Fun With QR Codes

You've seen them around - those little pixel-y squares on posters, brochures, and tags. They're QR (quick response) codes, and they offer an easy way to link to information on the web. One of my projects this summer is to work QR codes into some of my teaching materials, so I thought I'd share some of the ideas I have.

First of all, a little 101 on generating and scanning QR codes. There are many free apps for both idevices and Android that will create and scan QR codes. For creating codes, though, I like to use a free Google tool - the Google URL shortener (find it by typing goo.gl into your browser). Edgalaxy.com has a great video tutorial on creating QR codes with this tool - scan the QR code above to go there. Lifehacker also has instructions for a variation on this technique - scan the code to the right for this page.

QR codes can be scanned using an app such as QR Code Reader by Scan or QR Code Reader from Kaywa. I've tried several of the free apps, and they all work well. The apps I've tried all work basically the same way - when you open the app, you'll see a camera window similar to your phone's camera app. With most apps, you need only scan the QR code with the camera (sometimes you need to tap to focus; some apps do this automatically) and the app will open the site linked in the code. It's that easy. You can scan codes from a computer screen or printed on paper.

One thing I've already done with QR codes is add them to my contact card. I created business cards with information on my blog, website, and YouTube channel - the URLs are printed out on the front of the card, but on the back I've added QR codes that link to my blog and website.

My next project is to add QR codes to my class handouts. I often ask students to watch YouTube videos or complete an online activity as part of their homework; other times, I direct students to additional resources that will help them understand class material or complete class projects. Rather than giving students an address that they have to retype correctly or providing them with a link on our class Moodle page (which requires them to navigate to Moodle, log in, and then follow the link), I can now print a QR code on a class handout for students to scan. I haven't tried this yet, but I'm pretty sure that I could also project a QR code in the classroom for students to scan during class. I know that I'll still have to provide more "traditional" links to content as not all students have smartphones, but I think that QR codes will make life easier for a majority of my students.

I'm just getting started with this, but I'm working on other ideas for using QR codes in class. Have you used QR codes in the classroom? Have any fantastic ideas to share? Share your experiences and ideas in the comments section below.

My Big MOOC Adventure

MOOCs have been a hot topic for a little while now; I've read a lot about MOOCs and I have friends who have taken several MOOCs for personal enrichment and just loved them. As a person who would become a professional student if I could, I've been curious about the MOOC experience, so I decided to give one a try.

I started off by Googling "MOOC" and checking out the course offerings on various sites, like Coursera, edX, and Udacity. Fortunately for me, I'm particularly interested in STEM topics - MOOC offerings seem to be heavy on the math and science. I wanted to find a course that would be interesting and self-paced, as I wasn't sure that I'd be able to stick to a regular schedule of study. (Some MOOCs are more like traditional classes, in that they have set schedules and require submissions of work at certain times.) For this initial experiment, the ability to work independently was a higher priority than the possibility of interaction with other students.

I eventually ended up looking at courses on iTunes U, Apple's "store" for educational materials. I settled on a Calculus course [Calculus I (MA005)] offered by Saylor via iTunes U. I chose this mainly for ease - because of the Apple connection, I'd be able to easily download all of the materials onto my iPad, so I'd have them with me all the time. I've been interested in reviewing Calculus for a while now (since it's been years since I've studied or taught it), so that seemed like as good a subject as any to start with.

I was pretty excited to get started. I bought myself a new grid paper notebook, got out my favorite pencil, and set up a schedule for completing lessons. The materials provided for this course included textbook sections, practice exercises (with answer key), and a link to a graphing calculator app. This was a truly self-paced, self-study course, and I was ready to go...

Until I got incredibly bored. Several lessons in, I lost my enthusiasm entirely, and I knew exactly why. The text was pretty good, and the exercises were interesting enough, but there was no human element to the course. In addition to being self-study, this particular course did not even include any kind of video instruction or messages from the instructor. One thing that I know about myself is that I'm very much a visual learner, and I really missed watching an instructor explain concepts and draw out supporting charts and graphics. The text was not very visually engaging, either, so it was even difficult to do the reading.  I missed the interaction with other students and the opportunity to ask questions or listen to the questions asked by others. Wow, I thought - if I can't stay motivated to do this, how could students ever stay motivated through a course like this? I've heard people advocate MOOCs as an option for developmental students, and based on my experience, I'm just not sure I can see that working.

So, my intitial experiment with MOOCs was an utter failure in terms of reviewing Calculus, but I did learn some important lessons about virtual classrooms and independent study. I've since downloaded another Calculus course (also from iTunes U) from Ohio State, which is much more engaging - in addition to a text, dozens of videos are provided, and they're well-produced and fun to watch. The instructor, Jim Fowler is animated and has clearly thought about how to keep students engaged online. I'll post more on this course when I get further into it - stay tuned.

Badges on Moodle!

Since I first wrote about digital badges back in June, I've had badges on my to-do list. Moodle now has integrated badges, so it's possible to assign badges to students for just about any reason. I finally got around to playing with Moodle badges this weekend, and though I'm sure I have a lot to learn about creating and assigning badges, I did manage to assign my first badge.

Moodle allows instructors to assign course badges to students, either manually or automatically based on the completion of activities. For my first badge, I chose to create a badge that students will receive when they successfully log into Moodle for the first time. (This is actually a pretty big task for our students, because some of them really struggle with their intial MyLane log-ins, creation of pass phrases, etc. In addition, the way we assign CRNs in our department is a little different, and while students usually get populated into the correct Moodle classes, sometimes they need to self-enroll.)

I created my first badge by feel and a good dose of trial-and-error. There is a "Badges" link under Settings in Moodle now, with options to manage badges or add a new badge. Since I was starting from scratch, I chose to add a badge. Adding a badge is as simple as giving your badge a title, entering a description of how students earn the badge, uploading an image for the badge, entering issuer name and contact info, and then setting the expiration date ("never" is the default).

This all seemed pretty straightforward, but I wanted more information about creating badges elsewhere (on a site such as Credly, for example) and then importing them or connecting them to Moodle. I spent some time searching through Moodle Docs, but I never really found the information I was looking for. (Generally, I find Moodle Docs to be less than satisfying - I find the explanatory information to be little more than what I can figure out myself by playing with Moodle features, and following its links to track down information is like wandering through a maze.) I found some forum posts that implied that you could import badges made on other sites, but I never found instructions on how to do anything more than use an image of a badge. So, that's what I did. I copied the image of a badge that I created in Credly, and pasted that into Moodle.

Once I had added my badge, I was given a prompt to make the badge available and manually issue it to students. This was easy - I simply selected eligible students from a list. From there, I did a little searching around and figured out that to make the badge visible on the Course homepage, I needed to add a "My Latest Badges" block to my course page.

Sooo...I think that I successfully added a badge to my Moodle page. If it really is that easy, I'll be adding more badges soon. Still on my to-do list will be to do a little more research outside Moodle Docs and figure out the connections between Moodle badges and all of the other badge creation and collection sites. I'd like to figure out not only how to import badges from other sites, but how students can take their badges with them. There's always more to learn...