Learning Analytics for Assessment and Gamification in Digital Storytelling

Storytelling is a powerful communication and engagement method. Its usage is rooted in ancient practices. The advent of digital technology has made it possible to design interactive digital stories and use them as a mean to deliver the educational content in an engaging and memorable manner. These allow the learners to control the outcome of the story based on their interactions. As a result, the learner receives a personalized experience, and it increases the user’s sense of autonomy. Although the role of storytelling in education has been extensively studied, not so much research has been dedicated to how learning analytics can be used in personalising student experience and facilitating assessment. In this chapter, through a pilot study, we explore whether assessing and providing student feedback about their learning through the story results in improved learning. We have performed an experimental-control study to check whether the changes lead to improved learning outcomes. Control group participants were given interactive digital storytelling as initially designed while the experimental group was exposed to the version with the assessment and feedback embedded. This version uses learning analytics to provide feedback on the understanding of the educational material. All the participants’ knowledge of the learning objectives covered in the storytelling was assessed before and after being exposed to it. The results showed that there was no statistically significant improvement in participants’ knowledge as a result of feedback. Although knowledge improvement has not been statistically significant, participants had an improved experience on the version with feedback integrated.