Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
  • G06Q10/06—Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
  • G06Q10/063—Operations research, analysis or management
  • G06Q10/0631—Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
  • G06Q10/10—Office automation; Time management
  • G06Q10/105—Human resources
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q50/00—Information and communication technology [ICT] specially adapted for implementation of business processes of specific business sectors, e.g. utilities or tourism
  • G06Q50/10—Services
  • G06Q50/20—Education
  • G06Q50/205—Education administration or guidance
  • G06Q50/2057—Career enhancement or continuing education service
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G09—EDUCATION; CRYPTOGRAPHY; DISPLAY; ADVERTISING; SEALS
  • G09B—EDUCATIONAL OR DEMONSTRATION APPLIANCES; APPLIANCES FOR TEACHING, OR COMMUNICATING WITH, THE BLIND, DEAF OR MUTE; MODELS; PLANETARIA; GLOBES; MAPS; DIAGRAMS
  • G09B19/00—Teaching not covered by other main groups of this subclass
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G09—EDUCATION; CRYPTOGRAPHY; DISPLAY; ADVERTISING; SEALS
  • G09B—EDUCATIONAL OR DEMONSTRATION APPLIANCES; APPLIANCES FOR TEACHING, OR COMMUNICATING WITH, THE BLIND, DEAF OR MUTE; MODELS; PLANETARIA; GLOBES; MAPS; DIAGRAMS
  • G09B19/00—Teaching not covered by other main groups of this subclass
  • G09B19/18—Book-keeping or economics

Definitions

• the present invention relates to the field of occupational-related education of personnel, and particularly to computer-related methods and systems for communicating information relating to education sessions to potential attendees.
• ongoing education For certain occupations (and particularly for the professions) participation in ongoing education is mandatory, with the renewal of a registration or license to practice in a profession being contingent upon the completion of a set number of hours. Such requirements are often known as “continuing professional development” or “continuing professional education”. Minimum standards for ongoing education are typically set by statute or the code of a professional organization, and are often measured in terms or hours completed, or credit points earned. As an example, in order to maintain membership of the Certified Practicing Accountants of Australia, a member must complete 120 hours of continuing professional development over a period of three years.
• RCPSC Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada
• CPPQ College of Family Physicians of Canada
• the RCPSC is responsible for the development and implementation of all certifying examinations in each specialty other than Family Medicine. Specialist physicians who join the Royal College as Fellows maintain their knowledge, skills, competence and performance through participating in the Maintenance of Certification Program. For each five year cycle, fellows of the college are required to document 400 credits, with a minimum of 40 credits obtained in each year of the cycle. Credits are earned at one to two credits per hour, based on the type of learning activity. The CFPCrequires 250 credit-hours over a five year cycle. Fifty credits must be obtained for each year of the cycle. To earn and maintain fellowship within the college, an additional 24 credit-hours of higher level learning are also required over each learning cycle.
• a further problem is that some ongoing education regimes require that credits can only be earned on pre-approved education sessions. Qven the importance of ongoing education, proof of attendance at a session may be required. Many professional associations and statutory bodies conduct regular audits of individuals' educational activities to ensure that requirements are being met. Typically, proof of attendance is provided by the individual signing an attendee list. This approach is cumbersome, prone to misuse, and complicates reporting to an auditing body.
• Occupation-specific associations typically require more complete information regarding the ongoing education activities of their members. Associations generally only have information of education sessions that they themselves have offered, and are often unaware of member enrolment in sessions run by alternative providers.
• the present invention provides a method for facilitating occupation-related education, the method comprising the step of: transferring information relating to a future ongoing education session between (i) a database owned, administered or controlled by a first entity and (ii) a database owned, administered or controlled by a second entity, wherein the first entity is a provider or a promoter of the future ongoing education session, and the second entity is a communicator of the future ongoing education session to a potential attendee; and wherein the potential attendee is registered with or otherwise known to the second entity.
• the first entity is an occupation-related association, or an industry- related organization, or a statutory body charged with overseeing the ongoing education of an occupation.
• the occupation-related organization is a professional association.
• the second entity is not an occupation-related association or an industry-related association, or a provider of an ongoing education session.
• the first entity database holds information relating to at least 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95 or 100 ongoing education sessions.
• the second entity database holds information relating to at least 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400, 450, 500, 550, 600, 650, 700, 750, 800, 850, 900 or 1000 ongoing education sessions.
• the method is a computer-implemented method.
• the method comprises the further step of transferring information relating to one or more future ongoing information sessionsto the potential attendee.
• the present invention provides an electronic database comprising information relating to (i) a plurality of ongoing education sessions and (ii) a plurality of potential attendees.
• the database may comprise information relating to at least 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400, 450, 500, 550, 600, 650, 700, 750, 800, 850, 900 or 1000 ongoing education sessions.
• the database comprises information relating to at least 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, 1000, 2000, 3000, 40000, 5000, 6000, 7000, 8000, 9000, 10000, 15000, 20000, 30000, 40000, 50000, 60000, 70000, 80000, 90000, 100000, 200000, 300000, 400000, 500000, 600000, 700000, 800000, 900000 or 1000000 potential attendees.
• Some embodiments of the method comprise use of means for recording attendance at an ongoing education session.
• the means for recording attendance at an ongoing education session is an optical code readable by a dedicated application residing on a portable processor-based machine of the potential attendee.
• the optical code is a QR code, which optionally provides a validation code.
• the method comprises the further step of transferring information relating to attendance as captured by the portable processor-based machine to any other individual or organization.
• the present invention comprises an application for execution on a portable processor-based machine comprising a set of executable instructions providing for one or more of the following functions: (i) notifying a user of a future ongoing education session, (ii) allowing the user to access more detailed information on a future ongoing education session, (iii) allowing a user to book a future ongoing information session, (iv) allowing a user to pay for a future ongoing education session, (v) directing information relating to a future ongoing information session to be saved in an electronic calendar, (vi) capturing an optical code containing information (and optionally validation information) relating to an ongoing education session, (vii) transferring information (and optionally validation information) relating to an ongoing education session to a remote electronic database.
• the present invention provides a text-based or video-based study material comprising an optical code, wherein the optical code comprises information relating to ongoing education.
• a fifth aspect of the present invention provides a system for facilitating occupation-related education, the system comprising (i) an electronic database comprising information relating to (a) a plurality of ongoing education sessions and (b) a plurality of potential attendees, and (ii) a portable processor-based machine having an application for execution on the portable processor-based machine comprising a set of executable instructions providing for one or more of the following functions: (a) notifying a user of a future ongoing education session, (b) allowing the user to access more detailed information on a future ongoing education session, (c) allowing a user to book a future ongoing information session, (d) allowing a user to pay for a future ongoing education session, (e) directing information relating to a future ongoing information session to be saved in an electronic calendar, (f) capturing an optical code containing information (and optionally validation information) relating to an ongoing education session, (g) transferring information (and optionally validation information) relating to an ongoing education session to a remote electronic database.
• system further comprises an optical code encoding information relating to an ongoing education session, or a text or video-based material.
• Figure 1 is a diagrammatic representation of the components required by the system described in Example 1 , and also the flow of information between those components.
• the word “comprise” and variations of the word, such as “comprising” and “comprises” is not intended to exclude other additives, components, integers or steps.
• the present invention is predicated at least in part on Applicant's finding that ongoing education of personnel may be facilitated by computer-based methods and systems that include interconnected databases of two entities. Providers or promoters of ongoing education sessions upload details of future sessions from a first database to a second database of a second entity. Potential attendees are forwarded (or retrieve) information on future ongoing education sessions from the second entity database.
• the present invention provides a method for facilitating occupation-related education, the method comprising the step of: transferring information relating to a future ongoing education session between (i) adatabase owned, administered or controlled by a first entity and (ii) a database owned, administered or controlled by a second entity, wherein the first entity is a provider or a promoter of the future ongoing education session, and the second entity is a communicator of the future ongoing education session to a potential attendee; and wherein the potential attendee is registered with or otherwise known to the second entity.
• Applicant proposes that the method including a second entity that communicates the availability of a future ongoing education session to a registered potential attendee is distinguished from and advantageous over existing methods.
• the second entity in the function of communicator is capable of receiving details of a large number of training sessions, identifying an education session potentially appropriate to a potential attendee, and communicating details of the session to the potential attendee.
• the second entity (and therefore any database owned, administered or controlled thereby) occupies a central role in facilitating (i) the communication of educational opportunities to a pre-qualified client base, and (ii) the selection of potentially appropriate education sessions by a potential attendee.
• the first entity may be any person or organization that is involved in the provision or promotion of an ongoing education session.
• Education providers typically perform one or more of the following tasks in the normal course of business: develop content; retain a teacher, lecturer, tutor, or facilitator to conduct a session; organize a venue and/or catering to host the session; produce written, video or audio materials for use within a session, organize transport and/or accommodation for attendees, market and/ or sell an education session.
• the term "ongoing education” is intended to mean any education of an individual that pertains to that individual's occupation, and is undertaken in an effort to maintain or improve or otherwise fortify the individual's performance in the work place.
• the occupation may be a profession, a trade, a skilled role, semi-skilled role, or an unskilled role. Included in the scope of "ongoing education session” is any lecture, tutorial, conference, seminar, webinar, workshop, demonstration, instructional course, reading program, discussion, role play, use of an interactive computer program, testing regime, private study, and the like.
• the ongoing education may be live, recorded or transmitted from a location remote to the attendee.
• the ongoing education may be expressed in any manner selected from one or more of the following: live performance, sound recording, video recording, streaming video (including delayed transmissions), streaming sound (including delayed transmissions), or document.
• the first entity may be an educational provider selected from (but not limited to) the following: a university (public or private), a college (public or private), a company (public or private), a school (public or private), a church, or an individual.
• the first entity may be an individual or organization not involved in the provision of education (or at least the provision of education is not their primary activity, business or charter) and may be an individual or organization involved in the promotion of education sessions.
• the first entity may be an occupation-related association or industry-related organization. Such organizations are often involved in the dissemination of information of future ongoing educational session that may be of interest to their members.
• the occupation-related organization is a professional association.
• Members of the professions are typically required to complete a certain level of ongoing education as part of maintaining their registration or license to practice their profession.
• the present invention provides very significant advantages.
• Professionals include: financial professionals (such as accountants, financial planners, bankers, insurance consultants, stock brokers, actuaries and the like), legal professionals (such as lawyers, barristers, solicitors, attorneys and the like), health professionals (such as medical practitioners, pharmacists, optometrists, veterinary practitioners, dentists, nurses, physiotherapists, psychologists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, massage therapists, acupuncturists and the like), technical professionals (such as engineers, land surveyors, pilots, and the like) educational professionals (such as teachers, lecturers, tutors and the like), It will be understood that the aforementioned professions are not intended to define an exhaustive list, and are merely exemplary.
• the present methods, systems and applications are particularly advantageous to professional associations given that they are funded primarily through membership fees and income derived from the provision of ongoing education activities by the professional association or through the professional association accrediting third party providers to deliver appropriate education to their members.
• professional associations typically do not require members to undertake their ongoing education with their association and the vast majority do not require third party providers' content to be accredited with them. Accordingly, professional associations must compete with other associations and other third party education providers for the custom of their members.
• the present methods, systems and applications provide professional associations a competitive advantage in the marketing of education sessions.
• the present methods, systems and applications allow a professional association to review the nature and extent of ongoing education activities undertaken by their members by reference to the bookings placed through the second entity. This information enables the association to ascertain any gaps and opportunities in its education offerings, and assess at an early stage and monitor from an audit perspective where any member may be at risk of not completing their education requirements. Necessary support to help manage and resolve shortfalls in atimely and effective manner can be provided.
• Professional associations can also market all of their ongoing education offerings directly to potential attendees and bypass ineffective email marketing campaigns. As members are able to select preferences to suit their own interests, professional associations need not be concerned about member "email fatigue”.
• association's offerings may be promoted through an association-branded version of adedicated smart phone application as described infra.
• Occupational associations will also be allowed the opportunity to broaden their marketing reach to non-members who are able to view their educational offerings through a website or dedicated smart phone application of the second entity.
• the first entity is a statutory body charged with overseeing the ongoing education of an occupation.
• statutory bodies may dictate (or at least provide guidance) to occupational groups as to the type of ongoing education that will satisfy requirements. While statutory bodies are not typically reliant on income provided by ongoing education, these bodies will be advantaged given the ability to track an individual's progress in achieving the required aedits, and intervene early if a shortfall is probable. 9atutory bodies may also suggest or promote certain educational sessionsthat will satisfy requirements if attended.
• the second entity may be any individual or organization capable of having a role in ongoing education according to the methods, system and applications described herein.
• the second entity is not an occupation-related association, or an industry- related association, or a statutory body charged with overseeing the ongoing education of an occupation.
• the second entity is not a provider of an ongoing education session.
• Included in the present methods is the step of transferring information between a database of the first entity and the second entity.
• the term "between” is intended to include a one-way transfer of information (from first the first entity to the second, or vice- versa), and also a two-way transfer of information.
• the step of transferring does not necessarily require an active step on the part of both the first and second entities.
• the first entity may grant the second entity read and/or write access to their member database.
• the second entity may retrieve data from the first entity database, with the first entity having no active role.
• the step of transferring is accomplished only by the actions of the second entity.
• the second entity may transfer information to the first entity database, and again the first entity has no active role.
• the second entity may grant the first entity read and/or write access to their member database.
• the first entity may retrieve data from the second entity database, with the second entity having no active role.
• the step of transferring is accomplished only by the actions of the first entity.
• the first entity may transfer information to the second entity database, and again the second entity has no active role.
• the step of transferring does not necessarily require an active step on the part of either the first or second entities, and may directed by athird entity.
• one or more interfaces may be disposed between the databases. The purpose of these interfaces is to ensure that information forwarded by one entity is receivable and understandable by the other entity.
• the transfer of information may be facilitated by an application programming interface (API) to allow for a third party (such as a user of ongoing education, or a provider of ongoing education) to send information to and receive information from a database of the second entity.
• API application programming interface
• the third party may initiate the conversation by sending an XML formatted message to a webservice of the second entity,
• the XML message typically contains logon information, the action to perform, and the required information for the performance of the action.
• the required information may include one or more of : title, description of session, date, time, clickthru url, and unique provider identification code.
• the second entity may return an XML formatted message.
• This message could contain a status to indicate the success or failure of the requested action.
• an error message may be returned to indicate the nature of the problem.
• the information may be returned based on the requested action.
• the response may include a code allowing for the identification of the session, a token for the session, or the URL of the generated QR code.
• an action API to allow a third party to receive user ongoing education actions in real-time, or close to real-time.
• the second entity may initiate the conversation in response to a user recording a CPD event in the second entity database.
• the message may be a standard https POST request.
• a number of factors determine the information that may be in the request. Some relevant factors include: whether the user is using an application of the second entity or an application of the first entity (such as an occupational association), whether the user has recorded their association membership details in the application, the identity of the educational content provider. Based on the aforementioned factors, the following information may be sent through to an association or content provider.
• the following information may be sent: first name, last name, email, association member number, content identification code, provider identification code, date and time the user recorded attendance at the ongoing education session. If the user is a member of one or more associations, then the above information may also be sent to those associations.
• association or content provider does not already have a relationship with the user in relation to that particular item of content
• the following information may be sent: content identification code, provider identification code, date and time the user recorded attendance at the ongoing education session. Note that no user identifying information will be sent.
• the third party typically then returns an acknowledgment to indicate that they have successfully received the message.
• a complex interface may not be required where the first and second entities have previously agreed on the information fields to be transferred.
• information may be transferred as delimiter-separated text data file, such as a simple comma separated values (Ca/) file.
• the transfer of information need not be direct, and it is contemplated that one or more databases or servers may be operationally disposed between the first entity and second entity databases Preferably the information is transmitted between the first and second entities by way of secure connection.
• information on a future ongoing education session may be transferred manually.
• an individual of the first entity may manually retrieve information relating to a session from the first entity database, and transfer that information (by whatever means) to an individual of the second entity.
• the individual of the second entity may then manually enter the relevant information into the second entity database.
• the term "information" is intended to include information relating to an ongoing education session. Without the intent of limiting the scope of the present invention the information may include one of more of the following: session title, outline of session content, details of session presenter, session location, session date, session cost, session starting time, session finishing time, session duration, number of ongoing education credits awarded upon completion of session, and the like.
• information further includes information relating to a potential or actual attendee of an ongoing education session.
• Exemplary information includes one or more of the following: attendee name, attendee email address, attendee physical address, attendee occupation, attendee employer details, details of attendee membership in any occupation-related organization, occupation-related registrations or licenses held by the attendee, number of ongoing education credits attendee holds, number of ongoing education credit attendee requires in order to satisfy an ongoing education requirement, date by which attendee must attain the minimum number of ongoing education credits, education sessions booked by attendee, education sessions attended by attendee, credit card information, and the like.
• the term “potential attendee” includes an agent of a potential attendee such as a personnel assistant, seaetary, subordinate, training officer, or a human resources officer.
• the term “database” as used herein in not intended to be limited to a database holding any minimal number of entries. Indeed, the database may hold only a single entry, or may hold a very large number of entries. For example where the first entry is a provider of a single ongoing education session the first entity database will hold information only that session only. According to the present methods, information on that single session is transferred to the second entity database where it resides along with information relating to a number of other ongoing education sessions
• databases useful in the context of the present method and systems are electronic databases physically embodied in the form of a digital storage medium such as a magnetic or optical medium.
• the database may be any type of database that is capable of being read from and written to. Typical options include the flat-file style of database useful for smaller amounts of data that need to be human readable or edited by hand.
• a Database Management Layer is added to this type of database allowing script programmers to store information as a pair of strings whereby a key is used to find the associated value. More complex data structures will be better managed using relational databases such as MySQL, Microsoft SQLServer and Oracle, given their more logical structure in the way data is stored.
• the first database may hold entries relating to a large number of ongoing education sessions. This information may have been provided to the first entity by several or many ongoing education providers. In certain forms of the method, the first entity database holds information relating to at least 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95 or 100 ongoing education sessions.
• the database of the second entity may hold information relating to a very large number of ongoing education sessions.
• the second entity database holds information relating to at least 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400, 450, 500, 550, 600, 650, 700, 750, 800, 850, 900 or 1000 ongoing education sessions.
• the present methods and systems are not restricted to the use of databases having any upper or lower number of entries.
• typically the second entity database holding information relating a multiple number of ongoing education sessions as compared with the first entity database. Certain embodiments provide for a multiple of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 500 or 1000.
• the present methods are computer-implemented.
• the term "computer-implemented” is intended to mean that the method is operable at least in part or even entirely on any processor-equipped device such as a personal computer, computer server, laptop, netbook, tablet, PDA, smart phone or other similar contrivance.
• the methods may be implemented on a single computer but more typically implemented across multiple computers connected to a LAN, WAN or the Internet.
• the potential attendee has previously registered an interest in ongoing education with the second entity.
• the registration may be accomplished by the potential attendee themselves by communicating directly with the second entity, or by the potential attendee communicating indirectly via the second entity, or via a third entity.
• the registration is effected by the completion and submission of a data form residing on an internet website that is owned, administered or controlled by the first or second entity.
• the registration process obtains information related to one or more of the following: attendee name, attendee email address, attendee physical address, attendee occupation, attendee employer details, details of attendee membership in any occupation-related organization, occupation-related registrations or licenses held by the attendee, number of ongoing education credits attendee holds, number of ongoing education credit attendee requires in order to satisfy an ongoing education requirement, date by which attendee must attain the minimum number of ongoing education credits, education sessions booked by attendee, education sessions attended by attendee, credit card information and the like.
• the availability of such information is advantageous to the second entity since it allows for the selection of appropriate future ongoing education sessions having regard to the characteristics of the potential attendee.
• the potential attendee may inform the second entity that he is a lawyer in Chicago, requiring 2 points in legal ethics to be obtained by 30 June 2012. In that circumstance, the second entity will notify the potential attendee of only those sessions within the relevant geographical area, acceptable to the Illinois bar, directed to legal ethics, and that are scheduled for anytime before 30 June.
• Sessions of potential interest may be forwarded to the potential attendee by "push" notification via an application, an email, an S Stext message, a postage item, a telephone call, and the like.
• the potential attendee may actively retrieve details of relevant future sessions by logging in to a website hosted by the second entity.
• the potential attendee is otherwise known to the second entity in which case registration may not be required.
• the first entity (or indeed any other entity) may forward information relating to a potential attendee to the second entity.
• This information may in some embodiments of the methods and systems be information which is obtainable via the registration process as desai bed supra.
• the method comprises the further step of transferring information relating to one or more future ongoing information sessions to the potential attendee. This communication is most conveniently achieved by electronic means, and may be forwarded by way of a push notification to a dedicated application residing on a smart phone, table or personal computer of the potential attendee.
• the session may be booked by way of actuating an icon on the dedicated application.
• the application may also be capable of handling payment for the session and may also direct inclusion of the session on the attendee's electronic calendar.
• the present invention provides an electronic database comprising information relating to (i) a plurality of ongoing education sessions and (ii) a plurality of potential attendees.
• the database comprises information relating to at least 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400, 450, 500, 550, 600, 650, 700, 750, 800, 850, 900 or 1000 ongoing education sessions.
• the database comprises information relating to at least 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, 1000, 2000, 3000, 40000, 5000, 6000, 7000, 8000, 9000, 10000, 15000, 20000, 30000, 40000, 50000, 60000, 70000, 80000, 90000, 100000, 200000, 300000, 400000, 500000, 600000, 700000, 800000, 900000 or 1000000 potential attendees.
• the database is connected or capable of being connected to a database or processor-based machine owned, controlled or administered by (i) the first entity or (ii) the potential attendee.
• the present methods, systems and applications provide, in some embodiments, means for recording attendance at an ongoing education session.
• the means may rely on the use of a dedicated application residing on a portable processor-based machine such as a smart phone, tablet, netbook, notebook or laptop computer of the potential attendee.
• the dedicated application may include means for capturing an optical code containing information relating to the ongoing education session. Upon presentation at (or completion of) the session, the attendee is provided with an optical code for capture by their portable processor-based machine.
• the optical code may be plain text (readable by an optical character recognition method), or a bar code, or a QR (Quick Response) code.
• the code may comprise only a simple unique identification string for the particular ongoing education session, or may comprise more complete details such as any of date, venue, topic, presenter, duration, credits daimable, cost and the like.
• the optical code provides a validation code that could not be known or predicted by the potential attendee before attendance at the ongoing education session.
• the optical code isdevised by the second entity and provided to the ongoing education provider for display at the session.
• the optical code may be presented on the cover of course notes, on a certificate of completion, as a projected image during a slide or video presentation, or be mounted to a notice board or a door within the venue.
• the dedicated application Upon capture of the optical code, the dedicated application transfers the information contained therein to the second entity where it is validated.
• the code may be validated "on board" by the portable processor based machine, with successful validation being communicated to the second entity.
• the second entity is capable is tracking the number of ongoing education credits held by the attendee.
• the method comprises the further step of transferring information relating to attendance as captured by the portable processor-based machine to any other individual or organization.
• This step of transferring may be initiated by the dedicated application that captured the optical code, or by the second entity.
• the attendance information may be transferred to a professional association or a statutory body charged with overseeing a registration regime. In this way, the attendee may not be required to retain any diary or proof of attendance at an ongoing education session since that information (and preferably validated information) is already held by the relevant body.
• a further aspect of the present invention provides an application for execution on a portable processor-based machine comprising a set of executable instructions providing for one or more of the following functions:
• the dedicated application may comprise instructions for any 1 , 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 of the functions (i) to (vii). It is to be further understood that the application may comprise instructions for any number of functions (i) to (vii) and in any of the 7! combinations available.
• the application may include functionality allowing a user to search across all content, or just a subset thereof.
• the application may be configurable to report their booking and/or attendance at an ongoing education session directly to one or more occupational associations.
• the code may be authored for execution on an android, iOSor Blackberry operating system.
• the dedicated application allows a user to track, record and automatically report ongoing education activity undertaken by simply scanning the optical code with their Smart Phone. The user may also view and email an up to the minute collated ongoing education report. This report may be made automatically available to the chosen professional association and or employer of the professional and/ or statutory body overseeing the ongoing education regime.
• the application may also allow the user to login to asecond entity website for more detailed reporting, preference modification and manual input of data if required.
• the dedicated application may further allow the user to search or select their preference and receive alerts of relevant ongoing education opportunities provided through their occupational association or from all providers of ongoing education and content registered with the second entity.
• the dedicated application may be branded by an occupational association such that a user is not immediately aware of the involvement of the second entity.
• Ongoing education providers may pay a fee to the association in order to have their content presented to a user of the application.
• the present dedicated applications allow ongoing education providers to promote their offerings by take advantage of the network of professionals who make use of the convenience of application functionality, including easy tracking of credits through the optical code system.
• Providers are also not required to invest in setting up their own application-driven marketing, booking and payment system, instead taking advantage of that established by the second entity.
• the ongoing education provider reimburses the second entity by a "click through” model, and therefore only pay where a user seeks further information on a future session.
• the ongoing education session may be any of the public type already mentioned (such as seminars and workshops), but may also be a private ongoing education session.
• ongoing education credits may be obtained by the private study of relevant materials such as newspapers, periodicals, scientific journals, recorded video presentations and the like.
• materials may be published with optical codes.
• the codes may include indicia or text to indicate to an individual that it is acceptable for ongoing education credits.
• a news paper article on proposed taxation reform has a QR code with the logo of CPA, or a logo associated with a ongoing education coordination entity (such as the second entity desaibed supra).
• the optical code may provide a link to an entity (such as the second entity desaibed supra) to facilitate registration with such an entity.
• the optical code may be accompanied by text explaining to the reader that ongoing education aedit can be obtained, and how many aeditsare available, and for what bodies.
• a further aspect of the present invention provides for a text-based or video-based study material comprising an optical code, wherein the optical code comprises information relating to ongoing education.
• optical codes may facilitate the identification of acceptable content, and to also assist in the tracking of aedits earned.
• a QR code is preferred because of the relatively large amount of information that may be encoded.
• the title and date of the publication, page number, author, general technical area of the content, number of words, or duration of video content may be encoded.
• the information encoded is decipherable exclusively by the second entity such that only users registered with the second entity can make use of the code and the attendant tracking advantages.
• the optical code may be placed at any convenient place on a text-based document, but is preferably positioned in a conspicuous area (such as the top, left hand corner) in order to draw the attention of a reader.
• the code may be accompanied by text explaining that the function of the code is to assist readers to obtain and track ongoing education credits, optionally for certain professional organizations.
• the present invention provides a system for facilitating occupation- related education, the system comprising (i) an electronic database comprising information relating to (a) a plurality of ongoing education sessions and (b) a plurality of potential attendees, and (ii) a portable processor-based machine having an application for execution on the portable processor-based machine comprising a set of executable instructions providing for one or more of the following functions:
• system further comprises an optical code encoding information relating to an ongoing education session, or atext or video-based material.
• EXAMPLE 1 Smart phone-based system for receiving notifications on future ongoing education session and recording of attendance with optical code.
• FIG. 1 whereby the potential attendee (a smart phone user) 2, has registered an interest in attending ongoing education sessions with an ongoing education coordinating entity 4 of the type referred to elsewhere herein to as the "second entity".
• the user has also downloaded a dedicated application into a smart phone6, the application being functionally linked to the coordinating entity 4.
• the user enters 8 preferences for the type of ongoing education sessions for which they have an interest or need into either the app 6 or the coordinating entity website 10 during the registration process. Preferences according to location of session, price, duration, number of credits etc are selectable by the user.
• User and preference information is held in a database 12 of the coordinating entity 4.
• Information relating to future ongoing education sessions is transferred to the database 12 by a number of content providers and occupational associations 14 of the type referred to elsewhere herein as the "first entity".
• the transfer is effected from information held in a dat abase 16 whi ch i s achi eved el ect ron i cal I y 18, vi a i nt erf aces 20 and 22.
• Information relating to future ongoing education sessions is pushed 24 from the database 12 to the dedicated application on the smart phone 6.
• the user 2 considers the sessions and elects to view further information on a particular session. This action triggers a "click through" 36.
• Information is captured by the click server 28 (an independent click tracking server) and the user is redirected to the first entity site to allow the user 2 to buy a seat at the event.
• the click through is billed as a marketing charge payable by the content providers or occupational associations 14.
• the coordinating entity 4 generates a QRcode 41 specific for the CPD event, and transfers electronically 18 to 14 via the interface 22 to 20.
• the education provider 14 then displays the code 26 at the training venue, in delegate communications, certificates, magazines, technical papers, videos etc.
• the user 2 Upon attendance at the CPD event, the user 2 scans the QRcode 26 using their smart phone 6 to capture the QRcode information 29.
• the dedicated application on the smart phone 6 triggers transfer 24 of the QR code information to the database 12. Confirmation of scan success is also sent back to smart phone app 6.
• User 2 activity is then communicated back to the association/s 14 for CPD reporting and compliance via 18 and also available manually via 46.
• Education providers or occupational associations can log in to the coordinating entity website 10 in order to forward 38 information on future education sessions for inclusion on the database 12.
• the providers and association are also enabled to retrieve information 30 from the coordinating entity administration 46 for the purposes of tracking activity aaoss their content by users of the dedicated application.
• a click through marketing charge is also applied for clicks going to content provider's CPD events viathe second entity web site in the same way as described for the application.
• DSP digital signal processor
• ASQ application specific integrated circuit
• FPGA field programmable gate array
• a general-purpose processor can be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor can be any processor, controller, microcont roller, or state machine.
• a processor can also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, for example, a combination of a DSP and a miaoprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.
• a software module can reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium.
• An exemplary storage medium can be coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium can be integral to the processor.
• the processor and the storage medium can reside in an ASG
• Various embodiments may also be implemented primarily in hardware using, for example, components such as application specific integrated circuits ("ASCs"), or field programmable gate arrays ("FPGAs").
• ASCs application specific integrated circuits
• FPGAs field programmable gate arrays
• ASCs application specific integrated circuits
• FPGAs field programmable gate arrays
• ASCs application specific integrated circuits
• FPGAs field programmable gate arrays
• ASCs application specific integrated circuits
• FPGAs field programmable gate arrays

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• 2013
  • 2013-02-28 WO PCT/AU2013/000176 patent/WO2013131121A2/fr not_active Ceased

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