Poster Presentation Guide (.pdf)

Updated 6/19/24

Poster Presentation Guide

General Guidelines for Online and/or In-Person Presentation

• You will be preparing a poster explaining your research. A link to the KU poster templates is here:

https://brand.ku.edu/toolkit/downloads/research-poster-templates.

• PowerPoint is a straightforward way to create your poster. As a student, you have access to this

software for free; if you need help with how to get it, more information can be found here

(https://technology.drupal.ku.edu/office).

 Academic research posters are typically 4’ wide by 3’ tall. Depending on your discipline, you can use

a different size poster as well.

 You can adjust the size of your poster by going to Page Setup>Custom> then enter in the size.

 You want your poster to be big enough to fit your text and graphics and be easily readable online.

• You will also be recording a 2-3 minute long poster talk explaining your poster and your research.

• As you plan your poster, review the rubrics available on our website.

• Download free KU research poster templates here: https://brand.ku.edu/toolkit/downloads/research-

poster-templates

• Watch the “Poster Presentation Basics” video here:

https://ugresearch.ku.edu/student/researchbytes/poster-presentationbasics

• For design ideas & tips, visit this website: https://ugs.utexas.edu/our/poster

Your poster will include the following information:

Information about your project

Keep your message simple and appropriate for a general audience. Make sure that the title of your presentation

is on the poster, as well as your name, your mentor, and your affiliation.

Broad Introduction

This section explains the broader significance and rationale for your project. Think of a good “hook” to get the

reader’s attention. You might address these questions:

• Why did you do this project?

• Describe the big picture—what is the issue, disease, interest, or need for this work?

• Why does this work matter to the field?

Updated 6/19/24

Background & Context

This section should provide the context and niche for your project by synthesizing prior academic work. You

might answer these questions:

• What research has been done related to this topic?

• What prior research or experiments led to this project?

• What makes your project the logical or necessary next step?

Methods or Approach

Here, explain what you did to address the topic, hypothesis, or question you described earlier in the talk. You

can use photographs or figures to illustrate this too. You might answer these questions and use these tips:

• What methods, approach, or theory have you used to learn about this topic?

• Rather than giving the nitty gritty technical details of your method, focus on why this method was

chosen over others and the basics of how it works.

• You might also give an example of the types of results your chosen method yields.

Results & Analysis

Show us the key data from your experiments. Or explain how your theory has given new insights into an idea or

text. Since your space is limited, you do not need to show us every piece of information you collected. Focus on

the key takeaways. This is another place where figures (pictures, tables, graphs, machine output, photographs,

etc.,) should be used.

Conclusions

What broad conclusions can you draw from your work? What are the larger scale implications? What are the

future directions for your work (note: sometimes Future Directions can be its own section on the poster if you

have a lot of thoughts about what comes next).

Acknowledgements

Do not forget to thank the people and organizations that helped make this research possible.

ONLINE PREPARATION (if applicable)

Save Your Poster as a PDF before adding narration.

Once you are satisfied with your final PowerPoint slide presentation, save a copy of it as a PDF before you add

the voiceover/narration. You will need to upload a PDF of your slides in addition to the version you create with

narration that will be uploaded to make a YouTube video.

Naming your files

When you save the PDF of your poster, use this format:

Last name_First name_poster.pdf; for example: Smith_Jane_poster.pdf. If you are presenting as part of a

group, you can just use one person’s name in the filename – preferably the presenter who submitted the

registration for the group.

Updated 6/19/24

You may want to send your poster presentation to a friend to see if they can understand it. Finally, it is

recommended to ask your research mentor or instructor for feedback.

Record the narration of your presentation – YouTube link is required:

You will need to record your presentation narration. You can use the record feature in PowerPoint. Here are

some instructional videos:

Kevin Stratvert, an ex-Microsoft Program Manager has a YouTube channel with a lot of instructional videos:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfJT_eYDTmDE-ovKaxVE1ig/videos).

Here are some samples:

• How to Add Voice Over on PowerPoint Slides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzJ1dZBGpUg

• How to Upload PowerPoint to YouTube | PPT to YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkiifH6gYcY