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Teacher Thoughts on Infographics As Alternative Assessment: a Post-Secondary Educational Exploration Glen Bruce Gover Eastern Kentucky University

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Teacher Thoughts on Infographics As Alternative Assessment: a Post-Secondary Educational Exploration Glen Bruce Gover Eastern Kentucky University Eastern Kentucky University Encompass Online Theses and Dissertations Student Scholarship January 2017 Teacher Thoughts on Infographics as Alternative Assessment: A Post-Secondary Educational Exploration Glen Bruce Gover Eastern Kentucky University Follow this and additional works at: https://encompass.eku.edu/etd Part of the Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, and the Higher Education Commons Recommended Citation Gover, Glen Bruce, "Teacher Thoughts on Infographics as Alternative Assessment: A Post-Secondary Educational Exploration" (2017). Online Theses and Dissertations. 449. https://encompass.eku.edu/etd/449 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at Encompass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Online Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Encompass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Teacher Thoughts on Infographics as Alternative Assessment: A Post-Secondary Educational Exploration By GLEN BRUCE GOVER Master of Science: Industrial Education Eastern Kentucky University Richmond, Kentucky 2003 Bachelor of Business Administration Eastern Kentucky University Richmond, Kentucky 1992 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Eastern Kentucky University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION May, 2017 Copyright © Glen Bruce Gover, 2017 All rights reserved ii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of my Mother and Grandfather; you inspired me creatively, challenged me intellectually, and supported me completely. This dissertation is also dedicated to my wife, Jennifer for her continuous support and encouragement throughout this journey. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my doctoral chair, Dr. Charles Hausman, for his guidance and assistance. I would also like to thank the other committee members, Dr. Deborah West and Dr. Sherwood Thompson for their advice and support throughout this process. I would like to acknowledge Dr. James Bliss for his initial encouragement and enthusiasm about this topic and for his guidance. I would also like to thank my wife Jennifer for her patience and support. Her encouragement along this journey has made all the difference. I would also like to thank Janis Hatfield for her willingness to discuss various aspects of infographic development with me throughout this process. This research stands on the shoulders of many outstanding contributors to the ever-evolving concept of information visualization and has been significantly influenced by sketchnoting, doodling, graphic facilitation, and visual communication forms by contemporary leaders in the field including Mike Rohde (sketchnotes), Sunni Brown (doodling), Dan Roam (visual communication), David Sibbett (graphic facilitation), and Wendy Pillars (edu-sketching). I would also like to recognize and thank Kathy Schrock for her presentation about infographics that influenced and helped me find my way down this path exploring the educational aspects associated with sketch-based infographics. Each of these field leaders has made a tremendous impact on me and has fueled an already burning desire to help others learn more about the educational aspects of using sketch-based information graphics. It is my hope that this contribution to the field expands on these influences and opens up new instructional horizons for not only post-secondary educators but to educators of all levels and contexts. iv ABSTRACT This qualitative phenomenological case study is designed to investigate the learning outcomes, lived experiences, and perceptions of eight post-secondary teachers participating in a sketch-based infographic development training program. This research is designed to assess the viability of infographics as a learning and assessment strategy, providing insight into the application of infographics to the post-secondary education environment, and informing the development of an instructional and assessment model with prescriptive conditions for usage and training. This research provides much needed empirical support for specific applications of visualization tools in the post-secondary learning environment with a specific focus on teacher perspectives providing additional insight into visual skill development, learning environment considerations, training requirements and support implications associated with infographics. This study revealed five (5) major themes associated with the use of infographics as alternative assessment in post-secondary education. These five interconnected themes include Using Infographics, Teaching Infographics, Developing Infographics, Assessing with Infographics and Infographics and Learning. A prescriptive model and approach for using, teaching, developing, and assessing infographics in post-secondary educational settings is presented. Keywords: alternative assessment, cognitive mapping, creative assessment, drawing, graphic facilitation, graphic organizers, infographics, sketchnotes, visualization, visual learning, visual literacy, visual note taking, visual thinking. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 1 The Post-Secondary Learning Environment .............................................. 1 Information Visualization and Communication......................................... 3 Infographics ............................................................................................... 3 Visual Thinking, Visual Learning, and Visualization ............................... 4 Graphic Organizers .................................................................................... 5 Drawing as a Learning Strategy ................................................................. 6 Convergence of an Alternative Assessment Strategy ................................ 6 Need for Infographics Research ................................................................. 8 Conceptual Framework ............................................................................ 11 Purpose of the Study ................................................................................ 11 Research Questions .................................................................................. 12 Significance of the Study ......................................................................... 12 Definition of Key Terms .......................................................................... 13 II. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ......................................................... 15 Introduction .............................................................................................. 15 Alternative and Creative Assessments ..................................................... 17 Need for Alternative Assessment............................................................. 18 Benefits of Alternative Assessment ......................................................... 21 Challenges Associated with Alternative Assessment .............................. 22 Brief History of Information Visualization.............................................. 25 Infographics Defined ............................................................................... 26 Skills Developed with Infographics ......................................................... 28 Benefits of Infographics ........................................................................... 29 Challenges Associated with Infographics ................................................ 31 Visual Thinking and Visual Learning Strategies ..................................... 32 Visual Literacy Theory ............................................................................ 34 Visual Thinking and Information Visualization ...................................... 36 vi CHAPTER PAGE Visual Thinking Methods ........................................................................ 38 Graphic organizers ....................................................................... 38 Cognitive mapping ....................................................................... 41 Graphic Facilitation ................................................................................. 44 Visual Note Taking .................................................................................. 45 Sketchnotes .................................................................................. 46 InfodoodlesTM ............................................................................... 46 Edu-sketching .............................................................................. 47 Drawing.................................................................................................... 47 Convergence of Influences ...................................................................... 48 Implementing Alternative Assessments ................................................... 49 Designing Alternative Assessments ......................................................... 49 Introducing Alternative Assessments ...................................................... 51 Implementation Considerations ............................................................... 52 Instructor training......................................................................... 52 Review and analyze existing infographics ................................... 53 Initial research and topic development ........................................ 53 Structure, organization, and design
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