Gatorlink sign-in gives access to 28 programs. Additionally, students are able to access Webmail and Sakai.
“UFApps enables students to complete class assignments without having to purchase or troubleshoot software or having to set foot on campus,” Johnston wrote.
Users can either save their work locally to a computer or on the provided M Drive File Storage, which is accessible on any computer.
“Now students will be able to login in to any computer in Library West, open a browser, pull up the Apps page, all of that software will be immediately available to them,” said assistant university librarian Stacey Ewing.
