For wider dissemination: Making infographics for your research

What do you do to fill the gap, reach beyond the Ivory Tower, or drive your gown into town? As part of my graduate research course this semester, we talked about access to research. If researchers have articles behind a publisher paywall, what can they do to bring the findings to the masses.

Enter the infographic. Students have been tasked with making infographics for a handful of research articles. But before I set them out on this project, I thought I better practice what I am now preaching. It's not perfect, but here's my stab at an infographic for a project Dr. Chris Gearhart and I recently completed.

Here's what I learned:

1. Wow, condensing your research to an inforgraphic forces you to boil it down to its core. I suspect this will be easier when the article is not YOUR baby.

2. Letting go of text is HARD for some of us. I found myself wanted to clutter the *graphic* with words. Use the templates and icons as guides. Tell yourself to think in images. Edit, edit, edit. I could probably still replace some words with graphics.

3. So many good, free resources are out there. I chose to use Visme.co, but there are tons of options. As with any freemium, you have to settle for the basic package if you're on a zero-budget. But, I was able to complete my project and export a jpg.

Let me know what you think. What has worked for you when creating an infographic for your research?

Follow-up: Encouraging Students to Jump In

Great news! Two of our Tarleton graduate students who "jumped in" and submitted papers to the Southwest Education Council for Journalism and Mass Communication were accepted! It's nice to see their hard work acknowledged and the opportunity before them to learn from colleagues at other institutions and network at their first academic conference this November.

Congrats to Devynn Case for her ethics case study titled, "The tribe has spoken OUT: Survivor, transgender issues, and the Ubuntu approach," and to Logan Case for his research project titled, "Ratemyprofessors.com: Gender differences in student descriptions of professors."

Conference season: Encouraging students to jump in

Lately, I've been spending energy encouraging our graduate students to submit their work to academic conferences. Simply saying, "It's good for you and your career" is not a persuasive sell when students have so many other responsibilities vying for their attention and travel can be a financial strain.

Here is a list of reasons attending a conference as a graduate student (or undergraduate!!!) is a good idea. Please feel free to add:

1. Scope - You will see your academic field as a larger entity. We get used to our bubbles on campus. Your department is your world right now, but go to a conference and you will see how small that viewpoint can be.
2. Standings - Many times, I have very humble students who don't think they qualify or can compete on a larger stage. I am always so proud when they try, and realize, yes, I am as good (or better) than that student from a Research I institution. I've had undergraduate students rock presentations where they were the only undergrads at the conference. I've had master's students presenting at conferences surprised to meet doctoral students from top universities who reported being too nervous to attempt a presentation. 
3. Energy and Excitement - You will be surrounded by people passionate about your field. It's hard not to let that enthusiasm motivate you to something bigger. One student was so excited by all of the research he heard, that he exclaimed, "Dr. Maben, research is fun!" I wish he had come to that observation during my class...but it *is* fun to see what others are researching. Sometimes, the reboot is exactly what you needed during the semester.
4. Real People - I laugh when students tell me that Dr. So-in-so is actually a funny person when you go to conferences with her/him. I myself still fan-girl a bit when I see a researcher I have quoted in publications. Researchers and professors are REAL people. You can meet that citation you've been writing over and over, or get to know your own institution's professors better.
5. Extra Mileage  - You've gone to a LOT of work to write that paper or conduct that research. Get the most mileage out of it by presenting at a conference and then use the feedback to fine-tune the project for possible publication. In my master's program, I didn't think my work was good enough to present. Dirty secret: Yes, much of your work is presentable. Work with your professors to take a project from class-ready to conference-ready. This is another great way to get individualized help from your professors. Just think, down the road, you might be conducting research together as peers.
6. Ambassadors - By presenting at conferences, you are showing off your program and school. This is a commodity in the academic world. 

So, now you're interested in going. Let your professors know. They can help identify student-friendly conferences and how to submit a quality product. Your university will likely have money to help send you to conference (see no. 6). I have yet to hear students say that going to a conference was a mistake.

What selling point has worked best in your efforts to encourage (or cajole) students to attend conferences?

Mini-conference: Easy class transformation

Transforming your classroom into a mini-conference takes a bit of planning, but it's well worth the effort. For my graduate ethics course, I have been slowly adding more conference-like attributes each semester. You could do this for almost any level of course, with any student presentations. Students can get an introduction to conferences in a low stakes environment.

Our conference was Ethics beyond Utilitarianism: 2018 Case Study Conference, where panels of four students presented their cases in 5-8 minutes, with about 15 minutes left for Q&A.

Explain conference-style - Students may have no point of reference for "conference-style" so you will need to educate them about expectations for your field. Beforehand, I shared videos (through our learning management system) from our national conference to help set the stage. This is where you can share valuable tips like using your phone's timer to monitor your own time while presenting, checking the room's technology before your session, and having your presentation loaded on the presentation computer before the panel begins.

Room organization - If you're lucky enough to be in a room where furniture moves, organize your tables for a panel presentation in the front with audience-style seating for attendees.

Program - Ask students for the names/topics of their papers or presentations ahead of time. Work those into a program with three or four students on a panel. Print hard copies of the programs to hand out as students enter the conference.

Roles - Seek volunteers for moderators and discussants — or assign these conference duties to students interested in attending other conferences. Add their names/roles to the program. Remember to give students a short primer about these roles and expectations. Explain the role of the audience to ask questions, and when and how to do that.

Publicity -  Advertise your mini-conference to your department head, colleagues and other classes meeting at the same time. Outside attendees can make it feel more like a conference, and students can share their findings with a larger audience.

Debrief - Be sure to explain the conference experience after each panel finishes. You are essentially using your class as a conference simulation. We talked about how to facilitate networking following your presentation, adding your social handles to your presentation or nametag, how to handle wonky questions from the audience, and the awkwardness of being in front of the crowd while the other panelists present.

Individual feedback - After the conference, I emailed individual feedback to each panelist.

In the future, I want to incorporate live video feeds and answering questions from virtual attendees. My hope is that more students will consider submitting their work to a conference because they have had a small taste of the experience.

Proud Moments: Ethics Panel

Tarleton communication graduate students Skyla Claxton, Elizabeth Lempeotis, and Keauno Perez, and Brandon Sermon, Tarleton outreach specialist, presented "Move over Utilitarianism: Incorporating and Valuing Additional Ethical Frameworks for Social Media and Public Relations" at PRSA's Educator Academy Mini-Friday on April 7 at Baylor University.

From left: Skyla Claxton, Keauno Perez, me, Elizabeth Lempeotis, and Brandon Sermon.

Each panelist presented a recent ethical situation and dissected how decision makers could have used other ethical philosophies to better inform their decisions. The peer-reviewed panel was a first for all four panelists and they rocked it! 

I was so excited when they decided to submit a panel for review, and doubly excited when it was accepted. I could not have been prouder of their effort and presentations. It's just icing on the cake that one of them told me, "Wow, this makes research fun!"

The PRSA Educators Academy Mini-Friday is a conference I would highly recommend. It was intimate enough to really connect with researchers, and is grad-student friendly. Now, we're looking ahead to Super Saturday.