Implementation of Online Poster Sessions in Online and Face-to-Face Classrooms as a Unique Assessment Tool

Online poster sessions provide the benefits of typical face-to-face poster sessions while eliminating some of the obstacles such a nontraditional assessment presents. It allows students to do in-depth research on a specific topic and then present the material in a more artistic way that could be more appealing to certain students. It also allows an instructor to assess the students' understanding of the topic and their ability to communicate the topic to others, while eliminating the use of multiple class periods for student presentations. The online poster session eliminates the need for a large room and the difficulty of one instructor needing to visit a large number of posters in a short period of time This assessment method can be implemented in any course. The content, as well as the format of the course (face-to-face, large, small, online), help guide how the online poster session is used.