Student Perceptions of a Poster Project In An Agronomy Course.

A student poster project in an undergraduate agronomy course was investigated to ascertain student perceptions. Twenty four students enrolled in AGR 305 (Crop Growth and Development) at Illinois State University (Spring 2011 semester) were surveyed after the completion of a poster project. An eight-page handout was given to the students at the beginning of the semester detailing the requirements of the project. Each student selected a topic (with approval from the instructor) and developed a poster to share with other students during a laboratory period devoted to the projects. Each student rated the other students posters using a grading rubric sheet provided in the poster project handout. A one-page survey was then administered to students two weeks after the poster presentations. For two-thirds of the surveyed students, this poster assignment was the first graded poster assignment at Illinois State University. The average student spent 8.1 hours on the poster project (range of 2 to 20 hours). A Likert scale (1 to 5, with 1 = strongly agree and 5 = strongly disagree) was used to gauge student feedback to a series of short questions. Students perceived a benefit to learning from completing the poster project (mean = 2.04), and would strongly recommend the instructor continue to use the poster project (mean = 1.75). However, some students felt uncomfortable grading other student posters (mean = 3.46). Overall, the undergraduate poster project had a positive influence on student learning in an upper level undergraduate agronomy course.