The Interaction Between Design and Experience in an Online, Interactive Poster Competition

• In Event: Poster Session 16
  In Poster Session: Division C Section 7 Technology Research Poster Session

Abstract

This paper describes an innovative, interactive, virtual poster competition (http://igert.org/posters2011) created for the National Science Foundation’s IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education and Research and Traineeship) Program, and discusses the benefits and drawbacks of having poster competitions online as opposed to face-to-face. It explores the breadth, depth, and nature of participation, participants assessment of the online experience compared to traditional poster sessions, and last the effect of structuring this event as a competition as opposed to a poster session, on presenters who were selected as finalists, as well as on presenters who were not. This study examines the interactions between format (online vs. face-to face), context (competition vs. poster session), and the perceptions of the experience by participants.

Authors

• Joni K. Falk, TERC Technical Education Research Center

• Rena Stroud, TERC

• Kathryn Hobbs, TERC

• Brian E. Drayton, TERC