Infographics In An Online Learning Environment

I am not going to lie. This year is challenging.  Teaching face-to-face classes as well as virtual students is a tall order. Trying to keep the learning going in meaningful ways is definitely tops of the priority list. As a matter of fact, I feel like I spend as much time trying to figure out ways to deliver an effective, challenging and engaging education over multiple platforms as I do actually delivering the lessons. Fortunately for my students (and me) I am enrolled in an Education Specialist program at the University of Montevallo. Over the last year and a half, I have learned many creative things that have been used in my classroom. 

The two most recent things that have appeared on my radar have solid uses both inside and outside the classroom. One is an online "filing system" of sorts, called Wakelet. I first learned about this tool in an assignment, and  through that assignment I created an online resources Wakelet for my students. The second new tool that I am learning to create is an infographic. I have been using the web-based program Canva, and find it user friendly and easy to understand. For someone with no experience building an infographic, ease of use is paramount! However, if you need more help working in Canva, there are many online video tutorials that can help! For example: 

When I began this project, I knew that I would be able to find many uses in the traditional classroom setting for an infographic. I have them on my walls now, and refer to them periodically. But they have been hanging on my walls for years, and I had honestly begun to think of them less as teaching tools and more like art. Static images that portray information in a passive way. 

But then as I read chapter four, I was really impressed with the fact that students were creating and using infographics as part of their learning. This was something that I had not really thought of as an option before. As I began to research online for supporting journal articles, I discovered research showing how impactful infographics can be in the virtual classroom. Now I was hooked. But would there be a way to use this tool with my online students? 

According to Turner and Hicks (2017), [B]ecause effective infographics rely on a tightly focused message, they rarely present an alternative perspective, let alone a fully formed counterargument" (p. 65). This one-sidedness could easily translate into a math class, especially in a virtual setting. Infographics could be used in the virtual classroom as a summary tool to help reinforce key concepts from the unit of study, and  there is data to support this claim.  Research by Gallagher, et al. (2017) states,

[L]earners perceived instructor-provided summary infographics as useful for information, comprehending learning materials and appealed to them as a method of visual learning delivery. In addition, results presented how learners were applying the infographics as a means for referencing learning information both in the online and offline space. (p. 141)

This seemed to be an excellent way to have student review the material that had been taught in the lesson. The data that came from this study is presented in the infographic below. 

 

INFOGRAPHICS by Alicia Chatham 

Despite my excitement from the earlier reading, Gallagher et al. (2017) continued, "However, these types of infographics did not elicit greater engagement than non-infographics steps suggesting that in their current form they were understood by learners as summary tools rather than drivers of engagement" (p. 141). So then the question became, "How do I increase engagement using an infographic?" 

This brought me back to the text and to the fact that most of the infographic descriptions in the chapter were created by students, not for students. According to Turner and Hicks (2017), "Because infographics require students to do content-rich research and to take a position on an issue, they are well suited for interdisciplinary inquiry" (p. 80). This meant to me that students would be in a position to research their topic (content) and express their knowledge of that content, displaying it in a clear and easily understandable way. 

I would like to try a possible alternative assessment for my virtual students using infographics. This nine weeks we will have several topics in one of my courses that would lend themselves well to this form of visual storytelling. Updates will follow as events warrant!

Until next time,

Morgan

 

 References

Alternative Assessment. (2020, October 13). In Wikipedia.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_assessment

Education Specialist programs. (2020, October 10). University of Montevallo. https://www.montevallo.edu/academics/colleges/college-of-education/graduate-programs/specialists-programs/   

Gallagher, S.E., O’Dulain, M., O’Mahoney, N., Kehoe, C., McCarthy, F., & Morgan, G. (2017). Instructor-provided summary infographics to support online learning. Educational Media International, Vol. 54(2), 129-142. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523987/.2017.1362795

Home page. (2020, October 10). University of Montevallo. https://www.montevallo.edu   

Infographics. (2020, October 11). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infographic

Irby, L. (2015, January 24). How to create infographics in minutes (Canva) [video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/W1v3ILOnfGs

Mission Statement. (2020, October 10). Mountain Brook High School.  https://www.mtnbrook.k12.al.us/domain/1206

Turner, K. H., & Hicks, T. (2017). Argument in the real world: Teaching adolescents to read and write digital texts. Heinemann.