Interactive poster experiment - why does the price of a coffee change?

We have been interested in exploring the idea of developing Interactive Posters, where we would use both QR Codes and Augmented Reality to enable the reader to connect to additional multimedia based learning material. A scenario might be where a student submits a poster as part of an assignment, this includes quick scan links to resources, raw data, literature reviews, simulations and models. This would enable them to layer in a richer experience. Alternatively, it might be researchers disseminating their findings.

An example is linked below. The plan to pin a number of these posters around campus and monitor the usage during January 2012. We are interested in seeing a number of things, for instance does anyone actually scans them, access the resources and submit their feedback? However, a key driver for this piece of work is as a proof of concept for demonstration to staff at UCS.

A second piece of work will include using the Aurasma application to deliver of the enhanced functionality.



 

QR Code Treasure Hunt: Staff feedback

The feedback from staff who participated in the QR code treasure hunt (http://wolseyweb.ucs.ac.uk/blogs/elevate/?p=799) was mixed and very illuminating: 49% felt that it was an improvement over a traditional paper-based treasure hunt, emphasising the potential of QR codes as an engaging learning tool and 51% disagreed. A further analysis revealed that those who disagreed focused on the technical failures such as difficulties with scanning software and in accessing WiFi or GPS networks.

Comments from staff at UCS who took part in the treasure hunt reveal an awareness of the potential of the technology, tempered with guidance as to how the experience could be improved for students:

“It was fun and good to do something different. If this is going to be carried out during induction then the WiFi needs to be heavily promoted during this time so students can log on.”

“The use of mobile technology seemed really relevant considering it is to be used more widely for communication with students. It was useful to gain a first-hand insight.”

“We couldn’t get our team’s smartphone to work.”

When asked haven taken part in the QR Code treasure hunt are they likely to scan a QR Code if they saw one in the future? The responses (n=27) tended to be equally spread, 41% responded yes, and 59% no.

Interestingly, when asked to explain their answer there was fewer positive comments. Many focused on poor technology ownership. While, the positive responses tended to include explicit reference to the additional information being relevant to them.

So as a course team wishing to develop QR Code based learning activities, what can you take from this? I'd suggest the findings imply the need to devote significant time to supporting people on the technical side, especially around recommending (supporting) a QR Code reader, making sure you have consider any GPS blackspots, ie. see if you can get phone reception where you are going to place your QR Code, developing a clear set of instructions for people to follow and providing a practice QR Code for students before the event.

 

A Successful Day: AMC #QRCode Treasure Hunt

The Treasure Hunt part of the Administrative Management Committee away day, was held on Friday, it was a very successful day.  I have to say, we as a team are really pleased with how the event went, following the work to setup the treasure hunt, which used the QR Tour Generator.

Our initial thoughts on the event were pretty much spot on, and we achieved what we’d planned.

[caption id="attachment_802" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Scanning the Code"][/caption]

 

After Andy’s presentation about the work of the Elevate Team, the event was handed over to David and myself, we started by getting everyone that needed a QR Reader to find and download an app.  Then they were handed a map and off they went to find the QR Codes.

There were 20 question, each of which was a single poster created with the Tour Generator.  We tweaked the tour template to allow the output to be slightly different from the tour, we have planned to expand on this for the next Tour Sprint, allowing the users to select the type of template they want, are they creating a tour, a treasure hunt etc.  Selecting the type would use a different template allowing the printed output to be different.

When the user scans the QR Code for this event, their device loads a mobile friendly web site, with a drop down list for them to select their team name, they then have a choice of 3 options.  Once they select their answer and then submits, if they are correct, they score a point that is written to a database.  We also had a results page pulling in results from the database every 5 seconds, allowing us to keep a realtime scoreboard.

Below are a couple of screen shots from a mobile device showing the mobile friendly answer page, and the view of selecting the team and the answer:

 

[caption id="attachment_803" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Selecting the Team"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_804" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Selecting the Answer"][/caption]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The teams were due to arrive at Kai’s for lunch after completing the hunt, David and I joined Lynne, Tori, Kirsty and Fiona at Kai, we were keeping an eye on the live scoreboard to see how things were progressing.

As the teams started returning some had used an answer sheets as they’d had a few technical problems (mentioned further down), David and I then set about submitting the hand written answers into the database allowing us to use the scoreboard once the team were ready to announce the winners.

Only 1 team out of 9 hadn’t managed to use their mobile device, they successfully downloaded a reader app,but it crashed the phone and required the owner to remove the battery.

That team along with 2 others were the only ones that used the paper answer sheets, those two teams did manage to use their devices for a number of the questions.

After lunch the winners were announced and the scoreboard was displayed, as seen below:

 

[caption id="attachment_805" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="The live scoreboard"][/caption]

 

The Problems

There were a number of technical issues, most were expected to be honest.

Once the teams were set off to start the hunt, the first 2 codes were within the Waterfront Building, mobile phone signals are not the strongest inside this building, causing the first issue, as the codes required data access to load the webpage.  Even though these were optimised mobile friendly pages, they still require data downloads to access.

The next problem was when we advised staff to connect to the wireless, which works across buildings, we advised this specific SSID as we knew they would be entering other buildings.  The issue arose with the Wifi as many staff were unsure of using it, they were joining the network, but not being prompted to authenticate before loading their reader app.  This then stopped the pages loading, once we’d talked/shown people what to do they went off happy.  One exception was a Blackberry owner who was unable to get their phone onto the wireless at all.

A way around the majority of these initial problems would be to have an open unauthenticated wireless network, even if it was heavily firewalled.

Once people were out and about David and I had a quick walk along the route, solving a couple of small niggles, one attendee had 3G switched off on her phone, making loading very, very slow.  Another’s device was connecting to a random wifi which we told the device to “forget”, and things were all good after that.

Statistics

We have Google Analytics active on the individual answer pages, we also have Percent Mobile statistics running across the same pages – hopefully giving us more detailed mobile analysis.    Below are a quick overview of the stats from today:

[caption id="attachment_806" align="alignnone" width="254" caption="Usage"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_807" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Accesses by Question"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_808" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Access by browser type"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_833" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Accesses by device"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_828" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Most used devices"][/caption]

You can see from the “Accesses by browser type” that a number of readers had their own built-in browser, rather than opening up the native device browser.

Today really has shown the potential of what we could create and achieve with this technology.  Being able to track and capture statistics really does make this technology much more appealing to other staff around UCS and the wider field.

We will be adding a few questions to the event organisers evaluation, which we will help them create and distribute using Google Docs, we will update the blog once the evaluation forms have been sunmitted.

A good day all round :-)

 

 

 

 

 

Tracking the number of scans of QR Codes

As some people are aware, we've been rolling out the QR Code Tour Generator with scan tracking. The idea is we'll be able to provide some quantitative answer to the question, this is all very nice, but has anyone scanned the QR Code?

In a previous post I've outlined how we are giving a voice to a building (http://wolseyweb.ucs.ac.uk/blogs/elevate/?p=739). This went live  on the 24th May. So, given a week has passed, has anyone scanned it?

The answer is yes, and thanks to the tracking I the QR Code Tour creator (owner) can follow the link and see how many scans, and when it was scanned. In our case, it has been scanned three times (one of which was me).



Another interesting observation is the QR Code Tour Generator automatically includes a short url to the resource. The intention is to allow people who do not have a QR Code reader the ability to easily access the resource. The log data indicates that although the number of QR Code scans is three, the resource (a youTube video) has been accessed via the short url twelve times. Therefore, it is very important to include the short url.

 

AMC #QRCode Treasure Hunt

The Administrative Management Committee are hosting their annual “away day” at the Ipswich Waterfront building this year.  Normally some form of team building quiz takes places, this year a treasure hunt was the order of the day, the Elevate Team will be supporting the treasure hunt with the use of QR Codes.

Brief

• A 20 question multiple choice quiz with the questions being based around the Waterfront Building


• 20 teams


• Teams ending in Kai, with the scoreboard being displayed once they arrive

Thoughts

• A mobile phone of one team member of each team to be used to access and answer questions


• Each team given a name
  
  
  
  • Team A
  
  
  • Team B etc.
  
  
  
  


• Use of QRTour generator to create QR Codes and SUrls for links to mobile friendly questions


• Mobile friendly web page for each question


• Web page contains form that writes to database
  
  
  
  • Drop down list of Team names – Select your team name
  
  
  • Radio button options for multiple choice answers
  
  
  • Correct answer writes a “1” to the database, an incorrect answer writes “0”
  
  
  
  


• A results page queries the database and displays the scoreboard
  
  
  
  • Ping Google Chart API to create on the fly bar chart
  
  
  
  

This brief fits the recently developed QRTour generator perfectly, the idea being that each question would be a point of interest on the tour.  The tour generator would create a QR Code that loads the question on the mobile device, as the tour also provides a short URL on the poster, users without a reader can still take part.

After some good work from David we have a proof of concept up and running, below is how the QR Code will be displayed, the poster is produced on the fly in PDF format by the generator, we will be creating a new “Treasure Hunt” template to remove the “Tour” type references.



Once the code is scanned or the short URL is entered on the phone, the browser will load the mobile friendly question as shown below:

 

All questions are now in the xml file that the aspx calls from, the results page is working, but just needs styling.

Tasks Left

• Creating the mobile friendly site to host the questions


• Styling the results page


• Training Torri to create the QRTour which will host the questions


• Stick QR Codes to locations around the campus

So, we have a system that allows multiple teams participate in a treasure hunt, finding the questions around the building, scanning a QR Code to allow them to submit each answer.  Then when they all meet back up in Kai's the winners will be known as the scoreboard will be updated in realtime.

It should be fun, and another proof of concept for our "QRTour Generator".

 

QR Code Tour Generator - user feedback

As you maybe aware, we've been developing a QR Code Tour Generator at UCS. This is intended to act as an easy authoring tool to enable people to create and manage a number of linked QR Code points of interest. As part of the process we invited feedback from a few people at other institutions (many thanks to Phil Richards and David Hopkins).

Overall the feedback was very positive, the general areas for improvement are around the managing of the URLs (making sure the links work, and they are easy to identify once they are created), and the PDF (A5 print outs) have some layout issues which need addressing.

The following quotes indicate we are nearly there in terms of the interface and functionality. Therefore, we are nearly in a position be able to roll this out as an open source package.

How could we improve the user interface? What more do you need?

The interface is simple and uncomplicated - I would not want too add too much more info as the current state would be good for non-technical users to find "safe" and not to scary.

How could we improve the functionality? what other things would you find really useful?

Nothing occurs immediately. Perhaps being able to check the shortened URLs work within the tour form.

An interesting point was as made around the most difficult aspect was to the tour design. For instance, "generating the tour was easy and pretty self-explanatory. What was more difficult was, before starting the process, knowing what information I would be able to include and therefore how much planning would be needed. This is not about the creation tool itself and more about my own expectations and information/guide perhaps." I've interpreted this as the need to provide some concrete examples within an effective getting started guide.

The next steps are to work with a number of teams at UCS to produce some tours, and track use.

 

Exhibitors extending their own space using QR Codes

I was really surprised, and rather pleased to see the latest exhibition in the Waterfront Building. As is evident the promotional material uses QR Codes. The artists have used QR Codes in a number of ways. Firstly, there are the general promotional posters, and Exhibition Catalogue which includes one text based QR Code which contains a list of web links more information about each artist. The second, use is within the exhibition, which is a poster of four QR Codes, one named for each artist, which is URL QR Codes to their web sites, facebooks spaces etc.,

Interestingly, there were no QR Codes around individual pieces of work. For instance, the use of a URL QR Code to encourage people to leave comments, and to read other people's comments.

It would be very interesting to find out more from the artists in terms of what they wanted to gain from the use of QR Codes within their promotional material, and if they've received feedback from people around the effectiveness.

Giving the building a voice: developments with James Hehir

As part of the QR Code Tour Service we are working with Estates on a pilot project about giving our buildings a voice. Many of the UCS buildings include a open area which the general public can access, and then have card access controls for staff and students. This does often raise questions from people walking around the UCS Ipswich, such as, what is the building? what goes on in the building? As Gwenda commented, from the perspective of many people these are mystery buildings.

A very good example is the James Hehir building (http://www.ucs.ac.uk/SchoolsAndNetwork/Ourcampusnetwork/UCSIpswich/JamesHehirBuilding.aspx).

The intention is to use our QR Code Generator Service to create a set of QR codes which give an overview (short 2 minute talk, with or without images) to answer the question >> what is the history of the building and what is the current use? It will include the exit point of go to the UCS web site for more info

We'll then create a set of audio recordings based around conversations with the teams on each floor - this will give a much richer learning experience around what is happening in the building.

We are hoping to have the overview available by mid May, 2011. The Elevate Team will record the short round table discussion with Sonia and Gwenda, and help them create the QR Code Tour.

Emerging ideas from the History Division #QRCodes

Following on from the "QRTour Generator Sprint" and a small round of user testing, the Elevate Team are continuing the dialogue between the Division of History at UCS and the Ipswich Maritime Trust.

We are looking to support and enhance the work of the two with the use of our new QR Code based Tour Generator, following a very productive meeting on 7th April the History lecturers are going to be building up scenarios around the Historic Ipswich Wet Dock, with the supporting materials/resources coming from the Ipswich Maritime Trust's archive.

During the 7th April meeting we were treated to a very informative presentation by Stuart Grimwade from the Trust.  The Trust have a wonderful photographic archive, with photos going back to the 1850's, showing the Ipswich Wet Dock through different stages of its life.

Below are a couple of these wonderful images:

[caption id="attachment_637" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Neptune Quay c1860 - Ipswich Maritime Trust"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_636" align="alignleft" width="277" caption="Shipyard c1857 - Ipswich Maritime Trust"][/caption]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are planning to look through a number of these photographs to pick out a few locations to create a tour, with these locations being points of interest for use on our tour generator.  We will be working with staff from the History Division to select the most appropriate locations for this proof of concept.  We will be working with these lecturers to write scenarios, to give a story to the points of interest.  Wrapping around this will be the use of these photographs, as we will be using QR Codes to link to these scenarios, we will know the users location, as they will need to scan the codes, we can really start to tailor these scenarios, giving people a look at the past of the location they are standing in.  As well as the use of these fantastic pictures, we will also be adding a voice over, telling the story to give these pictures a voice.

Some of UCS's history students are working on a project where they have been taking audio recordings of the last surviving barge captains, we will be looking at hopefully using these stories/recordings in one of our points of interest along the tour.

We will be looking to host the materials/resources for each point of interest on a blog style system, allowing users that take the tour to leave their own comments and thoughts immediately, from the location they are in, therefore allowing the next person to look at the materials to also see previous peoples thoughts.

We are very excited about this project, both for how it will technically work as well as something usable for the Ipswich Maritime Trust and to see how the tour can be written to support the learning outcomes of our history modules.

Extending the Exhibition Space #QRCodes

Following on from the "Extending the Exhibition beyond the Physical Space" post, to show that the very short notice (2 days), proof of concept project actually worked we have had a look at the statistics from the event.

We created a number of QR Codes for the event, these were all placed in the printed catalogue due to the short nature of the Elevate Team's involvement.  The codes that were used for the event were:

1. All of the artist's contact details


2. The online catalogue


3. The 2011 Gallery events listing


4. The UCS School of Arts & Humanities website


5. The Ipswich and Colchester Museums

Total number of scans for each QR Code was as follows:

1. 8


2. 1


3. 14


4. 3


5. 7

As you can see we had 33 scans of the QR Codes, removing the scans that were done prior to the event for testing, gives us 24 scans.  Below you will see the statistics for the 2011 Gallery listings code, (clicking the image will make the picture larger) this shows when the scans of the code were made, as you can see, this QR Code is still being scanned until very recently.

Even though these numbers appear small, we are very pleased and happy for a number of reasons:

• Our involvement was for a very short period of time


• The numbers of people at the event were small


• We have been able to view/track numbers of scans for each QR Code generated


• Our proof of concept project worked

After this success the Elevate Team are looking to move this proof of concept forward, with the use of its newly designed QRTour Generator.  We are also working with our Estates department, they are looking to "give the building a voice".  The landmark Waterfront building at UCS has a number of areas that Estates would like to allow students/members of the public to be more aware of, we will be looking at locating a number of QR Codes around the building, allowing users to scan the codes and listen to more information.

#QRCode Tour Development Sprint

David an I undertook our first project development sprint last week.  We based ourselves out of the office to minimise any interruptions, allowing the focus solely to be on the QR Code Tour Generator.

The project aims were to create basically two new services, one very reliant upon the other, the two services were:

• QRTour Service


• URL Shortening service

We had already created a QR Code Generator which the team decided to build upon, the idea was to create a very easy to author system that would allow users to create a guided tour with with resources and activities located around the area, all accessible by QR Codes.  The system needed to generate a printable PDF document with titles, descriptions, QR Codes, contact details etc. as well as allowing you to return to the tour for statistics and to amend any of the Points of Interest on the tour.

As we are creating QR Codes, we wanted them to be as small and with less detail to allow for quick easy capture via a reader, to achieve this we needed to create a URL Shortening service, therefore the system converting long web addresses into short addresses and then displaying these are codes.

The team decided that we should host our own shortening service as most that are available at the moment are all registered under the shortest domain name available (.ly etc.), and it isn't known how long these services will be available.

The week (21/3 - 25/3) was a very productive week, being out of the office environment does make a huge difference.  We managed to create the following service:

• URL Shortening Service


• QR Code Tour Generator
  
  
  
  • Register to create a tour
    
    
    
    • Receive an email with registration details including unique tour ID
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Create a tour name
  
  
  • Add a tour description
  
  
  • Add between 1 and 7 Points of Interest (PoI) on the tour
    
    
    
    • Each PoI has a title, description, and resource URI
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • View a summary page of your tour, including QR Code, displayed short URL and link to the stats for each PoI
  
  
  • View / Print a PDF document of your tour
    
    
    
    • The PDF generates a cover page giving the tour name and description
    
    
    • The PDF then provides a page ready to print of each PoI, these pages contain the tour name, PoI title, PoI description, QR Code, short URI, tour organiser, Elevate details and a disclaimer
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

By the end of the sprint we managed to have a working system, which is fantastic, it is very much function over form at the moment.  We are now spending the next 3 days "mopping up" before closing the development period, the items being finished off are:

• Only correct number of PoIs are displayed on summary page


• Only correct number of PoIs are added to PDF


• Only 3 PoIs are shown on initial screen, plus/minus buttons are displayed to allow adding or removing of additional PoIs


• Text edited in email notification


• Correct header image


• Basic descriptive text corrected on pages

So, as of Thursday we will have a system that does all the above, and will also allow the user to return to the tour and edit any of the details, using their unique ID.

Below is an image showing a sneak peak of the PDF output:

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The team will be looking to have another sprint week in the near future, this will be used to complete the following:

• Complete styling


• Complete descriptors and wording on all pages - Help section/tips etc.


• Different Options for PDF Templates - allowing different more than just tours
  
  
  
  • Requirements being fed from Testing
  
  
  
  


• Self Registration blogs
  
  
  
  • Hosted internally - Wordpress MU
  
  
  
  


• Tidying of technical code
  
  
  
  • Adding of comments etc.
  
  
  
  


• Research dynamic adding of PoIs
  
  
  
  • Currently using 7 predefined PoIs
  
  
  
  


• Styling of Short URL Service

We will also be having some user testing over the next few weeks, we will use this feedback to help drive the next sprint.

 

Extending the exhibition beyond the physical space

To raise awareness about QR Codes at UCS the Elevate Team has been working with the Art & Design division and their exhibition co-ordinator. The department were very keen to use QR Codes once they were shown what they can do and how easily they can be created.

Two days after our initial meeting the exhibition "Class of ..." was being displayed at the new Gallery in the Waterfront building, as a quick proof of concept approach was taken to allow us to get in to a position to allow gallery visitors to see how the codes could be used.

A blog was setup which hosted the artists' contact details and the complete catalogue. QR Codes were created using bit.ly which allowed realtime statistics of number of access, so we were able to track the number of scans made of the codes.

Google Analytics was integrated into the blog giving more in-depth statistical analysis if required.

A poster was also created to be positioned at the entrance to the gallery, explaining what QR Codes are and how you scan them (as shown below)

Due to the short notice of the project it was decided that the codes would only be printed in the catalogue, as well as the codes mentioned above, further codes were created for direct links to the Schools webpages on the UCS website, the gallery's exhibitions list and a link to the Ipswich and Colchester Museums and Galleries website.  Using Elevate's own QR Code generator we were able to track hits to our own webpages thanks to the "query string" that gets generated.

Andy and Aaron attended the private viewing of the exhibition and were on hand to talk about the use of the codes and demonstrate their use.  The idea was very warmly received and gave a number of the artists present some ideas on using them in their work.

Having the codes trackable has been a huge step forward in their use, previously you had no idea whether any of the codes were being scanned, now we are able to get statistics showing their use.

We were very pleased to see that codes in the catalogue were continuing to be scanned after the private viewing, this has given belief that we can take their use forward with the next exhibition, especially as that exhibition is being hosted across a couple of sites.

We will look to use codes to link the physical space with the online world at the next exhibition, closing the gap between the two.  Again using blogs to host the materials has the advantage to allow all visitors to the exhibition to leave comments on each piece of work in realtime.  Standing looking at a painting on the wall you will be able to scan the code next to the painting, read about the artist, the inspiration behind the painting, and then leave your own thoughts and ideas.  As this can happen in realtime, the next visitor will immediately be able to read your thoughts also.

Update on progress of ILTS project (QR Codes)

The intention of this post is to overview where we are with our ILTS project. The project proposal and work packages is available from the Projects & Pilots area on this blog.

Overall

Some of the proposed work packages have shifted in response to emerging demand and interest. For instance, we allocated resource to support people in the School of Arts and Humanities who have started to implement QR Codes in some activities.

The headlines are, the Elevate Team have

• implemented a QR Code Generator Service


• provided a space to support a community of practice around QR Codes


• supported staff on deploying a QR Code activity, and successfully tracked accesses


• sort and had feedback on our QR Code Generator Service, and some exemplar learning activities

Feedback on individual work packages

• WP 1: done:  The UCS QR Code Generator is available from: http://wolseyweb.ucs.ac.uk/elttcode/elttcode.aspx


• WP 2: done: The Elevate Blog acts as a central online support space for a community of practice


• WP 3: in progress: Informed by conversations with staff, the Elevate team are starting to think it might be more appropriate to develop a QR Code tour, than a game engine. We feel there will be more demand. The idea is to work on a more technology inclusive version of http://mytoursapp.com/


• WP 4: in progress: the survey is waiting approval via the School of Business and Enterprise Ethics Committee


• WP 5: in progress: Presented a number of ideas at Blackboard User Conference, Durham University. Received feedback and need to write up


• WP 6: stalled: dependent on WP 4


• WP 7: not started: Hope to complete by end of March 2011


• WP 8: not started: Waiting for the Elevate event management system. Have buy-in from Corporate Development to pilot


• WP 9: not started: dependent on WP 8


• WP 10: on going: Started with School of Arts,  enhancing the exhibition / event


• WP 11: not due


• WP 12: not due


• WP 13: not due

Implementing a QR Code Generating Service - Durham BB Users' Conference 2011

Thank you to all those who attended the workshop at the Durham Users' Confence today, please find below the link to the zipped package, once download, unzip and view the Read Me file.

QR Code Generator Package

Mentioned during the workshop was a webpage that you could visit on your mobile device to give you a list of the available scanning apps for that specific device, please click here.

Thanks again for attending the workshop and please feel free to leave any comments about how you found installing and using the generator, comments can be left on this post.

Good feedback for QR Code Generator

We (David and Aaron) have been developing the UCS's QR Code Generator Pilot Service (http://wolseyweb.ucs.ac.uk/Elttcode/). The development approach follows an agile development model of regular user centered input and feedback. The first user feedback phase has just finished, and its been really useful ... thanks

When asked, To what extent do you agree with the following statement, I was able to achieve everything I needed to do ... the majority either strongly agreed (3 outof 7) or agreed (3 out of 7). Only 1 registered a negative score (unsure).

The qualitative feedback implied they seemed to be able to create a code and save it. Many where unsure why they might want to use it, and there was some need for improving / clarifying the instructions on the tracking of QR Codes (UCS urls). So, all very good :-)

Where next

The next steps will be to get some users to test the tracking process. We have also secured some internal project funding to engage the wider community at UCS around using QR Codes in Teaching and Learning, and develop a games engine (inspired by the work of Mike Ellis http://twitter.com/#!/m1ke_ellis).

ELTT Barcode Generator - Package

Happy to announce that work on making sure the ELTT Barcode Generator Package is nearly finished!

This has entailed creating a separate settings.config file where an institution can change basic branding and usage settings without the need to delve into the core code, of course any development work the institution wishes to carry out can still be done, it just gives the institution the ability to roll out their own version of our generator with minimal fuss.

Just got to round of some extra bits such as the readme.txt and make sure all the functionality is working, also checking back making sure all the error trapping is in place.

The package will be distributed being standards compliant to XHTML 1.0 Transitional / CSS / Section 508.

All for now!

David

ELTT Barcode Generator Operational

ELTT's Barcode generator is now operational for a select few people to give initial feedback on how they find using the service.

Future features include a configuration element for easier distribution to other institutions who wish to implement their own version and the possibility of using the service on a gaming platform.

Enjoy

http://wolseyweb.ucs.ac.uk/elttcode/

David