Approaching Digital Natives with QR Code Technology in Edutainment. A case Study: QR Technology in APU Campus Area

Abstract

The knowledge of how to use digital technology is
easily available. It is time for more educators to change,
adapt and utilize modern technologies to engage their
students in the creative adventure of education, so the
students are intrigued and enthusiastic participants rather
than reluctant, passive, unprepared-for-the-world learners
[4]. This paper will describe an ongoing attempt to
encourage student interaction game through the use of
quick response (QR) code. Asia Pacific University (APU) is
looking forward to become the first university in Malaysia
to exploit the full and future capability using QR code
technology in the campus environment. APU decided to
implement QR codes in their education and campus
environment as their aim is to develop interesting and
effective teaching and learning environment where the
students will involve in activities rather than just sitting and
listening to the lecture in the classroom. Besides that APU is
trying to implement edutainment in its education as one of
the ways to improve teaching methods by implementing
varies way of teaching environments. Digital natives
students they prefer to view visuals, videos, games etc. In
other word they prefer something which is interactive and
hands-on that able to make learning more effective. Based
on the feedback given by the students for QR IT Seeks
Competition, We believe that this method able to make
learning process become more fun, interesting and effective.

Full text

International Journal of Education and Research Vol. 2 No. 4 April 2014
169
Approaching Digital Natives with QR Code
Technology in Edutainment
A case Study: QR Technology in APU Campus Area
Vinothini Kasinathan, Nor Azlina Abd Rahman, Mohamad Firdaus Che Abdul Rani
Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
vinothini@apu.edu.my; nor_azlina@apu.edu.my; firdaus@apu.edu.my

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170
Abstract—The knowledge of how to use digital technology is
easily available. It is time for more educators to change,
adapt and utilize modern technologies to engage their
students in the creative adventure of education, so the
students are intrigued and enthusiastic participants rather
than reluctant, passive, unprepared-for-the-world learners
[4]. This paper will describe an ongoing attempt to
encourage student interaction game through the use of
quick response (QR) code. Asia Pacific University (APU) is
looking forward to become the first university in Malaysia
to exploit the full and future capability using QR code
technology in the campus environment. APU decided to
implement QR codes in their education and campus
environment as their aim is to develop interesting and
effective teaching and learning environment where the
students will involve in activities rather than just sitting and
listening to the lecture in the classroom. Besides that APU is
trying to implement edutainment in its education as one of
the ways to improve teaching methods by implementing
varies way of teaching environments. Digital natives
students they prefer to view visuals, videos, games etc. In
other word they prefer something which is interactive and
hands-on that able to make learning more effective. Based
on the feedback given by the students for QR IT Seeks
Competition, We believe that this method able to make
learning process become more fun, interesting and effective.
Keywords-component; edutainment, QR-Code, QR IT
Seeks Competition, Digital Natives
I. DIGITAL NATIVES
Educators regularly face situations where throughout
lectures, labs, or discussion groups, students update their
Face-book profiles, text, surf the net, Tweet, respond to
email, and much more. Parents and educators are aware
that many students spend long hours on their cell phones
and online gaming during all times of the day and night,
resulting in exhausted and unfocused students. Digital
technologies and the Internet have revolutionized the way
people gather information and acquire new knowledge
[4].
Any person who is wired to the web can access
millions of documents, ranging from books, to poems, to
articles and so much more just by clicking a button.
Nowadays all the browsing activities can be done by
using a smart-phone, iPad or computer. Knowledge no
longer comes primarily from library books and the lecture
podium [4].
“Digital natives” is a term used for people who
were born in the digital era. Their preference is to view
visuals, videos, games and to scan shorter text rather than
thoroughly read longer text. They are not inspired by
passive learning but participatory culture is the norm for
them. Due to this situation, educators must adapt to the
learning style of young students and tap into the online
information and technologies that are second nature to
natives. Since digital natives are more prone to
participatory culture, means educational model need to
be changed into more participatory and less passive.
Even without technology, this approach at least mirrors
the experience of natives online - they have choices and
can direct their own learning. Class websites, chat rooms
and educational games are some applications that can be
implemented for digital natives. A class website can
include several functionalities such as password-
protected section with roster information, place to upload
papers and share with classmates, discussion forum,
resources page and other functionalities [4].
Nowadays, there are many educational games that
are free and fun. Students can direct their own learning
by clicking in the areas of language, history, math and
many other areas. Many people think that games are
dumbing down the kids, however it depends on the
content of the game/show, and how much time and
energy is spent there. For example, a math game is much
better as it is more interactive rather than sitting glossy-
eyed in front of the non-participatory, passive television
set. Interestingly, the digital immigrants (refers to those
born before about 1964 and who grew up in a pre-
computer world) who object to Internet gaming are fine
with TV as they grew up with it, which can be equally
wasteful, dumb down or harmful. Schools can include
games in education and help make learning fun [4].
The knowledge of how to use digital technology is
easily available. It is time for more educators to change,
adapt and utilize modern technologies to engage their
students in the creative adventure of education, so the
students are intrigued and enthusiastic participants rather
than reluctant, passive, unprepared-for-the-world learners
[4].
II. QR CODES
Technology QR (Quick Response) codes are evolving
rapidly. The vision behind QR code is just that a method
quickly scan a surface with a smart-phone and get a quick
response in the form of website, email , message, photo ,
instructions or other digital information displayed on the
phone. Originally created for industrial use, the QR code
has quickly swept a crossed the world due to grasp root
of campaigning and a basic need of a bridge between the
real world and the digital world. This is also known as
mobile tagging.
QR Codes an enhanced version of the ubiquitous
barcode. A QR code is square in shape. The main body
will be filled with what appears to be static like a
television screen, finally the 3 black boxes around 2
corners and bottom left corner of the code. It is truly
amazing to watch the spread of QR code being used by
industry across the spectrum and around the world like
journalism, art & photography, safety, the medical
industry, fundraising organization, restaurants, tourism,
the music industry, real estate, marketing and etc.
With 50% of Face-book users, 300 million internet
users in total having scanned a QR code before. The

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familiarity and comfort level of this smart root grasps
marketing toll is inspiring. There is no real limit of how
quick response code can be used but there are some basic
parameters than can dictate whether or not they will
work.
A smart phone device can be used as a QR code
reader by downloading a QR code reader and install to
the phone. In most cases users will need to get access to
the web to connect to the QR code. There are plenty QR
code reader for different kinds of smart-phones. Free QR
code readers build to fast, easy and to supply users with
the most important data available from the QR code.
In the world which is filled with technologies that is
more advance than before, QR code can bring us into
adventures with tiny boxes in black to a virtual property
within seconds. It can be found everywhere in bill boards,
coffee cups, lamp post, magazines and even on cupcakes.
QR codes can be scanned and read by camera- equipped
smart-phones via software that’s already installed on the
phone or with an application that downloaded such as
Lynkee Reader, i-nigma reader which are compatible
with a wide variety of modern smart-phones including
iPhone, Blackberry, Sony Ericson, HTC, Motorola and
Nokia. The readers/scanners give smart-phone users the
ability to read a QR code without special equipment.
III. RELATED SYSTEM USING QR CODE
This section will discuss on how the QR code is
being implemented in media, entertainment and also
education. This is a way to connect a global audience to a
variety of mobile content and create a more dynamic
experience.
A. QR Code in media
The London Organizing Committee for the Olympic
Games (LOCOG) in United Kingdom was using QR
Codes in their 2012 Summer Olympics. The use of
QR Codes is to encourage involvement of the millions
of spectators that travel to the London Summer
Games to access applications provided such as m-
commerce, social media, location tracking etc. With
the QR codes spectators able to [2]:
 Check the event details by scanning the QR
Codes using smart phones
 Share instantly fan experiences and local
highlights via social networks.
 Conveniently purchase from London 2012
m-commerce store and guide visitors to
physical stores or other location
 Downloading various London 2012 apps
easily to mobile devices and map their
journey accordingly with a mobile optimized
travel planner.
The QR codes are being placed in event guides
delivered to ticketed visitors via direct mail. Figure1
shows the QR code is being placed in event guides for
the Olympic Games 2012 [2]. LOCOG also placed
print advertisements in local newspapers with a
customized QR Code that leads to their m-commerce
shop for London 2012 gear. The codes enable the
users to find the nearest store location by clicking on a
map icon and using the device location. By activating
the social connection feature from the ScanLife
platform, users can Follow or Like the games on
Face-book and Twitter right from the landing page
[2].
Figure1. QR Codes use for Olympic Games [2]
B. QR Code in entertainment
Coca-Cola is one of the largest businesses in United
States that use QR code for entertainment. Coca-Cola use
QR Code to promote their exclusive Snowball Effect
Campaign where this is the first QR-Code program that
organized by Coca-Cola. Snowball Effect program is
actually a game that can be joined by any customers who
purchased any coca-cola drinks [1].

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Figure2. Coca-Cola Cups with QR Code [1]
Coca-Cola cups will be sporting the design friendly
QR codes along with its polar bear mascot as shown in
Figure2. This program is an initiative done by Coca-Cola
that working together with the World Wildlife Fund with
the goal of saving the polar bears habitat. This idea come-
out because Coca-Cola wanted to have a fun and
convenient way for customers to interact with the Coca-
cola mobile app and learn more about the Snowball
Effect program [1].
Customers can get a cup of Coca-Cola drinks with
the QR code at any nearby 7-Eleven stores around the
US. If the customers are interested to join a Snowball
Effect Program, firstly they need to scan, downloads a
Coca-Cola app called a Snowball Effect for the iPhone
and iPad. Coke used the ScanLife OS Detection Code to
link iPhone users to an exclusive app download and other
users to a video from the Snowball Effect campaign. The
QR Codes generated additional interest in the campaign
from blogs and other media outlets, and lead to tens of
thousands of downloads of their mobile app [1].
It’s a snowball-throwing game which able to connect
to Face-book. Snowball Effect is not just a game, but the
customers also have a chance to win prizes and a trip to
the Arctic for two. The app is link to World Wildlife
Fund’s site so that the customers can donate to its cause
to save the polar bear. With every $1 donated, Coca-Cola
will donate another million. After all, the polar bear is a
precious symbol for Coca-Cola since 1922′s. This
program held last March 2011 [1].
C. QR Code in Education
The use of QR Codes in education is already being
implemented in several institutions around the world.
This section will focus on Bath University that already
implemented QR codes in their education in several ways
[3]: 1. Integration of QR Codes within printed learning
materials
In Bath University, QR codes approach is being
rolled out across a number of distance learning
modules. The QR Codes are printed in their
learning materials such as workbooks to
improve the connection between the activity
being undertaken in the book and an additional
online activity. This learning approach requires
the students to complete a set of exercises and
then access an online discussion forum to further
apply these concepts and expose their ideas to
the wider community. Each activity in the
workbook is included with a QR code to provide
a deep link to the specific forum on the
appropriate Moodle course.
2. Integration within an alternate reality game
This approach focuses more on enhancing and
offering new learning opportunities compared to
the previous approach that focused more on
enhancing efficiency of learning in education.
An Alternate Reality Game approach is inspired
by the Alternate Reality Game run by the
Podcasting for Pedagogical Purposes SIG at Alt
C 2008 [3]. The game consists of many elements
including a series of challenges, an underlying
narrative and a collaborative community. It
encourages collaborative problem solving
around a number of physical locations. Clues,
problems, additional text information and online
connections for the game are provided by the
use of QR codes through printed signs or
stickers.
3. Accessing just in time information in the lecture
In Bath University QR code is being
implemented to connect a physical presentation
with just in time support materials. The
materials that printed with QR Codes that used
by the lecturer during class activities or
discussion enable the students to link to the
resource being discussed, or using a QR code
which includes a SMS action to allow
participants to feed back on questions, or
providing a text based QR code which contains
all the references from the presentation. The
outcome using this approach is that the student
can simply scan the material as opposed to
trying to follow complex URLs or spend
valuable time composing SMS text messages.
The integration of these approaches is evident
from a recent presentation by Andy Ramsden at
MLearn 2008 [3]. Figure3 shows example of QR

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codes being used in education to get students
feedback.
Figure3. Feedback Question using QR codes [3]
IV. REVOLUTION OF QR AT APU
APU’s aim is to become the first university in
Malaysia to explore the full and future capability using
QR code technology in the campus environment.
APU decided to implement QR codes in their
education and campus environment to:
 Develop interesting and effective teaching and
learning environment where the students will
involve in activities rather than just sitting and
listening to the lecture in the classroom.
 Improve teaching methods by implementing
varies way of teaching environments. This
method able to solve problem of the lecturers
that prone to read from the slides during lecture.
The Faculty of Computing, Engineering and
Technology of APU was successfully created an exciting,
entertaining and challenging teaching and learning
environment for the lecturers and students.
Figure4. APU QR Code Project
Figure 4 showed the projects that already successful
implemented in APU main campus which are:
1. Having posters around the APU main campus
where the students can retrieve information from
the QR Code that attached to the posters.
Example APU event poster as shown in Figure
5. Most of the event in APU is being promoted
through announcement by the lecturers, posters
that embedded with QR code for detail
information about the event, face-book, twitter
and email. Figure 6 shows one of the posters that
are available at the library. This poster enables
the students to use as a reference or guidance for
Havard referencing format. Several referencing
format can be viewed such as referencing format
for conference paper, journal, books and
websites.
Figure5. APU event poster with QR Code
2. The use of QR Code in Library.
Besides this, APU is also plan to use QR Codes
to tag the ends of their library’s bookshelves.
These QR Codes point to subject guides related
to the topics of the books on those shelves. For
example, if you scan the code on the shelf
labeled “cooking,” you’re directed to a subject
guide on food and drink.

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Figure6. Poster with QR Code at APU Library
3. Having QR IT Seek Competition among the
students that following the concept of
edutainment to make learning and teaching
process become more interesting, fun and
efficient. Figure 7 shows the APU QR IT Seek
Competition poster and figure 8 shows the
badges used during the competition.
Figure7. APU QR IT Seek Competition Poster
Figure8. QR Badge use for competition
The objective of this project is to provide feasibility data
related in various aspects, such as automation,
effectiveness, efficiency, impact to the students and
university. The outcome will then be used in mapping the
direction for future projects.
The research on this area began because of some few
reasons. The current approach teaching students in high
learning is not effective. Many studies have shown that
the digital immigrants which are lectures or academician
don’t really understand them as the pressure exists for
delivering and innovative way of knowledge [4].
This project called the QR Revolution@APU is
trying to bridge the gap. This project looks in to teaching
and learning of an international university with student
more than 90 countries used technology called the QR as
a tool to assist this project. QR code will be used as a
learning technology tool for APU in an academic
approach.
A. QR IT seek Competition
Organising an academic treasure hunt type of game
for higher learning has been never attempted especially in
the area of Information Technology. The QR IT Seek or
QR@APU will be the first attempt on trying to give an
impact on students learning process. Teaching and
learning in higher education has brought about new
challenges in the contemporary education environment.
The questions being prepared for QR IT seek
competition that only cover the module such as database,
programming, system analysis and some general areas of
IT. The participant of this competition is open to diploma
students’ part2, degree students from first year until
master level students.
By organizing this event, APU hope that this
competition will attract the students effectively to gain
knowledge in more interesting way and have fun at the
same time. They learn some soft skills such as strategies

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and planning on how they are going to play the game in
advance.
QR IT Seek is a fun, simple way to get students
using their mobile devices to continue learning outside of
lesson time. A series of 20 codes are hidden in random
locations around the APU main building. Students will be
in small teams of 2: each of these teams contained at least
one person with a mobile device (e.g. phone, IPod Touch)
which could decode the QR codes. An internet
connection is not required as the QR codes decode as text
files. Each code, when 'read' by the mobile device,
turned into a quiz question relating to the study topic.
Some of these tested (and so consolidated) existing
knowledge; some of them required further research to
obtain the answer.
Figure9. QR IT Seek Competition Rules
Based on figure 9, the rules of the competition are as
below:
1. Participants need to gather at APU foyer for
question distribution
2. Then the participants need to read the question
for the clue of the QR Code location
3. Participants need to go to the QR code location
and scan the QR code using their smart-phone to
get the next clue or question.
4. Finally the participants need to write the answer
behind the question’s card.
5. The participants need to repeat step2 until step4
to answer all the questions given within 1 hour.
B. Participant Experience
Many strategies that were implemented by the
participants based on the lecturers observe. For example
some of them came earlier and went round the campus at
4th floors looking for the QR code and found some before
the start of the game. They just saved the questions. Some
by observing other students standing in an area with their
smart phone or tablet knew that there was a QR code
hidden there. Figure 10 shows the overall competition
process.
Figure10. Overall Competition process
During the competition, one partner station himself
on the laptop and another went around finding for the
clue. Figure 11 shows the participants scanning the QR
Code to get the clue. When he gets the clue, he will run
back to his partner to solve the question especially the
programming question that will be quickly typed in and
compile for the answers. Figure 12 shows the students sit
together to gather and compile all the clues to find the
answer. Some student started asking help from the other
participants and had a butter trade way.
The lecturers were just speechless on the student
behavior. At the end it wasn’t about winning the prizes
but it was a challenge to them trying to solve the
questions.
Figure11. A student scanning QR Code for a clue

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Figure12. Students gather and compile the clues to find the answer
Most of students came for the pricing giving
ceremony thinking that lecturers were going to discuss
the answers. They were bugging the organizer lecturer.
This competition has inspired the lecturer in
organizing more things which are related to QR code.
QR@APU is using mobile technology to engage a
younger and wider audience. It will turn Main Campus
into interactive board game called the "QR@APU".
The traditional, interactive and social media drove
awareness to the foyer event. Interactive printouts poster
directed people to use mobile device to unlock the iconic
event and information regarding their studies and general
information about APU. The participants need to install
the software for QR code in their smart phone to enable
them to use the smart phones as the scanner. All the
posters and badges that used in this event were link to the
face-book of QRIT seek group.
Besides that, the visitors or potential customers will
also have experience technologically advanced at APU as
the posters with the QR codes are everywhere in APU
building. What made these events so original and unique
is by turning APU into an indoor mobile museum and
information kiosk.
V. PARTICIPANT FEEDBACK
This research study is based upon data which was
gathered among participants of APU QR IT Seek
Competition 2013. The participants involved student
from diploma part 2, degree level 1 until master level.
Since that APU is an International University with
students that come from more than 90 countries, so that
we hope this survey will be benefited to the students and
educator around the world. There were 100
questionnaires distributed to all the participants and
excellent feedback received as 85 respondents responded
to the questionnaire.
For the purpose of data analysis, a quantitative survey
method was conducted to collect information about the
feedback of the participants in the APU QT IT Seek
Competition 2013. This survey is important to see the
successful of the competition and the impact of the
competition to the students, staff and University as per
overall. Based on this survey future plan can be planned
for better learning and education environment.
The survey contained questions to collect information,
ideas and familiarity of the respondents on using QR
technology. Information collected was tabulated and then
analyzed using tools available in Microsoft Excel 2013.
Based on the questionnaire most of the students knew
about the QR IT Seek Competition from their Lecture
while the rest got the information about the competition
from the posters, friends and also other media such as
face-book, twitter etc. Figure13 shows the detail
percentage on how the students get to know about the
events in the campus area.
Figure13. Advertisement medium in campus area.
This showed that lecturers are playing an important role
in providing information about any events in APU
campus through announcement in class etc. This culture
is going to be changed in future at APU campus by
having posters with QR Codes for any events. Poster with
QR Codes is going to be the main medium in promoting
or announcing any events in APU besides WEBSPACE
which is the website of APU.
Figure 14 shows the most common operating system
used by the students of APU for their phone. From the
survey, we found that the most popular operating system
used by the students is Android. The purpose of this
survey is to pre-plan in terms of technical for future
project that is still related to QR Codes.

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Figure14. Popular Mobile Phone Operating System among students.
Based on the survey, majority of the students were agreed
to use QR technology in learning. Figure 15 shows 87%
of the participants give positive response on the use of
QR codes in learning. Figure 16 shows that 62% of
participants agree to implement QR Codes for tutorial
classes, 13% strongly agree, 21% undecided and on 4%
disagree. From this survey it is clearly showed that
majority of the participants who were international
students agreed to implement QR codes in their learning
activities such as tutorial, competitions, quizzes etc. Due
to this good response APU will considering in
implementing QR codes in their learning activities.
Figure15. A survey on Implementing QR Code in Learning
Figure16. A survey on Implementing QR Code in Learning
Lastly some of the participants were commented on some
areas that need to be improved for this kind of
competition and the usage of QR codes in campus area.
Listed below are some of their suggestions:
 Include more technical questions for the competition.
 Improve the quality of QR Codes as sometimes it
took quite sometimes to scan
 Use QR codes to find the books in the library.
 Registration form that printed with QR code for any
competition or events for detail information.
 Use QR code to check their exam result.
 APU catalogues with QR codes that enable people to
scan for detail information of courses offer, fees,
accommodation etc.
 Use QR Codes in library, slides, tutorial, feedback
system, attendance, labs.
VI. FUTURE WORK
Since APU QR IT seeks competition was successful
implemented to IT students in APU so this kind of event
and competition will be held continuously and maybe it
will become yearly event in APU. Besides that, positive
feedback received from the participants who are IT
students and the committees who are lecturers from IT
department that planned and organized the events will
give motivation to other faculty such as engineering and
business faculty to implement this kind of activities in
their education.
VII. CONCLUSION
Based on the experience that gained from the QR IT Seek
Competition that held in APU campus, conclusion has
been made where this competition helps the lecturers and
students in the following ways:
Lecturer:

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 To innovate ways to educate students that will
make the learning process become more
interesting and effective.
 Able to encourage team building among staff.
 Able to give ideas for other department to do more
activities which is more related to academic with
more fun and exciting.
 Able to combine the power of people and
technology to improve the way people learn and
work
 Supports the learning programs or modules in
different way of learning.
Student:
 Able to develop a range of necessary skills that
they can apply in their career, academic and etc.
 The students will use their mobile devices in
appropriate way for education purposes rather than
wasting their times with gaming etc.
 The game improves skills in cognitive, affective,
psychomotor and social domains.
 Develop collaborative way of learning and develop
experiential learning.
 Able to stimulate problem solving capabilities.
 Able to keep abreast with latest technology
 Make learning a multi sensory experience as
students learn best when all theirs sensors are
engaged and this will make the learning process
become more exciting and memorable.
REFERENCES
[1] Branding Magazine, 2011. “Coca-Cola’s First QR Code Program”
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<http://www.brandingmagazine.com/2011/11/14/coca-colas-first-
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[2] The London Organizing Committee for the Olympic games, 2012.
Available at: <http://www.scanlife.com/case-studies/the-london-
organizing-committee-for-the-olympic-games> {Accessed
30/7/2013]
[3] Andy Ramsden,2008. “The use of QR codes in Education: A
getting started guide for academics”.
[4] Ofer Zur and Azzia Zur, “ On Digital Immigrants and Digital
Natives:
How the Digital Divide Affects Families, Educational Institutions,
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