Assessment: Poster Presentations

A poster presentation is a visual communications tool that gets the presenter's main point across to as many people as possible and helps the presenter engage in conversation with colleagues or fellow-students about the work. Although more prevalent in the sciences, poster presentations are increasingly being used in other disciplines to present information to a broad audience. The links below contain guidelines for designing, presenting, and assessing posters. Several of them would be suitable to give to students as a guide to creating poster presentations for courses. The last few sites focus on assessment issues and provide rubrics for assessing posters.

Creating Posters for Humanities and Social Sciences (Eastern Oregon University).
What, why, and how of poster presentations. Includes illustrations, diagrams, and examples.
Link: http://www.eou.edu/crposter/

Designing Effective Posters, Jeff Radel (University of Kansas Medical Center, Department of Occupational Therapy Education).
An on-line tutorial for developing a poster presentation; useful for undergraduates, graduates, and faculty members.
Link: http://www.kumc.edu/SAH/OTEd/jradel/Poster_Presentations/PstrStart.html

Poster Presentations, Gary Ritchison (Eastern Kentucky University, Department of Biological Sciences).
Explicit and well-illustrated poster presentation guidelines for students. The site includes numerous examples of posters in the sciences and several links to sites with information on creating posters using PowerPoint and Framemaker.
Link: http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/posterpres.html

"How to create a poster that graphically communicates your message," Kathryn Tosney (University of Michigan, Department of Biology).
Useful guidelines for students with emphasis on both positive and negatives examples of posters. Contains many illustrations.
Link: http://www.biology.lsa.umich.edu/research/labs/ktosney/file/PostersHome.html

"Creating Effective Poster Presentations," George R. Hess (North Carolina State University) and Leon H. Liegel (Oregon State University).
Comprehensive guidelines for designing and presenting a poster at all undergraduate and graduate levels. Includes assessment materials (under Resources): a 60-Second Evaluation of appearance and organization; Evaluation Criteria focusing on appearance, flow, and content; and a Score Sheet with 131 criteria.
Link: http://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/IndexStart.html

Using PowerPoint to Create Poster Presentations (The Ohio State University, Extension).
Contains links to websites that offer detailed information on using PowerPoint to create posters in all disciplines.
Link: http://limacenter.osu.edu/Poster/Index.html

Successful Poster Sessions: Some Guidelines (International Studies Association)
Concise guidelines for designing a poster presentation.
Link: http://www.isanet.org/portland/posterguide.html

Assessing Poster or Electronic Presentations (Parks, Victoria, Canada) PDF/Adobe Acrobat.
Contains examples of a student instruction sheet and a rubric for assessing student poster presentations.
Link: http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/education/resource_kit/resources/PVERKsection30607.pdf

"Using Posters in Case Studies: The Scientific Poster as a Teaching Tool," Charles R. Fourtner, Mary Bisson, and Christopher A. Loretz (State University of New York at Buffalo, Department of Biological Sciences).
This article explains the use of poster presentations in a General Physiology course for biology majors. Contains a description of the final assessment, which includes peer evaluation, an oral defense of the poster, and faculty evaluation.
Link: http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/cases/posters.html

The three sites below all contain rubrics for evaluating posters:

Link: http://coe.nevada.edu/slefevre/poster.html

Link: http://www.life.uiuc.edu/hughes/prairieflowers/sciencekits/crystalkit/poster%20rubric.pdf
Click on "poster rubric.pdf".

Link: http://research.soe.purdue.edu/ackerman43/webquest1/posterrubric.pdf