Program Planning through a Visual Novel-style Game

Abstract

This paper describes an instructional design project that conducted a usability study to evaluate an online training instruction for program planning through the use of a visual-novel style game. Program planning is described as an effective way to define, outline, and manage an organization’s events and evaluate their outcomes. Within the University of Hawaiʻi - West Oʻahu Student Life Office, many of the student organizations use program planning to promote events and conduct meetings that incorporate the use of resources, activities, outcomes, etc. Consequently, students within these organizations must take a training course before heading an event or developing a program. An online visual novel style game was developed to provide student board members a way to access this training in their own time. A usability test was used to evaluate the online training for navigation, efficiency, and user satisfaction. Data from the usability test supported the potential likelihood that the training would be a great tool in addition to the already face-to-face instruction, but would still need further development prior to being implemented.