Infographics, assessment and digital literacy: Innovating learning and teaching through developing ethically responsible digital competencies in public health

Abstract

Infographics are eye-catching one-page documents that provide a concise overview of a topic through visually representing information or data using graphics, icons and/or images, with minimal words. They are an emerging key form of communication in society, government, research, education and industry, and can be found widely in social media, advertising, teaching, policy documents and scientific journal publications, for example. Due to their user-friendly, quick-read format, infographics are highly influential in shaping the opinions of their audience. An emerging issue with infographics, however, is the capacity to mislead or misrepresent information or data. In the contemporary higher education environment, providing students with digital literacy skills, including the capacity to critically evaluate digital media forms such as infographics, is vital. This paper will provide a review of the use of infographics in learning and teaching in the literature, including as assessment, examining the benefits as well as the potential issues, and how some of these challenges might be met.