Academic Posters
Academic posters are widely used within scientific and academic communities to present visual displays of data with just enough supporting text to provide context, interpretation, and conclusions.
They offer an authentic way for students to demonstrate their understanding and highly visual posters are usually can be a strong alternative to text-heavy assessment methods.
Posters require students to communicate complex thinking clearly and with concision, synthesising and integrating information, and can foster critical thinking.
What is an academic poster?
Posters are screen-based, paper-based, or virtual objects which represent ideas and/or research findings.
Designed to communicate from a distance, they often incorporate images, figures and graphs and so illustrate what is known.
They can be created individually or collaboratively, communicate the outcomes from independent research, group projects or to demonstrate understanding of module content.
They can stand alone as an assessed artefact or be accompanied by an oral presentation and/or a Q&A session.
Posters can be printed or produced and displayed digitally, either online or in a face-to-face environment.
In addition to the production of the poster, students can be asked to present their findings using the poster as a visual aid.
This might be done entirely through a Q&A session with the assessing tutor or through a more formal presentation.
Again, the assessment rubric will need to be carefully considered, as will the weighting of the poster as an artefact and the oral presentation / response to questions.
Running an academic ‘poster session’ will create opportunities for peer feedback and evaluation, and can also generate a sense of pride and accomplishment which is beneficial to a sense of student belonging and a positive learning environment.