About

In its fifteenth year, the Poster Competition was the perfect opportunity for students to showcase their research and demonstrate the important contribution that all research students made to the research community at the Open University.

Due to the uncertainty created by the continuing spread of coronavirus, the competition took place completely online in 2020. This meant that everyone who wished to participate uploaded their poster or multimedia entries by 12 noon on Friday, 15 May. An online get-together was hosted on 10 June to announce and congratulate the winners, with plans to hold a campus-based celebration later in the year; further details were released nearer the time.

Research students had the opportunity to take part in one or both of the categories below:

• Online research poster competition(Judges’ Choice, Community Choice)
  • Judges Choice: judging took place from 1–5 June. First prize £100 Amazon (or similar equivalent) vouchers, second prize £50 Amazon (or similar equivalent) vouchers.
  • Community Choice Poster – online vote from 12pm, Monday 18 May to 12pm, Tuesday 9 June – Prize £100 Amazon (or similar equivalent) vouchers.
  • Best use of Imagery in a poster: judging took place between 1–5 June. Prize £50 Amazon (or similar equivalent) vouchers.
• Community Choice Multimedia  – online vote from 12pm, Monday 18 May to 12pm, Tuesday 9 June – First prize £50 Amazon vouchers

Note about the Multimedia option: This needed to be uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo. The rules were otherwise very flexible: anything was allowed (as long as it was shareable and legal). To get participants started, they could choose to create a podcast, video, or animation. Entries from 2019 were available for inspiration.

Note about the Best Use of Image in a Poster: This was a new category for 2020. It rewarded the use of original images within poster design that were eye-catching and communicated the essence of the research discussed. Participants were asked to consider copyright when choosing images.

Benefits of Participation

21st-century researchers needed to be able to convey their research ideas to a broad audience. This competition, judged by senior staff representing major activities across the Open University, gave participants the opportunity to practise these skills.

Participants had an opportunity to make useful contacts while raising their profile across the University by displaying their research posters online. They gained useful experience in creating a poster for a non-specialist audience. When the competition ended, the posters could be used at networking events, conferences, and displayed in their department.

The Library team contacted participants after the competition to request permission to include their entry on ORO, the Open University’s research repository. As an Open Access repository, this was a great platform for letting work reach a wider audience. Another benefit of having work in ORO was the receipt of a digital object identifier (DOI), which provided a permanent, citable web link to help gain recognition for their work.

2020 results

Judges Choice Winners

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The following three poster were highly recommended

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Community Choice Winners

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Total votes cast for all entries: 324

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Judges Choice Best Use of Imagery in a Poster

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The following two poster were given a special mention

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Community Choice Multimedia Winners

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Total votes cast for all entries: 128