In 2012, when faculty librarians at the University of West Georgia were faced with high withdrawal rates in their online sections, where did they turn? It turns out the answer might be more interesting then you might think.

Looking beyond traditional instructional materials, they decided to invest in a “video game textbook.” The game was designed to show students the whole research process, and in the end “students had an example of what a successful research project might look like and insight into the thought that went into each iterative step.” Faculty librarians were still able to cover such topics as Evaluating Sources and Plagiarism but the presentation to the students was via “a ‘Choose-Your-Own Adventure’-style game…”

Besides some initial technical issues, the new “textbook” seems to have been a success. “In a qualitative survey given to each class at the end of the semester, students almost universally reported that they preferred the video game to a traditional textbook.”