How many words is an infographic worth...?

Help students to more easily digest data, understand processes, get an overview of critical issues in multiple perspectives, and more. This week's post is about infographics!

Pretty sure it surprises exactly NONE of you that I am a huge fan of infographics!

Informally, I am a fan because I am fundamentally a visual person - I take notes in multiple colors, I draw to create visual explanations, and as Jen and I have often noted, both of us are likely to spend WAY more time on a single presentation slide (is it visually appealing? does it convey the information? too detailed? not detailed enough?...) than we are on less consequential things, like buying new living room furniture.
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But formally, there is more than enough research out there regarding the Picture Superiority Effect (basically, we retain more information from images than we do from simple text) to convince me that well-crafted visuals enhance student learning.

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As an example, I took the data from the "Faculty Needs" survey that we sent out last Tuesday*:

* There's still time to participate in the survey - responses will be accepted until 5pm today! 

​Now for the test: if you were a student, which version of the survey results would you want to look at?

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Infographics are great for instruction, but they are really great for student assignments and projects, as well!

• Pros/Cons
• Procedural
• Data
• Persuasive
• Marketing
• Share YOUR ideas with us!

If you are interested in trying some simple tools for creating infographics, we have resources for you from our Hybrid Summit workshops:

• "The Pitch" page on the CTLA website contains sample infographics from CGCC faculty. The assignment was to pitch the benefits of taking these instructors' hybrid courses to prospective students.
• The "Simple Infographic Tools" page on the CTLA website contains 3 popular tools for creating infographics, with tutorials and pros/cons for each, as well as a downloadable PDF, "Best Infographic Makers of 2020" (there was a 2021 update, but not much had changed)

As a bonus, I am providing this slightly-less-than-4-minute video, giving you a peek at the process of creating an infographic with Piktochart (I like this tool because you can include actual data for interactive charts).

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​If you are interested, here is the completed version of the infographic itself, or use​ this link to go to Piktochart.

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​DON'T FORGET - if you have other questions about Teaching, Learning, and/or Assessment, contact the CTLA! To submit a request for assistance: https://ctla.cgc.edu/help.html

HAPPY TUESDAY, EVERYONE!
Jen & Mary