The use of posters in the teaching of biological sciences on an undergraduate nursing course

Posters are commonly used at research conferences for communicating information and in education as an alternative way of teaching and assessing students. We report the use of posters as a means of teaching and assessing part of the biological sciences component of an undergraduate nursing course. Tutors felt it was a valuable exercise enabling students to develop a number of skills, alongside the learning and revision of knowledge, including working as a team, condensing information and word and graphic processing. Students evaluated the exercise as being challenging but rewarding and preferred to be assessed by this method than by oral presentations or examinations. Lecturers and guided study/tutorials were preferred to posters as teaching methods.