Quick response barcode readers will soon be used at Eastern Michigan University.
Eastern Michigan University has announced that it will soon be implementing a system of readers for QR codes in many of its different campus departments.
This system is designed to help gain a better understanding of student attendance at various campus venues.
Associate provost and associate vice president for academic programming and services for the university, Rhonda Longworth, explained that this will provide an important measure of where students are travelling and what services they are using. She explained that “At this point in time, we are beginning the process of using smartphone technology to read the student codes, upload that attendance information into student records.”
The process of scanning the QR codes is very easy and allows enhanced overall experiences.
This is because it will permit students to log into their online accounts at myemich.edu, so that they can quickly verify the number of events that they have attended and that will count toward their general education credit requirements through the Learning Beyond the Classroom program, which is required in order to graduate from the school.
The first proposal of this idea was made by graduate assistant John Williams, from the academic programming office. The concept was brought forward while Williams worked with his supervisor, Christine Deacons, regarding using QR codes to help track event attendance among students.
Longworth explained that she knew at Chris Foreman, the general education director, was already on the lookout for a mobile, accessible, and cost effective way to implement electronic attendance tracking for the Learning Beyond the Classroom events . Finally, the outcome was a smartphone app that used the scanning of QR codes. The university has bought a small number of smartphones and is working alongside a vendor for the development of the app. A nominal fee is being charged throughout the testing phase. She did point out, though, that students would not be changed for using the mobile service.
Longworth believes that the time and staff savings that the QR codes will generate will save thousands of dollars over the life of the program.
