IV. Assignment 2: Creating an Infographic
Worth 10% of final grade
Introduction:
As you know, there are many ways to share the knowledge gained from research with audiences within and beyond academia. In this module you will learn more about one of them – Infographics – and then create an infographic of your own. The reason I chose infographics for this module instead of the other forms of knowledge mobilization is because you are already doing a lot of writing for this class and the opportunity to communicate visually for a change could be refreshing (I hope!). On CourseLink I will provide the resources I have collected on effectively designing other forms of knowledge mobilization (op-eds, policy briefs, podcasts) so that you can read them or keep them for your files if they will be relevant to your specific research knowledge mobilization goals.
Note: The readings for this module include infographics and data visualization. It’s important to note that they are not quite the same thing; while infographics are about telling a visual story (which may or may not include data and numbers), data visualization is the process of turning data into visuals. Data visualization can easily become quite a bit more complex, but we have included a few resources anyway since infographics will often include some forms of data visualization (and this may also help you represent data visually in your own work).
Watch/Listen: Check-out the powerpoint lecture (with audio) by our guest speaker explaining the purpose and design goals around infographics.
Read:
- Stones, C., & Gent, M. (2015). The 7 G.R.A.P.H.I.C. principles of public health infographic design. Retrieved from
- Wolf, R. (2014). “Data Visualization: A practical guide to producing effective visualisations for research communication”. RESYST Consortium London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
- WDG Public health documents “Chart Chooser” and “Chart design checklist”
- Document with tips for creating an infographic using powerpoint
- Optional: Check out CourseLink for a list of resources about other forms of knowledge mobilization outputs (including: policy briefs, op-eds and podcasts).
Task: Create an infographic that communicates the findings/argument of one research article.
- Choose one academic research article that you are familiar with and that you would like to work with for this assignment.
SUBMIT THE RESEARCH ARTICLE YOU ARE USING FOR MY REFERENCE.
- Guided by the readings and lecture, create an infographic that communicates the main messages of the research article.
- The research article must be cited somewhere on your infographic but you do not need in-text citations. It will be understood that all of the information on the infographic comes from that one article.
- While you can create an infographic or poster using Excel and PowerPoint, you can also use one of the many online design software options. Most of these also provide tutorials and examples:
- Your infographic will be assessed on:
- How clearly your infographic communicates the main points/findings of the article you selected
- How well your infographic design meets the goals you outline in your descriptive paragraph for this assignment (e.g. main message, point of intervention, desired audience – see #4 below)
- The elements of an effective infographic: message, content, design (from our guest powerpoint lecture) and G.R.A.P.H.I.C from the Stones and Gent (2015) reading – these will be assessed as applicable to your subject/goals.
- SUBMIT YOUR INFOGRAPHIC FOR GRADING
- Write a short descriptive paragraph (less than one page single spaced) that answers these questions:
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- What are your main goals of producing your infographic (what main message are you trying to get across and/or what results do you hope your intervention yields?)
- What audience are you trying to reach?
- What specific design and content decisions did you make to address these goals and audience(s)?
SUBMIT YOUR DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPH FOR MY REFERENCE.