Experiencing Audio Recorded Research (EARR): Giving Voice to Qualitative Poster Presentations

Qualitative research emphasizes and honors the words of participants in an effort to generate meaning and knowledge, yet participants’ voices are rarely heard beyond data collection and analysis. We explore the potential to share participants' voices when disseminating research through audio-enhanced poster presentations. Technological advancements in multimedia could revolutionize poster presentations, especially for qualitative research. We describe the history of audio guides and how they can be applied to the dissemination of qualitative research. We also introduce the Experiencing Audio Recorded Research (EARR) Model to facilitate designing a multisensory approach to qualitative data dissemination through integrating audio technology into presentations. Keywords: Qualitative Dissemination, Audio-Enhanced Presentations, Museum Informatics, EARR Model, Contextual Model of Learning Qualitative research is inherently about discovering meaning; researchers employ systematic, rigorous methodologies to deduce cumulative perspectives that people bring to particular topics. Many of the health care issues important to people are typically associated with their experiences, and are ideally suited to qualitative investigation. Participants’ words, transcribed to text, are often the foundation of qualitative data analysis, and are also used in presentation of data. It is common for qualitative research presentations to include written quotes from participants; these direct transcriptions of participants’ words are used to validate the analytic findings and to illustrate the depth of the data. However, participants’ spoken meaning is expressed through elements of speech (e.g., inflection, intonation, pause, tone, speed, pitch) and context, which cannot always be fully conveyed by transcription into written forms of text, and ultimately, the meaning conveyed by the participant matters more than the choice of words (Markle, West, & Rich, 2011). In qualitative research dissemination, the ability of the audience to hear participants’ speak their meaning has great potential for maintaining the integrity of qualitative research and honoring participants’ voices. Dissemination of Qualitative Research through Poster Presentations Poster presentations have become a standard method of delivering research data at scientific conferences. Miller (2007) describes posters as “a hybrid form——more detailed than a speech but less than a paper, more interactive than either.” A greater exchange of information and ideas can occur in a one-hour poster session with 100 posters than in several concurrent oral presentations. Though oral presentations are generally sought after as more prestigious opportunities, poster sessions have several advantages over oral presentations. For example, the poster session can facilitate networking by prompting dialogue between the presenter and individuals who are directly interested in his/her research. Poster evaluation tools like the Research Appraisal Tool (R-PAT-II) developed by Garrison and Bushy (2004) provide a systematic approach to objectively evaluating the quality of poster presentations. Effective posters visually display information in a way that draws in the viewer and facilitates