6 September 2011

New Dundee students invited to play tag around Dundee

New students arriving at the University of Dundee this week can experience an innovative new way of getting familiar with the campus and the city.

As part of Welcome Week events for new students, staff at the University have set a 'treasure hunt' of QR tags around the campus and the city centre, where students can access information on their mobile phones, follow the trail and complete tasks to access the next code.

The system was used on a small scale last year with new students arriving to study Primary Education.

'The traditional methods of finding places are organised guided tours of the University or follow the crowd and all get lost together,' said Sharon Tonner, a lecturer in education and information technology at the University.

'We have decided to change from the traditional to the cutting-edge, organising a QR Fresher Hunt which the students can access with their mobile devices. I did this for the first time last year with the Primary Education students, with messages within the QR codes asking students to locate a key area in the University (Teaching Rooms, Reception Area, Bank Machines, Gym, Book Shop, etc) with a specific task to do when they arrived there.

'The activity started with a shy, quiet class who were still getting to know their peers and their lecturer. When students returned from the QR Fresher Hunt the atmosphere had transformed into a lively class who undertook all activities and were eager to share the information, leaflets and knowledge about areas of University, with their peers. More importantly, new friendships were made through this collaborative activity where everyone was involved in each task.'

This year all new students are being invited to take part.

'It proved to be a great way of letting the new students get to know each other and the University and the city, so working with Aileen Ross and the Welcome Week team we have extended it to all the new students arriving this week,' said Sharon.

'QR codes have a huge potential to be part of Education, whether it be to support or extend learning or to make learners engage with their learning environment rather than dismiss it.'

The first Tag Around Campus event takes place today (Tuesday Sept 6th) with another campus tag on Thursday morning followed by a Tag Around Dundee from 12.30 to 2.20 pm the same day.

For media enquiries contact:
Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07800 581902