Coordinating teaching and health needs to manage the start of ‘in-person’ teaching at the University of Pisa is precisely what the ‘Signs System’ was designed to do. The system was developed by the University to provide invaluable indications to students about the condition of the workspaces in each classroom. Each available space will be allocated a particular QR code which, when read using a smartphone, will not only register the position of the students in the room but will also indicate if that specific workspace has been occupied by someone else during the day and is therefore no longer available until it is sanitized.
“Before sitting down, students must read the QR code from the Signs system with their smartphones,” commented the Rector Paolo Mancarella. “In this way, it is possible to actively enter the classrooms in total safety once more. We are now accustomed to this type of technology, which is similar to that used to read the menus in pizzerias or restaurants. It is a small gesture showing great responsibility towards society to avoid jeopardising the efforts carried out up to now by the whole university community, and it should be used alongside the wearing of masks and hand sanitization.”
The Signs system stemmed from the Covid-19 emergency but it is also looking to the future. The QR codes were designed to create a dynamic link to digital information depending on the context and, in the future in fact, these same QR codes will be able to offer students personalised services, linking in-person teaching with digital contents, thus enabling greater interaction and more detailed study.
Watch the video to find out how the Signs System works (the video is only available in Italian):