Paper on Designing Narratively Driven Learning Activities for Blended Learning Experiences

In March 2021, I attended the 9th International Conference on Information and Education Technology ICIET 2021 hosted by Okayama University in Okayama, Japan. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference was held in a blended format. I presented a research paper called “Designing Narratively Driven Learning Activities for Blended Learning Experiences” via ZOOM.

Abstract: University of Naples Federico II (Italy) conducts a formative software development training program for the Apple technology ecosystem using the Challenge Based Learning (CBL) methodology. To overcome shortcomings of spiral curriculum principles, the course design adopts a Narrative Experience Design approach to let the learning progression be driven by learners as co-authors and support unscripted, emergent narratives for experiential education to foster learners’ engagement, agency, and creativity. In consideration for synchronous and asynchronous learning modalities, the authors developed a systematic approach for narratively driven learning activity design for application in blended or remote learning scenarios. In this paper, the authors present their activity design process to compose learning activities with narratively sequenced atomic elements to address different learning dimensions. Through a collaboration tool-based Learning Activity Design Canvas for blended or remote learning, the authors further contribute towards a comprehensive framework for designing educational experiences for project-based education.

cite as: Recke, M.P., Perna, S. & Pereira, T.G., 2021. Designing Narratively Driven Learning Activities for Blended Learning Experiences. In Proceedings of 9th International Conference on Information and Education Technology ICIET 2021. Okayama, Japan, pp. 171–177. IEEE. DOI: 10.1109/ICIET51873.2021.9419659

The paper is connected to work done at the University of Naples Federico II’s Apple Developer Academy, where my co-authors Stefano Perna and Tiago Pereiera as well as myself are faculty members. In various other publications we explored concepts of narrative theory in context of learning experience design and how it can be leveraged in active learning environments. This particular paper addresses the design of modular learning activities with a narratively driven approach to sequencing and introduces a Learning Activity Design Canvas as tools for educators to design learning activities.