Abstract:

In most of divulgation events for research or innovation (seminars, workshops, conferences, symposiums, etc.) there is a section devoted to posters presentation. Nowadays, the traditional paper poster (i.e., a large-format piece of paper fixed in a wall, cardboard, etc.) is the common format for those poster sessions. Some disadvantages of that conventional format are the cost related to printing, transport of the poster to the event, static presentation not very motivating, only useful during its session, etc. In this work, electronic posters (e-posters) are presented as good alternative to classical paper posters since they can be used as a different way to present the results and they can implement a new philosophy to see posters.

This mentioned new type of e-posters where used for the poster sessions in the recent Teaching Innovation Symposium at the University of Cádiz (July 4-6th 2017). The basic idea is the following:

The organizers of the symposium indicated every author to prepare a file with different slides containing all the information they wanted to present (in any basic software for presentations, as Adobe Acrobat, PowerPoint, etc.). The event organizers used those files to prepare a video with all the comunications corresponding to a single poster session. To ensure that all e-posters had the same duration and content, all files should contain the same number of slides (e.g.: 9 slides) and each slide was presented during a fixed period of time (e.g.: 20 seconds). During the symposium, the slides were projected on two big screens and all the attendants could see the presentations during coffee breaks or at any free time. It was also possible for the audience to have access to the e-posters anytime and anywhere, since the links to the videos were available in the symposium website and also physically at the symposium by means of QR codes. This fact provided many opportunities for authors to display the results and conclusions of their papers and to discuss anytime face to face to individuals and small groups.

In addition, the following instructions were supplied to the audience:
- You can see the e-posters on your mobile by capturing the QR code or through the links on the website of the conference.
- You can download an app to capture QR codes on your phone or tablet if you still do not have it.
- Capture the QR code of the session where the poster you want to see is presented.
- Move freely through the video to visualize the parts you are most interested in. You can see it as many times as you want.
- Watch out! the videos have background music. Turn down the volume if the sound can disturb someone close to you.

A survey was proposed to all attendants after the symposium (more than 380) and the main results are presented in this communication. Although the audience was not familiarized to this kind of posters, a good acceptance of the e-posters was shown, and the poster communications had a big number of visits. In the following link (https://goo.gl/pxT4wJ) it is possible to have a look of one of the e-poster sessions presented at the University of Cádiz.

Keywords:

Electronic posters, virtual presentation, poster sessions, symposium.