Communicating Your Research: Presentation Skills for Academic Posters

Dr KOHNKE Lucas, Acting RPg Programme Leader and EdD Programme Coordinator, delivered an online workshop on Communicating Your Research: Presentation Skills for Academic Posters on 6 February, with 30 postgraduate participants. Dr Kohnke provided guidance for creating effective research posters and shared best practices.

Dr Kohnke noted the necessity of common elements in academic posters, such as the title, author names, introduction, and so on. He highlighted the importance of clear, concise, and visually appealing posters. Dr Kohnke provided guidelines for creating posters, suggesting the inclusion of visual elements such as graphs and charts, using more bullet points rather than groups of paragraphs, and maintaining a balance of 20% text, 40% visuals, and 40% white space. Dr Kohnke also stressed the need to focus on the research question, the method used, findings, and implications, avoiding lengthy introductions or literature reviews.

The workshop also highlighted the importance of knowing the audience and designing the structure to take the viewer through it in a logical way. During the Q & A session, Dr Kohnke demonstrated various AI tools like Canva, Poe and Gamma for designing posters and infographics, and suggested using mind-maps for visually presenting qualitative research themes.