Background

Storytelling is an integral part of our lives, not only in entertainment but also as a means to convey information in a comprehensible way. Humans have a predisposition to organize their thoughts and communication processes into stories to better express their views and make sense of the world around them. Building on that, we introduce Comixplain as a novel storytelling-based strategy to engage students in learning complex scientific subjects through comics.

Comics have received significant academic interest since comic artists and theorists Will Eisner and Scott McCloud studied the features of this medium. Many studies show that comics can be used as effective teaching and learning tools for both children and adults. The strength of comics in learning not only stems from their familiarity but also from a unique combination of features: They maintain the flexibility of 2D spatial arrangement found in text, visualizations, and infographics while having an engaging narrative structure typically found in instructional videos. Readers are provided with a linear presentation that allows them to browse through the information at their own pace (which is not possible with a video).

Goals and Methods

The goal of Comixplain is to create innovative didactic media in the format of comics to engage students in learning STEM subjects.

To achieve our main goal, we proceed in the following steps:

• First, we identify the lectures and topics in our undergraduate programs at St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences that could become the focus of our research. This includes lectures in which students struggle with the subject matter or lectures in which abstract concepts would be easier to understand when presented as comics.
• Students and lecturers are invited to participate in co-design sessions, including workshops, interviews, and focus groups. In this step, we develop initial concepts for comics, work out the requirements, and evaluate first drafts.
• Different topics are selected, and comics are scripted, drawn, peer-reviewed, and finalized. Students are involved in the final assessment of the comics. We evaluate how well they understand the information given, their user experience, and their engagement with the subject.
• Guidelines and recommendations for the implementation of scientific comics are finally reported and made available to other lecturers.

Results

Comixplain stories can be found at our repository: https://fhstp.github.io/comixplain/

The stories are mainly based on the following principles:

• Modular solution: Comixplain stories are built in a modular fashion. Panel strips are classified as either descriptive, narrative, or in-depth panels. Narrative panels move the story forward and connect descriptive panels. Descriptive panels offer a basic explanation of the topics covered. In-depth panels are a type of descriptive panel that provides more details about the topic in question. They are an add-on for advanced classes. Without them, the story should still be complete and comprehensive.
• Scalability and Availability: Comixplain stories are made for both lecturers and students. As the stories should be easy to edit, share, and incorporate into other teaching materials, such as slides and e-learning tools, they can be accessed with Microsoft PowerPoint. This platform is familiar to lecturers and offers all the necessary tools to work with the provided material.
• Usage Rights: The comics produced in the context of the Comixplain project are released under a Creative Commons license. They are free to use, share, adapt, and redistribute under the same license.
• Precise language and terminology: The comics are peer-reviewed to ensure that the content is correct. Original sources of the given information are also included in the material. In addition, the portrayed scenarios and exercises contain industry-based metaphors. This helps to recognize how the given information can be applied in a professional environment.
• Balanced character roles: Comixplain stories promote a participatory learning approach. Explanatory scenarios usually include an expert and one or more novices. In contrast, in our stories, explanations are often depicted as an exchange between multiple characters to demonstrate how everyone can contribute to the learning process.