A Watermarking-Assisted Framework for Secure Sharing of QR-Linked Digital Learning Resources in Inclusive Education

Abstract

Digital learning resources such as worksheets, visual aids, annotated diagrams, and QR-linked instructional materials are increasingly shared through mobile platforms and messaging applications in inclusive education contexts. During repeated sharing, these resources may undergo compression, resizing, or format conversion, which can make their origin difficult to verify and may allow unauthorized modification or redistribution to go unnoticed. This paper proposes an invisible QR watermarking-assisted framework for authentication and secure sharing of digital learning resources. Instead of encoding the complete document into a QR code, the proposed framework encodes compact authentication metadata, such as document identifier, institution ID, timestamp, verification URL, and resource hash, into a full-color QR payload. The QR payload is then invisibly embedded into the educational image or document-page image using a deep learning-based watermarking encoder. After transmission through compression-prone platforms, including WhatsApp image-mode sharing, a restoration module is applied before QR payload recovery. Experimental evaluation on a held-out validation set of 500 images shows that the watermarked images maintain acceptable visual quality, with PSNR of 31.02 ± 0.97 dB and SSIM of 0.9169 ± 0.0224. Real WhatsApp image-mode validation on the same 500 transmitted images achieved an Enhanced Scan Success Rate of 82.8% and a Direct Scan Success Rate of 57.8% when the restoration module was active. Without the restoration module, both scan success rates were 0%. These results indicate the technical feasibility of the proposed framework for source verification and traceability of shared digital learning resources. The study does not evaluate classroom learning outcomes or learner-level educational impact; its contribution is limited to secure sharing, content integrity, and source authentication of QR-linked digital learning resources.