What’s the Good Wordle? How Visual Literacy Strategies Enhance Undergraduate Research Processes
Type of Presentation
Poster Session (45 minutes)
Target Audience
Higher Education
Location
Lobby
Abstract
Librarians can harness the tenets of visual literacy to engage students, illustrate troublesome concepts, and enhance assessment. In this example, a librarian used a word cloud generator to illustrate the mental process of researching. Incorporating a word cloud generator into an information literacy session also allows the librarian to visualize results from student polls, to capture and illustrate student responses across time, and to make visible to students the research processes of their peers. We'll discuss some of the more useful ways to analyze and present that data -- such as frequency distributions and graphical diagrams -- and explore anecdotal comparisons of their utility in communicating with a college-level audience. Attendees will come away with a deeper knowledge of data acquisition, data analysis, and data communication skills to assist their ongoing academic and research endeavors.
Presentation Description
This poster discusses simple ways to turn raw data into useful information, draw meaningful conclusions from your data, and use your analyses as teaching tools to guide your instruction. We'll discuss some of the more useful ways to analyze and present that data -- such as frequency distributions and graphical diagrams -- and explore anecdotal comparisons of their utility in communicating with a college-level audience. Attendees will come away with a deeper knowledge of data acquisition, data analysis, and data communication skills to assist their ongoing academic and research endeavors.
Keywords
assessment, information literacy
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Recommended Citation
Townes, Jennifer, "What’s the Good Wordle? How Visual Literacy Strategies Enhance Undergraduate Research Processes" (2014). Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy. 40.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gaintlit/2014/2014/40
What’s the Good Wordle? How Visual Literacy Strategies Enhance Undergraduate Research Processes
Lobby
Librarians can harness the tenets of visual literacy to engage students, illustrate troublesome concepts, and enhance assessment. In this example, a librarian used a word cloud generator to illustrate the mental process of researching. Incorporating a word cloud generator into an information literacy session also allows the librarian to visualize results from student polls, to capture and illustrate student responses across time, and to make visible to students the research processes of their peers. We'll discuss some of the more useful ways to analyze and present that data -- such as frequency distributions and graphical diagrams -- and explore anecdotal comparisons of their utility in communicating with a college-level audience. Attendees will come away with a deeper knowledge of data acquisition, data analysis, and data communication skills to assist their ongoing academic and research endeavors.
