While many of your students are likely familiar with infographics from campus posters and social media, they may not have had much experience critiquing or authoring them in an academic setting. To create an effective infographic assignment, first consider what you want your students to be able to do with infographics. Do they need to analyze them? Do they need to research their infographic topic, or will you provide the data for them? Perhaps they need to create a specific type of infographic? Is the focus of your class more on the research, on the data visualization, or on the creative graphic element? These decisions will shape how you scaffold the assignment. For creative assignments, especially, consider what level of experience your students have and what type of information they need to convey. That will help narrow down the best tool for them to use.
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Structuring an Infographic Assignment
If students have not analyzed or created compact data graphics before, it’s especially important that the assignment clearly lay out the individual steps involved in designing an infographic. This helps beginners start to frame their analysis of examples, as well as helping instructors pace the project. Students may not initially understand infographics as the end product of a research process, but if their assignment includes a research stage, they soon will! If your students are beginners in this genre, be sure you also make explicit for them what the purpose of this specific infographic is. Should it:
Provide a quick overview of a topic?
Explain a complex process?
Display research findings or survey data?
Summarize a long article or report?
Compare and contrast multiple options?
Raise awareness about an issue or cause?
Each of these will require a different layout and approach. The purpose of the infographic will also shape what tool will be most effective, to create the infographic.
Some useful step to include in most infographic assignments are:
Analysis Stage: Students read and start to critically analyze examples of infographics.
Research Stage: Submission of an annotated bibliography, report, or first draft of infographic content
Drafting Stage: Students receive feedback on a draft of the infographic and/or it’s content from instructors or peers
Designing Stage: Students receive support on designing their infographic, through tutorials, peer support, or design sprints
Peer Review: The chance to receive feedback from peers can be incorporated at the drafting or final stages of the assignment.
To ensure peer review is substantive and directed, you might use a rubric like the one below, which separates out the specific skills students need to demonstrate. Each area can then receive directed and useful feedback.
Grading and Assessment for Infographics |
|
| Content | Accurate and detailed information is provided and supports the thesis/argument/purpose. |
| Focus | All content concisely supports the purpose of the infographic. |
| Organization | Information is systematically organized and supports the reader’s comprehension of the main message. |
Visual Appeal |
Fonts, colors, layouts, and visual elements meaningfully contribute to the Infographics’ overall message. |
| Argument | The Infographic effectively informs and convinces the reader of its intended purpose or thesis. |
Citation |
Full bibliographic citations are included for all sources referenced. |
Potential Tools
There are many tools available at UofM to use for creating infographics. Be sure to select one that matches the assignment’s purpose. If your focus is on showing comparative or quantitative data, it may be best for students to generate data charts from Excel spreadsheets or Google Sheets. If you are focusing on statistics, especially with advanced students, using histograms from R Studio will suit the purpose and also give them additional practice using this industry-standard tool. Beginners, or students who will be focusing on the creative graphic element, may be better served by easy-to-use free software such as Piktochart or Canva, or even using PowerPoint.
If you would like to discuss how an infographic assignment might fit into your class, or what tools might best suit, please feel free to reach out to the LSATSLearningTeachingConsultants@umich.edu or request a consultation here.
