Optimizing Story-Based Learning: An Investigation of Student Narrative Profiles

Narrative-centered learning environments offer significant potential for creating effective learning experiences in which students actively participate in engaging story-based problem solving. As the capabilities of narrativecentered learning environments expand, a key challenge is identifying experiential factors that contribute to the most effective story-based learning. To investigate the impact of students’ narrative experiences on learning outcomes, a Wizard-of-Oz (WOZ) study was conducted with middle school students interacting with a narrative-centered learning environment. Students’ experiences were examined using narrative profiles representing their type of story interaction. With narrative planning, tutorial planning, and natural language dialogue functionalities provided by wizards, the WOZ study revealed that in interactive story-based learning supported by beyond-state-of-the-art ITS capabilities, 1) students exhibit a range of learning outcomes, 2) students exhibit a range of narrative profiles, and 3) certain student narrative profiles are strongly associated with desirable learning outcomes. The study suggests design decisions for optimizing story-based learning.