Isaac Journal Review (1)

A New Approach Toward Digital Storytelling: An Activity Focused on Writing Self-efficacy in a Virtual Learning Environment

Author(s): Yan Xu, Hyungsung Park and Youngkyun Baek

Research aims

To understand how students' active participation in digital storytelling impacts their learning. Comparisons were drawn between students who write digital stories for virtual worlds (such as Second Life) and students who write digital stories using offline tools (such as Windows Movie Maker).

Research methods

Sixty-four undergraduate students taking a "Media Production for Teaching and Learning" class at a South Korean university were put into two groups of thirty-two. One group was selected to perform digital storytelling in Second Life, the other was selected to perform digital storytelling using the video editing software Windows Movie Maker.

The offline group followed digital storytelling guidelines suggested by the University of Houston. The Second Life group took snapshots of their journey through Second Life, then composed a 'walkthrough narrative' by arranging their snapshots into a sequence of panels, contextualizing each panel with a 'main sentence'.

Self efficacy tests and Flow State Scale tests were given to the participants both before and after the study. "Two independent samples t-tests and multivariate analysis were used to compare the changes in writing self-efficacy between the two groups, and also changes in flow score between the two groups."

Results

Writing self-efficacy scores in the Second Life group were significantly higher than those of the offline group. Additionally, the activity of writing in Second Life was effective in enhancing students' flow level. Thus digital storytelling in Second Life is more effective at engaging students than offline digital storytelling.

From a multivariate analysis of the tests, three main factors were to found to have contributed to the increase in writing self-efficacy and flow of Second Life players. They were: challenge-skill balance, unambiguous feedback, and loss of self-consciousness.

-Challenge-skill balance served to motivate players.
-Virtual worlds enabled students to see their stories intuitively, enabling them to find problems and make revisions more easily.
-The use of avatars enabled students to be totally immersed in the world, freeing them from the psychological need to protect their 'real' selves.

Review/Comments

This study opens up the possibility of teaching creative writing through virtual environments. The open-ended, semi-anonymous nature of virtual worlds can foster freedom and creativity by stimulating the imagination (with the use of visual, auditory and interactive dimensions), whilst providing a buffer against threats to face. One of the potential drawbacks of traditional, offline creative writing workshops is the vulnerability attendees might feel when sharing their work with others, particularly when they expect to receive criticism. Such criticism can feel personal, perhaps resulting in a loss of face or feelings of discomfort, thus discouraging them from participating or attending future workshops. Virtual worlds can alleviate this to some extent. Perhaps this is a reason why they have been extensively studied for language learning, where self-consciousness is also detrimental to success.

Xu, Y., Park, H., & Baek, Y. (2011). A New Approach Toward Digital Storytelling: An Activity Focused on Writing Self-efficacy in a Virtual Learning Environment. Educational Technology & Society, 14 (4), 181–191.