This article looks at an experience within the context of distance higher education, which has incorporated the reading of two novelettes (short novels, commonly known as novellas) created on an ad hoc basis for two subjects of a Criminology degree course. The goal of this research is to analyse students' perceptions of their validity as a study material, assessing learning, motivation and design-related aspects, correlating them with the degree of transportation, which is the readers' perception that they are being conveyed from their world of origin into the narrative world. Data gathering was performed by sending 2 questionnaires to 347 students. The results confirm that they perceive them as valid learning material and that they foster interest in the study of the contents, even more than traditional materials. It also has helped them to understand the concepts better, in terms of exemplification and contextualisation. This has been influenced by the potential of the transportation processes. It was also seen that design aspects of the novelettes have helped with the learning process.