Exploring a Visual Interactive Strategy for Aesthetics Learning through Visual Essays and Interactive Quizzes

Although visual literacy, multimedia learning, and digital interactivity have received considerable scholarly attention, their integration within university aesthetics education remains underexplored. This study explores a Visual Interactive Strategy that integrates visual essays and interactive visual quizzes into aesthetics learning. An interpretive qualitative approach with a single-case study design was employed in an Aesthetics course involving fourth-semester Visual Arts Education students at Universitas Negeri Makassar. Data were generated from classroom observations, learning documentation, student responses and reflections, interactive visual quiz outputs, and visual essay artefacts, and were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Four themes emerged: visual representations connected abstract aesthetic concepts with students’ concrete experiences; interactive activities repositioned students as active participants in interpretation; visual essays supported a shift from reproducing theoretical knowledge to constructing visual-conceptual arguments; and engagement extended beyond verbal participation to encompass multiple modes of expression. Divergent evidence indicated that some students required scaffolding to progress from description to critical aesthetic interpretation and that the novelty of the digital format could have influenced initial enthusiasm. These findings informed the conceptualisation of the Visual Interactive Strategy as four interrelated processes: Visual Encounter, Conceptual Association, Interactive Response, and Reflective Articulation. The study offers a pedagogical framework for connecting aesthetic theory, visual literacy, interaction, and reflection in visual arts higher education. It also highlights the importance of interpretive scaffolding and the need for longitudinal and comparative research to examine the strategy further.