Using poster presentation to assess large classes: a case study of a first-year undergraduate module at a South African university

Abstract

BackgroundThe massification of higher education is often associated with poor student engagement, poor development of their critical thinking, inadequate feedback and poor student throughput. These factors necessitate the need to devise novel, innovative methods to teach, assess and provide feedback to learners to counter the restrictions imposed due to the large class learning environments. This study was conducted to ascertain the perceptions of 1st year medical students and staff at the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine regarding the value of poster presentations as a strategy to enhance learning, assessment and feedback.MethodsThis was an exploratory observational, descriptive cross-sectional, case study. Data was collected through separate student and staff questionnaires that required participant responses on a five-point Likert scale. The data was extracted into Excel spreadsheets for quantitative analysis.ResultsTwo-hundred- and-thirty (92%) student questionnaires were returned (N = 250). Most students indicated that the design and presentation of the poster had helped them to select important material (92%), understand and describe disadvantage (86%) and to make a difference in the community (92%). The students agreed that the poster assessment was an efficient (81%) and fair method (75%) that provided opportunities for meaningful feedback. Ten staff members responded to the questionnaire. Most staff members (90%) indicated that the poster presentation had allowed students to demonstrate their engagement in a meaningful and appropriate way around issues of disadvantage and HIV and agreed that the poster presentations allowed for immediate and effective feedback.ConclusionStudents’ interactions in the tasks promoted active engagement with others and course material; the development of higher order thinking and skills which added to students’ accounts of transformative learning experiences. They could describe and illustrate the difference that they had made in their chosen community. The poster presentations allowed for quick and efficient marking, immediate feedback and an opportunity to validate the students’ participation.Poster presentations offered an innovative way to encourage deep meaningful engagement and learning amongst peers and facilitators. Poster presentations should be more widely considered as an innovative way of encouraging deeper engagement and learning in a large class setting.

Training and assessing undergraduate medical students’ research: Learning, engagement and experiences of students and staff

“…The successful use of posters for assessment has been reported amongst staff and first-year students at NRMSM, and in various undergraduate disciplines at other institutions. 13 , 23 Interestingly, 40% of students indicated a preference for an individual report, which may be because of individual students’ dissatisfaction with the allocation of a group mark. There was, however, a discrepancy in this finding, as only 11% of students responded positively when another item of the same questionnaire prompted whether they would prefer an alternative method to the poster presentation.…”

“…Although the questionnaires were not piloted, similar questionnaires have been used to assess staff and first-year medical students’ perceptions on the use of posters for teaching and assessment and were found to be suitable as data collection instruments. 13 The questionnaires were administered immediately after the students had presented their research posters for assessment, whilst the staff completed their forms at the end of the poster assessment session. Data were collected in September 2018.…”

Integrating Scientific Communication into the Liberal Arts Science Classroom Using Multiple Learning Strategies

“…Being able to communicate results should be the focus because being able to communicate effectively can help students understand how important communication is to the sciences (and to other fields as well) and make students wiser consumers of scientific information. While posters and short summaries are not new in the classroom, − we present three related methods of integrating and assessing written and oral communication of scientific findings or topics into LSC science courses that could be adapted for other levels and subjects.…”

Assessment of Problem-Based Learning (PBL): Poster Presentation as a Tool of Assessment

“…It emphases on fostering abilities such as clinical reasoning, metacognition, self-directed learning and deep learning and enhances generic skills like communication skills, presentation skills, team skills (Vleuten & Schuwirth, 2019). Assessment is considered as the single-most significant determinant of learning which affects students' learning behavior to great extent (Ross et al, 2019). As PBL engages students in different types of learning, so, the assessment of PBL too is varied (Vleuten & Schuwirth, 2019).…”

“…A poster presentation is one of the experiential learning activities. It generates curiosity and inquisitiveness, boosts searching and assimilation of concepts and offers students a novel way of demonstrating their knowledge and skills Poster presentations are thought as an innovative way to encourage deep purposeful engagement of students in learning (Ross et al, 2019). Poster presentation enhances the students' academic speaking performance.…”