Market and Promote Learning in SumTotal 19.3 with QR Codes

One of the most important roles of L&D — that of enablers and facilitators — recently got easier with the release of SumTotal 19.3. The application assigns a Quick Response (QR) code to every mobile-enabled learning.

QR Codes in SumTotal

Learners scan the codes using the camera on a mobile device to launch learning activities immediately on the device. This capability reduces the “friction” in the learning process to deliver learning and performance support to a mobile device. It also provides a streamlined way to market learning to your workforce.

But wait a minute — wasn’t the QR Code declared dead years ago?

A few years ago, it seemed so. Engineers at Denso Wave (owned by Toyota Group) had developed the QR Code in 1994 because they wanted a scanning code that could be read from any angle. They were successful, but consumers didn’t jump on it.

The technology wasn’t ready. Most people didn’t have smartphones. If they did, they had to download an app and figure out how to use it. They had to get the camera positioned just right, only to find that the website the code pointed to wasn’t optimized for their devices.

The Rebirth of QR Codes

It wasn’t until 2015 that QR Codes started gaining ground. Snapchat launched QR-based Snapcodes to make it easy for users to follow their friends. Amazon, Google, and Instagram followed soon after.

It wasn’t until 2017 that QR technology got a boost from IOS 11, which enabled iPhone cameras to handle the codes without a 3rd party app. Android 9.0 introduced that capability in August 2018. Now, every major mobile device natively reads and launches QR Codes.

In the lost days of QR, the app download was the first pain point in using QR codes. We remember trying to get it to work and giving up in frustration. Now, all your users need to do is tap on the camera icon, point the camera at the code, and tap the popup permission to launch an activity.

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