Welcome to the portfolio of Charles Acheson, Ph.d.
Charles Acheson is an teacher and designer who educates through strategic storytelling and multimodal methods.
Charles Acheson is an teacher and designer who educates through strategic storytelling and multimodal methods.
For over a decade, I’ve worked at the crossroads of comics and education, serving as an instructional designer at Vanderbilt University and an instructor at the University of Florida, while researching, publishing, and creating comics covering an array of topics. Through this work, I’ve come to see comics not just as a storytelling medium, but as a powerful blueprint for how people learn best.
Think about the last time you picked up a comic. You likely moved through it with ease, pulled along by the flow of the story. That’s by design. Comics rely on carefully crafted principles like pacing, the interplay of words and images, and active reader engagement to make complex ideas feel intuitive and memorable.
When those same principles are brought into the classroom, learning transforms. Information becomes clearer, more engaging, and easier to retain. Even better, these strategies extend beyond comics, offering flexible ways to reach diverse audiences across different media.
That’s the foundation of my teaching: drawing on my experience with comics to design learning experiences that are not only effective, but memorable—experiences that resonate with learners long after the lesson ends.

Built using Storyline 360, and in conjunction with subject matter expert Matt Knieling, this learning module teaches learners how to create their comic book using simple materials. Employing extensive interactive elements, this module is a personal passion project as a current comics maker, researcher, and former college comics instructor.

Created as a personal learning exercise, this learning module explains how to play Knucklebones, a unique dice game originally from the video game Cult of the Lamb. Designed in Storyline 360, this guide teaches new players how to play the game and what they need to get started through guided instruction, videos, and activities.

Authored in Storyline 360, this is a personal professional development practice module. Using boiling line animation ("squiggle vision"), the learning module explains the odd nature, logic, and implementation of one of baseball/softball's most esoteric rules: the Infield Fly. Click the link below to view it for yourself!

"Neo-Springfield Is About to E*X*P*L*O*D*E" is a comics essay that examines the nuclear histories of The Simpsons and Akira through the lens of Bartkira, a transnational remix comic that mashes together the original texts. Using the comics medium, this essay introduces remix and transnational theories for readers unfamiliar with those theories, as well as the unique Bartkira production.

The "Project Concept Statement" is a learning course that I developed for University of Florida students as they created their critical-making projects to complement their learning in my courses. Authored using Rise 360, this course teaches students the purpose of writing a project concept statement, how to write one, and when to rewrite the document.

"Crafting Your Creator Statement" is a micro-learning opportunity authored in Rise 360 for University of Florida students. Based on the principles of an artist statement, this module encourages students to view themselves as creators and instructs them on how to craft one for personal and professional use.
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.