Facilitating a meeting or education session

• US 10,212,542 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2016
• Issued: 02/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CourseKey, Inc.
• Original Assignee: CourseKey, Inc.
• Inventors: Sophinos, Lucas, Kannah, Fadee, Zhong, Ming, Barron, Marc
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Mong-Thuy T
• Application Number:
  US15/088,061
• Publication Number:
  US 20160302034A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,055 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561, 4554563, 455457
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/20 Education
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences

Abstract

Methods include receiving location data of a location associated with a meeting, and receiving check-in information from a member'"'"'s device associated with a member in an audience. The meeting has a leader. A geo-fence is set, based on the location associated with the meeting. The member'"'"'s device is determined whether it is within the geo-fence using at least one of (a) using a location sensor disposed within the member'"'"'s device; and (b) identifying a locatable device that has a known location and that is connected to or nearby the member'"'"'s device. Feedback from a plurality of devices associated with a group of members of the audience is collected, each one of the plurality of devices having its location determined as to whether it is within the geo-fence using at least one of (a) or (b) in conjunction with the collecting of feedback. The feedback is sent to the leader'"'"'s device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a computer hardware processor, location data of a location associated with a meeting, wherein the meeting has a leader;

setting, by the computer hardware processor and based at least in part on the location data, a geo-fence;

receiving, by the computer hardware processor, check-in information from a member device associated with a member in an audience;

determining, by the computer hardware processor, if the member device includes a location sensor;

responsive to determining, by the computer hardware processor, that the member device includes a location sensor, locating the member device using location sensor information to determine if the member device is within the geo-fence

responsive to determining, by the computer hardware processor, that the member device does not include a location sensor, locating the member device by identifying a locatable device having a known location and that is connected to or nearby the member device to determine if the member device is within the geo-fence;

collecting, by the computer hardware processor, feedback from a plurality of member devices, each member device associated with a a respective member of the audience; and

sending, by the computer hardware processor, the feedback to a leader device associated with the leader.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining if the member device is within the geo-fence further comprises:

calculating a distance of the member device from the location associated with the meeting; and

determining if the distance is less than a radius of the geo-fence.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving check-in information comprises:

generating a unique code for the leader;

receiving a code from a member device associated with a member in the audience; and

verifying if the code received from the member device matches the unique code.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein determining if the member device is within the geo-fence is performed during or after at least one of (i) verifying if the code matches the unique code and (ii) collecting feedback.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a locatable device utilizes at least one of:

Wifi router coordinates, coordinates of a main router associated with the member device, coordinates of a mobile device wirelessly connected to a WiFi router to which the member device is connected, cellular triangulation, a Wifi router polling of nearby devices, an internet service provider, a radio transponder device, and near field communication.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a locatable device comprises:

(i) if a Wifi router is available, using the Wifi router to determine the location of the member device, the Wifi router being associated with the member device;

(ii) if the Wifi router is not available, using a main router to determine the location of the member device, the main router being associated with the member device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the feedback is a response to an assessment, the assessment generated by the leader.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the assessment is a question requiring the member to answer during the meeting.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising processing the feedback to send data, points or credits to the member device or the leader device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the location sensor is a global positioning system (GPS) sensor.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the location associated with the meeting is based on at least one of:

a location of the leader device, a known location of a facility in which the meeting is held, and a locatable device disposed within the facility.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the member device is a mobile device selected from the group consisting of a smartphone, tablet, laptop and smartwatch.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the meeting is an academic class, the leader is a teacher, and the member of the audience is a student of the class.

14. A non-transitory machine-readable medium including instructions executable by a computer processor, the instructions causing the computer processor to:

receive location data of a location associated with a meeting, the meeting having a leader;

receive check-in information from a member device associated with a member in an audience;

set a geo-fence based on the location associated with the meeting;

determine if the member device includes a location sensor;

responsive to determining that the member device includes a location sensor, determine if the member device is within the geo-fence using the location sensor to locate the member'"'"'s device;

responsive to determining that the member device does not include a location sensor, determine if the member device is within the ego-fence by identifying a locatable device that has a known location and that is connected to or nearby the member, device;

collect feedback from a plurality of member devices, each member device associated with a a respective member of the audience; and

send the feedback to a leader device associated with the leader.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein determining if the member device is within the geo-fence further comprises:

calculating a distance of the member device from the location associated with the meeting; and

determining if the distance is less than a radius of the geo-fence.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein identifying a locatable device utilizes at least one of:

Wifi router coordinates, coordinates of a main router associated with the member device, coordinates of a mobile device wirelessly connected to a WiFi router to which the member device is connected, cellular triangulation, a Wifi router polling of nearby devices, an internet service provider, a radio transponder device, or near field communication.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein identifying a locatable device comprises:

(i) if a Wifi router is available, using the Wifi router to determine the location of the member device, the Wifi router being associated with the member device;

(ii) if the Wifi router is not available, using a main router to determine the location of the member device, the main router being associated with the member device.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the feedback is a response to an assessment generated by the leader.