Measuring the Impacts of Developing Strategies for Instruction and Assessment of Infographics for First-Year Technology College Students

摘要

This research presents the teaching of an infographics assignment to first-year technology college students in Purdue University's Polytechnic institute. The goal of this research is to improve the course material for first-year design thinking classes. In reaching for this goal, the researcher has collected and analyzed 43 student-produced infographics as a pilot study and 92 student-produced infographics in the whole study. Each team of student developed these infographics to show their solution in response to a global grand challenge. In the fall 2015 semester, students had access to some web-based infographic templates and 50 minutes of class time that they used to generate their group infographic and submit it as their assignment. In each team was 4-5 student that worked with the guide of class instructor and one undergraduate TA. The researcher, after grading students' infographics from two semesters, recognized that most students relied heavily on the infographic templates on the websites for generating their infographics. The provided rubric was general and did not cover all-important aspects of a good infographic. Then, the researcher recognized the need for improving the teaching and assessment of data visualization. By analyzing four existing infographic rubrics, the researcher developed a new, more detailed rubric to be used in the classroom. This rubric covers six important categories of data visualization, including considerations of audience, structure and size, topic and coherence, storytelling and flow, research credibility, and formatting. This research compares the results of students' infographic assignments from both fall 2015 and fall 2016 and also provides a full version of the rubric, quiz and infographic tips. The goal is to help students improve their infographic skills.