Abstract
Higher education institutions in South Africa are faced with low throughput rates, and the need to enhance students’ interest in their studies is a key objective for higher education institutions. Student engagement is one of the factors shown empirically to enhance student success at higher education institutions. The paper reports on the potential of digital storytelling in enhancing student engagement with their studies, amongst 29 final year pre-service student teachers at a large University of Technology in South Africa, as part of their assessment in their final year professional course. The reason for doing this research was due to the limited adoption of digital storytelling in conventional educational settings globally and the fact that little research has been done internationally and particularly in South Africa, into how digital storytelling can be a vehicle for expanding learning. The study was framed around the engagement construct involving qualitative methods of collecting data. Focus group interviews were conducted with the students and the facilitators of the project to elicit whether the production of digital stories led to student engagement. Focus group interviews were analyzed using inductive strategy. Results showed that the production of digital stories enhanced student engagement with their studies which led to high levels of reflection on the subject matter, which as a result led to a deep understanding of the subject matter. Findings of this study will contribute knowledge in the field which may be valuable in increasing student engagement with their studies.
Highlights
Higher education institutions (HEIs) in South Africa are faced with low throughput rates (Swanepoel et al, 2009; Scott et al, 2007), and the need to enhance students’ engagement in their studies is a key objective
In response to the above challenge, this study investigated the potential of digital storytelling in enhancing student levels of engagement with their studies, amongst 29 final year pre-service student teachers at a large University of Technology in South Africa, as part of their assessment in their final year professional course
Participants indicated that the following factors enhanced their engagement with their studies: extended opportunities for study beyond the classroom time; motivation to interact with the subject content; student control of their own learning; the process of producing digital stories; peer learning and increased student-lecturer interactions and promotion of high levels of reflection
Summary
Higher education institutions (HEIs) in South Africa are faced with low throughput rates (Swanepoel et al, 2009; Scott et al, 2007), and the need to enhance students’ engagement in their studies is a key objective. The course was structured into two block sessions, a face-to-face and teaching practice sessions Students produced their digital stories during the face-to-face sessions whereby they were provided an environment where facilitators actively encouraged them to speak their minds, were interested to hear what the students had to say, responded respectively to students’ ideas and treated them as knowledgeable members of the class. It is in this kind of environment that 60 pre-service student teachers were introduced to the art of digital storytelling. All the 60 students were required to reflecton-action on the seven roles of a teacher
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