Conclusion

By now, you should have an appreciation of some of the key things to look out for when evaluating infographics, and will have used your own checklist to critically assess an infographic of your choice for its accuracy and effectiveness. The evaluation skills you’ve developed should help you as a critical researcher to navigate the plethora of infographics claiming to present research findings. They are also good preparation for creating your own infographics.

At the time of writing, free tools for creating infographics included Easel.ly [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] , Google Charts, Infogr.am, Piktochart, Venngage, Visual.ly, and Vizualize.me, among others.

We can’t be certain these tools will still exist by the time you study this course. However, a quick web search for ‘free infographics tools’ will help you to find up-to-date tools that are available.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this short course and soon find an opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills you’ve gained.

This free course is an adapted extract from the Open University course H819 The critical researcher: educational technology in practice.