Why do posters make good assessments of learning? From my personal experience of using it in two courses now, I found posters had some benefits such as:
- Encourages students to be creative in presenting material in a limited space.
- Is a hands-on way of learning. Students can see their work unfold and often begin to self-critique rather than wait for feedback from the instructor
- Forces them to be focused on the theme of the poster because it requires them to be succinct
- Motivates them to work in smaller segments of the poster which is critical when it is group. This makes the task more manageable
- Helps to distil ideas and present them in a visually appealing way. Creating a mock helps to ensure there is a flow to the elements
- Lends itself to peer and anonymous evaluation.
Online posters or interactive posters can incorporate other elements making them more relevant to higher education
- Video clips from interviews conducted by the students during the course of data gathering
- Links to other relevant websites or research
- Append data files to support data analysis
Posters have some challenges too.
- Content elements of the poster needs to be well defined, without which the poster can become a trivial activity. Instructor needs to legwork before setting up the assignment
- When using posters in the context of higher education, anonymity of business/people should be discussed and maintained if deemed necessary. This is particularly the case when conducting studies relating to quality problems, management studies etc.
- Rubrics need to well designed to balance content, creativity and presentation which can be challenging
Some of these facts are further evidenced in articles found on these links.
Hi Sharmila,
ReplyDeleteI strongly agree with the last challenge you list. Students have such a hard time getting the balance right (in my experience, they tend to go either to far to the design side or too far to the content side). I have always found it difficult to write rubrics which are balanced as well.
Cheers,
Dean
Yes, very good point Dean. I do love this activity though. I had never heard of it until Sharmila introduced it.
ReplyDelete