its just a poster not an assignment
A guide to preparing posters What is a poster? A poster is “an experiential learning activity that stimulates curiosity and interest, encourages exploration and integration of concepts and provides students with a novel way of demonstrating understanding” (Handron, 1994, in Bracher, Cantrell & Wilkie, 1998). Posters are often used to display complex ideas in a concise manner to an audience consisting of multiple people. Conferences, for instance, often allow delegates to submit and present posters, instead of giving formal presentations or talks. In conferences, the posters are displayed throughout the entire conference in a communal area of the conference location (e.g. in the reception hall) – the audience can view them at their leisure, while specific times are usually dedicated to poster presentations, whereby the poster designers will stand next to their poster and interact with any audience member who shows an interest in the poster. The main aim here is to draw in an audience and have good discussions with them about the topic of the poster – this is a great way to showcase someone's work and gain useful contacts at the same time. Posters can be designed for any purpose, e.g. to replace an academic paper or essay. A paper or essay presents all the information the author wants to present, while a poster uses visual aids to present only the most important information. Posters: Develop your communication and creativity skills; Are a creative alternative to the traditional essay, report or paper; Encourage you to thoroughly investigate the topic; Enable your peers to also learn from your research (without them having to read a entire essay!) (Berry & Houston, 1995); Engage visual learners (Summers, 2005) What does a good poster look like? This depends upon the field and audience. O’Neill and Jennings (2012, pp. 5ff) provide a good overview of the various uses of posters in different contexts. It is obviously important to carefully consider the brief you are given – in this case, the assessment requirements. Needs to be eye-catching; you need to understand where different material is on your poster, i.e. you should not be searching when presenting. Effective poster design tips 1. The message Your poster needs to be understood at a glance, i.e. it needs to be clear and concise and present the most important information in an accessible and visually appealing manner. It is a good idea to write an abstract (in sentence or bullet point format), which includes all the main points your poster needs to cover. Do not overcomplicate things and make sure you stick with the topic. The poster has to convey the message, so consider also whether you can use non- verbal means (e.g. font, graphics, pictures, etc.) to do so. Your poster will certainly contain some text. This can be sentences or bullet points or a combination of both. The amount of text required will depend upon what you want to convey – if large amounts of text are needed, consider using Serif fonts (e.g. Times New Roman) as they tend to increase readability of long texts. 2. The title and section headers a. The title of the poster will (most likely) be the most eye-catching part of your poster and it will be one of the ‘hooks’ that draws people towards your poster. Make sure it is succinct, catchy, clear and visible (this may mean it needs to be large and/or colourful). As a rule of thumb, the title should be at least 5 times bigger than the body font. Be conscious of the fact that some fonts are easier to read than others – Sans Serif fonts like Arial or Verdana are usually easiest to read as titles. b. Section headers are also important. Make sure they are also catchy and concise and use them to guide the viewer thru the poster. 3. The design a. Start by considering if you want your poster to be portrait or landscape. If presenting at conferences, the organisers may have specific requirements that you have to follow. In MGMT20140, there is no prescribed orientation of the poster – you choose! b. It is a good idea to sketch out the poster on an A4 page. Use your abstract to identify keywords or themes that you need to consider on the poster; and do not forget to include separate sections with your contact details and the references you used. Depending on how many keywords or themes there are, you can sub-divide the page accordingly and start sketching the location of each theme or section. I usually use post-it notes to show the various sections of the poster as I can move these around while deciding upon the best suitable layout. Also remember that not all sections have to be the same size – it completely depends upon the content of each section; in fact, it may look better if sections differ in size as it is more eye-catching. c. Once you have chosen the layout, you may want to consider whether your sections need to be viewed in some sort of logical order – sequencing of sections can be done by using numbering, arrows, paths, graphics, etc. d. Remember that posters are VISUAL displays, rather than a large page full of text. Make sure you include visual aids – graphics, photos, diagrams, etc. The rule of thumb is this: ‘Use less text and more visuals BUT the poster must remain self-explanatory’ e. Visuals that you have created yourself can be used for any poster presentation. Visuals that you have taken from another source (e.g. web, book, etc.) must not be used for published posters unless you have the copyright owner’s permission. For MGMT20140, the rules are less stringent because the poster is meant for assessment purposes only – you do not have to seek copyright permission unless you choose to publish the poster elsewhere afterwards. However, you have to reference the source of any visuals on your poster. f. The use of colours affects the visual effect a poster can have. You can evoke various feelings with colours (e.g. warmth vs cold colours, etc.) but bear in mind that over-use of colours can hinder your message from getting across. Also remember that a large portion of the general population suffers from colour deficiency. Make use of colour wheels to identify contrasting and complementary colours and consider the level of contrast between background and content. 4. Other hints and tips a. Consider transparency settings, especially when using texture and images as background b. Consider describing images/graphs in words if they are completely not self- explanatory c. Check how the poster will look on a projector screen (you can always ask the unit co-ordinator the week before submission…) Some poster examples: have a look to see what you think makes a good/bad poster http://sites.ieee.org/pcs/files/2014/09/Screen-Shot-2014-09-18-at-7.58.40-PM.png Topic of the poster: ‘Coffee’. This poster was presented at a conference for doctoral students in 2005. Its purpose was to summarise (on A3) your unit co- ordinator's proposed doctoral research. This is a template for a research poster, which is meant to detail completed research projects. http://sites.ieee.org/pcs/files/2014/09/Screen-Shot-2014-09-18-at-7.58.40-PM.png http://www.ce.memphis.edu/1112/projects/poster_stuff/posters.htm This is an alternative template for research posters. http://sites.ieee.org/pcs/files/2014/09/Screen-Shot-2014-09-18-at-7.59.08-PM.png A poster detailing a new product idea. You can find more ideas and posters on Google images if looking for ‘Poster Presentation’ – get inspired but remember to follow YOUR MGMT20140 assessment requirements and do NOT copy someone else’s poster! Further Resources A very good website with additional tips of how to create posters: https://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/ A comparison between an effective and a less effective poster: https://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/DefineMessageAlternatives.html This site contains various poster ideas and templates but be aware they are for SCIENTIFIC posters and may not be fully suitable for MGMT20140’s requirements: http://www.ce.memphis.edu/1112/projects/poster_stuff/posters.htm http://www.ce.memphis.edu/1112/projects/poster_stuff/posters.htm http://sites.ieee.org/pcs/files/2014/09/Screen-Shot-2014-09-18-at-7.59.08-PM.png https://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4qUjUeRJy4&feature=share&list=PLQYPRVJgjEZZd9EAqwml53ziYOqIdQpJ3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4qUjUeRJy4&feature=share&list=PLQYPRVJgjEZZd9EAqwml53ziYOqIdQpJ3 https://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/DefineMessageAlternatives.html http://www.ce.memphis.edu/1112/projects/poster_stuff/posters.htm References Berry, J. & Houston, K. (1995) ‘Students Using Posters as a Means of Communication and Assessment’, Educational Studies in Mathematics, 29 (1). Bracher, L., Cantrell, J. & Wilkie, K. (1998) ‘The process of poster presentation: a valuable learning experience’, Medical Teacher, 20 (6), pp. 552-557. Hess, G.R., Tosney, K. & Liegel, L. (2014) ‘Creating Effective Poster Presentations’, available at: http://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters. O’Neill, G. & Jennings, D. (2012) ‘ASSESSMENT. The Use of Posters for Assessment: A Guide for Staff’, available at: http://www.ucd.ie/t4cms/UCDTLA0039.pdf. Summers, K. (2005) ‘Student assessment using poster presentations’, Paediatric Nursing, 17 (8), pp. 24-26. http://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters http://www.ucd.ie/t4cms/UCDTLA0039.pdf