Now there’s no skipping class: Unis in Malaysia use QR codes to mark attendance

The days when you can ask a friend to help sign your lecture attendance are officially over.

Using a simple yet high-tech solution, a Malaysian university has come up with a novel way to record the attendance of students; through the use of Quick Response (QR) codes.

Yeap, you read that right, the same phone-embedded matrix barcode used to by movie-goers to enter cinemas and buy that slice of Hawaiian pizza at Mikey’s is now used in the classroom where your lecturer will certainly know whether or not you’ve been a studious class attendee throughout the semester.

https://twitter.com/SyahiraRadzi/status/955719920611876864

The use of the code came to light when a student from Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) shared a photo of “attendance taking” in her class on Twitter, according to World of Buzz.

In the shared image, students are seen verifying their attendance by using their smartphones to scan a QR code plastered largely on a projection screen, by their lecturer.

With her post gaining wide attention on social media, another student shared a similar method practised by her varsity in Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), reportedly the first university to implement the system.

https://twitter.com/Tira_Abu/status/955804367340240896

Another Twitter user, in response to the postings, said the system was not easy to work around.

With the new system, it is very difficult for students to mark attendance for their absent friend.

On top of that, the QR code displayed on the board would only be valid for a short period of time so those who come in late would also miss out on the attendance score.

In Malaysian universities, class attendance is taken very seriously and some varsities impose strict penalties if students failed to show up for as little as three classes without a valid reason.

Liked this? Then you’ll love these…

Skipping class has big societal impact, experts say

China: Points deducted if students can’t remember teacher’s name in exam