Handouts are ubiquitous in higher education and increasingly "handouts" are being delivered to students via a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). These 'digital' handouts often either replicate paper based handouts or use the popular method of placing PowerPoint presentation (Adams 2008) available for download for students. It is felt that this method of supporting face to face sessions and providing extra learning for students as a handout misses the potential of digital content and online possibilities.
This pilot study uses a short physical handout at the end of a lecture which uses QR codes. These enable the physical handout to become an interactive "electronic-handout". Students will be able receive audio/video presentations and extra activities direct to their mobile devices. QR codes are a 2D graphical image similar to a barcode that can provide links to web content (text image audio video) or enable an action by a mobile device such as send or receive an SMS (Ramsden & Roper 2008). During and after a lecture students can use their mobile device (phones iPods and laptops) to scan QR code's so they can instantly download the relevant digital content or the presentation being given direct to their own mobile devices.
The QR codes and "digital-handouts" are being been piloted within a nursing "Anatomy and Physiology" module during early 2011. An initial survey indicates that over three quarters of students have mobile devices capable of using QR codes. Full evaluation will take place via a survey and also a group face to face evaluation. Participating staff will also be part of the full evaluation. It is envisaged that this pilot study will lead into further developments in this area. Results will be available for the conference
This poster will also use QR codes to demonstrate how they can be used to conference attendee's.
References:
Adams C.A. (2008) PowerPoint's Pedagogy. Phenomenology & Practice Volume 2 No. 1. pp 63-79
Ramsden A. & Roper M. (2008) Developing the use of QR codes in Teaching & Learning at University of Bath. mLearn 2008. Available at: http://go.bath.ac.uk/lp5h
