At this year’s European Conference of Educational Research (ECER 2018) in scenic Bolzano, Italy, we ran two pilot activities around the use of the Learning Toolbox to create and present ePosters. The aim of the two activities was to explore whether and how we could make ePosters work for the ECER conference, in particular given that the event is organised into over thirty research networks.
The first pilot activity was funded by EERA (thank you for your support!) and the VETNET research network in vocational education and training participated with six authors and eight ePosters (see EERA showcase) in an Interactive Poster Session. Authors and the conference organisers very much liked the the way ePosters work and that they are available to everybody after the conference. A more participative format such as barcamps, which we tried successfully in other conferences, would however give authors more time to discuss their work in depth with participants.
The second activity focused on the conceptual and methodological aspects of using ePosters to present research work and was organised as a special EERA session “Using Learning Toolbox for presenting Educational Research”. Pekka Kämäräinen from ITB covered the extensive research done in the Learning Layers project around the use of Learning Toolbox in VET. Gilbert Peffer explained the process of preparing and presenting ePosters, on possible uses of ePosters at conference venues, and on different participation formats that can help increase the discussions and engagement between authors and audience.