Quick Response (QR) codes are a pretty ubiquitous part of our everyday life. You’ve probably seen them around campus, on ads, or even as menus at restaurants. However, one place you may not have thought about them is as a part of your teaching. While their original design was for tracking inventory, there are a number of ways you may consider using them as a tool for teaching.
In this post, let’s discuss some ways you may consider using QR codes in your professional practice and look at how one faculty member has been integrating them into her work. We’ll also look at how you might make some QR codes that will not expire and can be used from semester.
How You Can Use QR Codes
QR codes can be used as a way to share a variety of file types: URLs, documents, images, and more. These codes can be scanned by most smartphone Camera apps to simply open a file as quickly as possible. In addition to the reduction of paper use, these codes can be used in a few unique ways. Check out a few ideas below!
Distribute Course Content
The simplest way you can start using QR codes is to give out links to files for your course (or potential research information). For example, you may find an instructional video that supplements your class lecture, but don’t have the time to show it in class, or its contents are more of an extension of the ideas being presented. Adding a QR code to a slide that links to the video (and uploading the slides to Canvas) might be a great way to give students these additional resources that can positively impact their learning.
Additionally, you may find it helpful to use QR codes for small group work. Let’s say you’re having students complete something collaboratively in small groups that you assign them to and would like to have an artifact of their learning at the end of class. If you create a blank document or template for each of the groups and a QR code for that document to project in class, students would simply need to scan their group’s code to gain access to the collaborative note taking space. These codes then become the launching pad for your lesson that day.
Give Formative Assessments
Formative assessments are excellent ways to get a snapshot of where your students are with course concepts, likely helping to predict their performance on the summative assessment at the end of the unit. Oftentimes these formative assessments get overlooked because they can be cumbersome to integrate seamlessly into a class session. They typically require students to log into a platform like Canvas or Top Hat and add time that instructors do not have to begin with.
In order to streamline this process and get the data that you need to inform your instructional decisions, consider leveraging QR codes to get them into your formative assessments faster. One method that might be helpful is preparing a Google Form with some basic questions about that lesson, or general questions that can be reused throughout the semester (like the Muddiest Point or a One Sentence Summary). By creating a QR code that you embed on your class slides, you can have students quickly scan it and fill out the form on their phones before they leave class. This would bypass the need to add the link to Canvas and have students log in entirely, speeding up the process.
Design Interactive Class Activities
If you’re really looking to get creative with QR codes, you might consider developing an entire lesson that incorporates them. Activities like scavenger hunts and gallery walks create lessons that are highly interactive and get your students up and moving.
Using a scavenger hunt activity to engage with course concepts is a great way to situate learning into a physical space. For example, posting QR codes that link to specific questions and placing them throughout the classroom (like a lab space for safety training) or across campus (to learn where different campus resources are located) could help students not only understand the “what” but also the “how” of the topics they’re learning about. Students could answer the questions as they progress through the entire activity or record their answers to use them later.
In addition, gallery walk tasks can be a great way to get students to discuss a variety of topics in smaller groups without having to print copious amounts of paper. QR codes can link to short videos, thought-provoking images, or short passages that relate to your course concepts. In class, tape these codes around the room and have students get into pairs or small groups, having them discuss each of the artifacts you have selected. (Alternatively, these codes could be projected on the classroom screen for students to scan and have for discussion anywhere in the room.) Then, at the end of class, help students make connections across these artifacts and facilitate a larger group discussion.
Promote Upcoming Events
You’ve probably seen a number of events being advertised on monitors across campus that include QR codes. These codes often link to more information about the event or even link to a registration form. Have an information session coming up or even trying to get more student participation in things outside of class? Goodbye, days of the paper with the rip off tab and hello, days of the QR code! If you’re leading an extracurricular opportunity or hosting an event on campus, this might be a great way to get the word out.
Faculty Spotlight Use Case
As QR codes have gained in popularity in more recent years, a few instructors have reached out to figure out ways to use them in their workflow and how to create QR codes that last longer than a few weeks. One such faculty member is Lindsey Lilienthal, who has used QR codes in her classes for things like peer evaluation Google Forms, but even more so in her research.
“What I’ve done most this semester is limit paper usage in my research, and QR codes have been key for that,” expressed Lindsey. Her research has students coming into the lab for memory experiments, which remain on the computer, but the heavier paper usage was coming from the demographic surveys and debriefing forms.
In wanting to shift these forms online, she reached out for some options of QR codes that she could reuse throughout the course of her study. She said, “once I printed out one copy of each code, it prevented me from having to make numerous copies of the forms!” Lindsey plans to continue using the QR codes as she continues her research moving forward, limiting her overall paper consumption significantly.
How to Make Your Own QR Codes
One of the main considerations to account for is the permanence of your QR codes. Many online QR code generators start as free options, but later require payment to maintain your QR codes long term. Obviously, this could become a problem if you are hoping to use the codes from semester to semester or longer than the two-week trial that is typical with these sites.
While you can use a tool like the Adobe Express QR Code Generator or Adobe InDesign, a simpler solution might be with a device you received earlier this academic year – your iPad. QR codes can be created using one of the default apps on your device, Shortcuts, after completing a few initial setup steps:
- Open the Shortcuts app. Remember, you can always use Spotlight Search if you’re having trouble locating an app.
- In the top right corner, select the Sidebar button. This will pull out your Sidebar.
- Select Gallery from the Sidebar menu.
- Tap on Starter Shortcuts.
- Scroll all the way down and tap on the Make QR Code tile.
- In the pop-up menu, select the Add Shortcut button.
Once you have completed the initial setup, follow these instructions each time you want to create a QR code:
- Open the Shortcuts app.
- Open the Sidebar using the Sidebar button in the top right corner.
- Select All Shortcuts from the Sidebar menu.
- Tap on the Make QR Code tile.
- In the new pop-up menu, decide what you want your QR code to do. Typically you will select Open Website from the options provided.
- Type or past the website URL you want to link in the URL field and tap Done.
- Select the Share icon.
- Choose Save Image to save this QR code to your device’s Photos app.
- Tap Done to exit this menu.
- Add the QR code to your preferred method of sharing.
If you are making multiple QR codes in one session, it is highly recommended that you add captions to each QR code as you make them to keep track of them later. This can be done by accessing the Photos app and selecting the Info button in the top left corner when viewing an image.
Next Steps
QR codes open up a quick and easy way to help students access course content, engage with instructional material, and find new opportunities for their future. As you begin to consider ways in which you might use QR codes in your classes, please reach out to the Office of Instructional Design to workshop activities or get help with creating your own codes. We’re happy to help you figure out strategies to improve your students’ learning experiences!
