QR CODE Initiative TESL ON - TechKnow Session Today we’re going to take a look at how we’re using QR codes to track the “who” and “what” of PD within language services at ISANS. As our organization has grown and staff and departments have shifted, keeping track of who has done what professional development has become an issue. In order to address this gap, we looked at a variety of options. There are some very elegant solutions available out there…at the right price. Being a non-profit seeking to maximize limited PD dollars, our target price was ‘as low as possible to get it done’! This is the result of that process. First, I’ll give you an overview of the system. Then, I’ll explain how we did it!

Get credit for the PD you do! A persistent portfolio of QR Code Initiative Get credit for the PD you do! A persistent portfolio of PD resources! Your QR code Your PD record Your workshop’s QR code Your resource There are 2 sets of QR Codes for PD. Both are for you but have different purposes. One set of QR codes is to help us make sure you are getting credit for all the PD you do. So far, PD has been presented in a linear fashion, but this year (Jennifer will tell us more about this) we’ll be doing stations for PD. Facilitators at each station will scan your QR code to show which stations you’ve been to. The second set of QR codes is for you to download resources related to the PD session that you are at. If you don’t have a smartphone to scan with, or don’t want to, we’ll post the same links on Settlement Online after the sessions.

How do they work? Before the PD day A list of PD Stations is created and… …some stations while you choose the rest On the PD day Facilitator scans your QR code You scan the station’s QR codes How does it all work? We’ll create a list of PD stations which will be posted ahead of the day. Your STLs may choose a few stations for you to attend, the others will be up to you to choose. On the day, the facilitator will scan your code at the station, which will upload your presence to your page. With your smartphone, you can scan the station’s QR code and download resources related to that station. Your participation is recorded! You can download copies of the resources!

Behind the scenes + For this to work, we needed 3 things: a marker of some kind for tracking, a place where the data will be safe and persist, and a way to access that information. The data storage location is the first step. We’re using Google Docs. This free suite of powerful tools also comes with 5 free GB of storage, more than enough for our current needs. We set up an account just for this purpose, then created a spreadsheet with all the personnel of Language Services. Finally (for Google), we used Google Forms to create the personalized ‘form’ for each participant.

Email Notifications for Forms The results of the form – the name of the workshop attended – are communicated automatically to our spreadsheet by linking them within Google Forms. The information is also transmitted to the participant via email from within Google Forms via a 3rd-party add on: Email Notifications for Forms (offered by digitalinspirations.com). Once the form is set up initially, copy and personalization allows all 92 forms to be set up efficiently. We made a similar set of forms to allow supervisors to assign certain PD to certain staff members.

Creating the QR codes https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeihTQw9wwSZG7QjBn48-O_jbfGWKr64urbJeJrGZtPWIrTGw/viewform Next, we used a free online QR code generator – goqr.me – to translate the Form link into a QR code. This is the same process for both Forms for participants and for Google Doc links.

QR code reader: i-nigma Finally, how to read the QR code. There are many QR code reading apps for varying quality on the market. After testing several, we settled on “i-nigma reader” (by 3GVision). This free-to-use app for both Android and Apple is fast and allows for instant rendering of the webpage link scanned, saving time for the facilitators.

Anthony Caldwell – PBLA Head Instructor – acaldwell@isans.ca Thank you! That concludes my presentation. Thank you for listening! Any questions?