POSTER SESSION: A TOOL FOR EDUCATION, ASSESSMENT, AND RECRUITMENT, THE

Mathematics and Computer Education, Spring 2009 by Wheland, Ethel R, O'Neil, Timothy W, Adler, Jeffrey D, Liszka, Kathy J

ABSTRACT

Various techniques have been employed by instructors to encourage student involvement in their own educational process. Traditional dependence on written exams or term papers does not always thoroughly assess student mastery of concepts. A student poster session is an alternative assessment tool that can complement quizzes and exams. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that a poster session has clear benefits to participants and organizers and to outline the process of organizing such an event.

INTRODUCTION

Research clearly shows that successful students need to be involved in their own education. To this end, techniques such as group learning, collaborative learning and inquiry have been employed by instructors in an attempt to get away from the "chalk-and-talk" lecture style of teaching and appeal to different kinds of learners. Additionally, as others in similar situations have noted [2, 3, 5], the traditional reliance on written exams or term papers does not always thoroughly assess student ability.

At our university, we have found that a student poster session is an alternative assessment tool that allows us to rely less on quizzes, exams, etc. This type of assessment could be used at any level from senior high school through more advanced courses at the university level. A wealth of advice on making effective poster presentations exists, some in the literature, most available on the web. We have conducted such an event several times, improving it each time. The main purpose of this paper is to convince the reader that a poster session is viable and has clear benefits, and to help interested parties to avoid some of our own cycles of trial and error in developing this assessment tool.

GOALS

The Department of Mathematics initiated poster sessions for students with certain definite goals in mind. Computer science faculty saw value in using this format, but had different objectives. In this section, we explain our differing motivations.

Mathematics

In mathematics, mere are some classes, such as linear algebra, that appear to lend themselves to the traditional methods of presentation and assessment, particularly when the course being taught is a prerequisite to higher-level courses and instructors need to cover every topic in the course description. In an attempt to engage students in a different way as they learned linear algebra, they were asked to create posters on topics of interest, with a display of posters taking place in class toward the end of the semester. Refreshments were provided and colleagues were invited to this low-key event to view the exhibits. The quality of mese presentations was higher than expected and student response overwhelmingly positive, with several noting mat they learned a lot by working in depth on one topic.

The following year, a poster session was held for abstract algebra students, with the posters displayed at the student union as part of a campus-wide event. Many were impressed with the "high quality of work".

This ongoing success led to the creation of a department-wide poster session in 2000. The departmental goals were to encourage students at all levels of mathematical maturity to prepare and present posters to their peers and to the campus-wide community at large; to give students the chance to discuss mathematics with scientists other than their professors; to show students the breadth and depth of applications of mathematics; to provide an interesting event to which area high school teachers could bring their most talented students; to show the wider community the excellent work that our students were doing; and to show that mathematics is more than just "chalk-and-talk".

Computer Science

The motivation of the Department of Computer Science is somewhat different. One undergraduate requirement is a senior capstone course, in which students are expected to complete some substantial piece of work. Since 2004, students have been required to complete senior projects, as individuals or in small groups.

With the project requirement in place, the computer science faculty decided upon a poster session as a venue in which to present this work. Students are given a wide range of choices in the format for presenting their capstone project; posters, laptop demonstrations, and robotic exercises. The benefits to the students are clear and welldocumented [1, 6], including the practice of communicating and responding to questions about their accomplishments, as well as listening to feedback. In particular, students share ideas, see the accomplishments of their peers and derive some insight into their own abilities and successes by that comparison. Such a poster session also gives interested parties the opportunity to see what work is underway in the department [8].

Of course, with such an event in place for the students from the capstone course, it made sense to open it up to the program at large. Graduate students are encouraged by their advisors to create a poster illustrating their thesis or project topic. Undergraduate computer science students in the university honors program are invited to present their senior honors projects. Thus was born a major event for our computer science department, with between 40 and 50 students participating in a typical year.