A (Visual) Novel Route to Learning: A Taxonomy of Teaching Strategies in Visual Novels

Abstract

Interactive narratives are widely used to frame and contextualize education in games. However, the specifics of how their designs aid the learning process and outcomes remains relatively unexplored. To better understand this space, a study was conducted that focused on one sub-genre of interactive narrative, Visual Novels. Specifically, in this paper we conducted a survey of thirty-one existing educational Visual Novels, analyzing design elements that fostered learning and delivered educational content. The resulting taxonomy consists of five key dimensions for educational design and teaching strategies within Visual Novels: 1) Teaching Through Choice, 2) Teaching Through Scripted Sequences, 3) Teaching Through Mini-games, 4) Teaching Through Exploration and 5) Non-interactive Teaching. These dimensions demonstrate that there are a number of design considerations for supporting learning through Visual Novels. This work has implications for designers of educational games by classifying the different designs a Visual Novel can employ to teach-ultimately informing how to better present educational subject matter in interactive narrative games. CCS CONCEPTS • Applied computing → Interactive learning environments; • Human-centered computing → Human computer interaction (HCI); HCI theory, concepts and models.

A “magic world” for children: Design and development of a serious game to improve spatial ability

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History education done different: A collaborative interactive digital storytelling approach for remote learners

“…Thus VNs drawing upon historical topics and those set in contemporary or fantasy settings can create narratives that illustrate specific subjects and make them come to life, or portray current topics promoting discussion and reflection (Øygardslia et al, 2020). There are five key dimensions for educational design and teaching strategies within Visual Novels: 1) Teaching Through Choice, 2) Teaching Through Scripted Sequences, 3) Teaching Through Mini-games, 4) Teaching Through Exploration, and 5) Non-interactive Teaching (Camingue et al, 2020). Although VNs have been used in education, so far there is no application in dialogue-based learning.…”

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