Create beautiful infographics for your classroom

Infographics exploded in schools about five years ago, and have become an essential tool for teachers to visually communicatie information and data in an engaging way.

If you need to share a set of complicated data or instructions, you can use an infographic to break it down into an easy to read structure.

Infographics are great to create compelling and informative classroom decoration, such as posters, but you can also use them as effective revision tools.

You only have to look at the popularity of infographics in the media to see how much impact they can have. Who would have though that you could create an entire book just containing infographics?!

Let’s take a look at infographics in more detail:

• What is an infographic?
• Creating infographics with Canva
• How to create an infographic
• Editing your infographic
• Sharing your infographic
• Starting an infographic from scratch

What is an infographic?

An infographic (or information graphic) is “a visual representation of information or data”.

Infographics are a way to visually communicate complicated data or information on a specific topic using images, diagrams, and text in a minumal and easy-to-read format.

Below are two examples. Each uses striking and contrasting text and images to create an engaging way to communicate complicated data clearly.

Infographics can be used to communicate everything from the successes of a school sports team, promote school policies, or share the geographic breakdown of voting communities in the United States.

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You can download these example infographics as a PDF file below:

Creating infographics with Canva

I use Canva to create all of the images and graphics for ClassThink. Even the image at the top of this article was created in Canva.

Canva is a really easy way to quickly create professional-looking graphics for posters, websites, PowerPoint presentations, postcards, social media graphics, brochures, flyers, posters, calendars, videos, logos, labels, letterheads, resumes, YouTube thumbnails — in fact anything that you need to add unique images to.

You don’t need to be a Photoshop expert to create high-quality images to add to your school teaching resources and online content.

Canva works with anything with a web browser, including Chromebooks, Windows, and Mac. There are also mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.

How to create an infographic

1. First login to Canva. If you don’t already have an account, you’ll need to sign up for one — don’t worry, it’s free.
2. Type infographic into the search box and click.

3. You’ll be shown a list of beautiful templates that you can choose from to start as the basis for your infographic. You can either choose one or start from blank.

You’ll now see the editing screen. Here you can make changes to your infographic, add content such as text and images, and also download the finished result.

1. Templates – jump through the available templates and try them on for size. If you get half-way through your design and want to change the template, don’t worry, you won’t lose any of your works.
2. Uploads – here you can upload images of your own or add images that you previously uploaded to your infographic.
3. Photos – choose from a huge selection of stock photos and graphics to add to your infographic.
4. Elements – add lines, shapes, icons, and other graphics.
5. Text – the basis of any quality infographic. Add text and edit colours and fonts.
6. Background – add background photos and colours.

Editing your infographic

Once you’ve got a template that you’re happy with, you can edit it by selecting each of the elements and using the toolbar at the top.

Drag and drop text and images with your mouse to move and resize elements.

Sharing your infographic

Creating a beautiful infographic is great but it’s no good if you can’t share it. Canva has a loads of app integrations that allows you to get your creation in front of students both online and offline.

If you’re looking to share your infographic online, Canva lets you download it in multiple formats, including PDF and image files.

To download your finished design, use the download option at the top-right, and choose the File type.

You can download infographics as:

• PNG
• JPG
• PDF
• SVG
• MP4 Video
• GIF

Once you’ve downloaded your file you can share it through your school learning platform or any other online service, including Microsoft Teams, Google G Suite, Firefly, or Zoom. If you can share files in it you can share it.

But if downloading is too old hat, you can also use the integrations feature to. You can even generate a QR code that you can share or post in your classroom for students.

Starting an infographic from scratch

One of the reasons I really like Canva is it’s ease-of-use. If I need to quickly create a new image for a website or presentation, I can just jump in and create something that looks exceptional within a few minutes.

Canva’s interface makes it the perfect tool for teachers not only creating infographics, but also striking images for presentations, video thumbnails, and even thank you postcards in class.

Starting an infographic from a blank page takes a bit more work than using a template, but it’s still really straightforward to produce something that looks great.

Using the built in background images, colours, and fonts you can quickly put together something that looks amazing and will impress your students.

Canva offers a plethora of templates, background, stock photos, and graphics for free, but there is a paid tier if you want to access some of the additional content. This won’t stop you from creating great graphics but is something you will come across when using the service.

Other uses

With your Canva account, you’re not just limited to creating infographics. You can also create, share, and print lesson plans, worksheets, certificates, storyboards, bookmarks, and class schedules and timetables.

Conclusion

Infographics can be used by teachers to create striking and compelling images to visually communicate complicated information and data to students.

For more help getting started on your first infographic, sign up for a free account, and then check out these video guides to getting started with Canva in the classroom.