They look like they urgently need a graphic polish: QR codes - those pixelated, black squares - can be seen more and more often, whether on posters, flyers or under a newspaper article. Not for aesthetic aesthetes, but they are highly functional and extremely easy to use: Instead of entering an Internet address, you simply scan the code with your smartphone - and the information appears on your mobile phone. A student project group from the professionalisation module "Social Web for Poets" has now shown that the technology can also be used as a tour of the campus
"We wanted to make it easier for first-year students to find their way around," says Markus Glötzel, head of the new module, which is financed by central student fees; the Department of Computing Science's Business Information Systems / Very Large Business Applications (VLBA) is responsible. The result of the ten-member project group is a virtual scavenger hunt across the Uhlhornsweg campus. It leads through the lecture theatre building, buildings A7, A11 and A5 to the library and the central area.
The students have stuck the QR code at the entrance to each building. It leads to a website specially designed for display on smartphones. The website contains a text about the point of interest - and directions to the next point of contact. "We taught the know-how for creating the websites in the module. For example, there was a basic course in HTML and CSS," explains Glötzel.
The QR codes originally came from the automotive industry, when Web 2.0 was still a long way off. A subsidiary of Toyota developed the first version back in 1994, back then for parts tracking in production. With the triumph of smartphone technology, QR codes are now commonplace. Now they are even relevant to exams: Students on the "Social Web for Poets" module receive credit for the campus tour as partial credit.
The module is also about examining Web 2.0 from a technical, sociological and economic perspective, says Glötzel: "We took a critical look at various tracking techniques - the techniques that allow us to precisely track user behaviour on the Internet." The module is funded until the end of the course. The module is funded until the end of the 2013 summer semester, "so subsequent groups can update the campus tour if there are any changes to the buildings and add more buildings to it."
