Interactive Storytelling

Course coordinator: Renske van Enschot, Ph.D., Department of Communication and Cognition (track: New Media Design), Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands 

Course Type: Survey

Keywords: scientific literature, narrativity, interactivity, experience, strategic effects, analysis, design

University Department Level Credits Length Medium
Tilburg University Communication and Cognition Master 6 7 weeks Hybrid

Course Description

In this course, students become acquainted with (interactive) narratives, stories and storytelling and with the experience and effects of (interactive) narratives. They explore interactive storytelling in, for example, journalism, health communication and education and discuss how interactivity can be used in storytelling in a meaningful, responsible way. They do so through exploring scientific literature but also through analyzing a professional interactive narrative (discussed in a working group) and creating and publishing their own interactive narrative. 

Weekly Outline

  1. Defining storytelling and narratives | Introduction assignments
  2. Defining interactive narratives [1] | Tutorial Adobe XD
  3. Defining interactive narratives [2] | Editorial meetings group assignment
  4. Experiencing (interactive) narratives | Working groups analysis IDN artifact
  5. Effects of (interactive) narratives | Guest lecture professional IDN designer
  6. Crossing the line: Misleading narratives | Tutorials group assignment
  7. Week 7. Wrap up | Presentations group assignment

Course Objectives ​

Students:

  • Have gained an understanding of the key features of narratives and storytelling;
  • Have gained an understanding of the interactive possibilities of narratives;
  • Have gained an understanding of the narrative experience (e.g., identification, transportation) and related behavioral effects (e.g., narrative persuasion, learning);
  • Have gained an understanding of how (interactive) narratives can mislead;
  • Are able to analyze and evaluate professional nonfiction interactive narratives based on scientific literature;
  • Are able to design and create a professional online interactive narrative based on scientific literature.

Reading

  • Kinnebrock, S., & Bilandzic, H. (2006). How to make a story work: Introducing the concept of narrativity into narrative persuasion. International Communication Association Conference, Dresden.
  • Murray, J. H. (2017). Harbingers of the holodeck (Chapter 2). In Hamlet on the holodeck: The future of narrative in cyberspace (Updated edition, pp. 35–67). The MIT Press.
  • Roth, C., & Koenitz, H. (2016). Evaluating the user experience of Interactive Digital Narrative. Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Multimedia Alternate Realities, 31–36. https://doi.org/10.1145/2983298.2983302

Viewings

  • [none, except for some trailers of IDN artifacts]

IDE and IDN Authoring Tools

  • Adobe XD

IDN Artifacts

  • Bad News game (website)
  • Experience the Nightwatch
  • I am Mosul (website)
  • Mission Zhobia (website)
  • Outbreak READY! (website)
  • Rebuilding Haiti (website)
  • Refugee Republic (website)
  • Snowfall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek (website)
  • That Dragon Cancer (app)
  • The Ocean Game (website)
  • The Detailed Interview (website)
  • The Industry (website)
  • The Last Hijack (website)
  • Papers, Please (game)

Major Assignments (being assignments whose value is of 25% or more)

  • 10% Quizzes & Responses
  • 15%  Weekly Exercises
  • 15%  Paper #1
  • 20%  Paper #2
  • 20% Final project
  • 15% Final Exam

Paper #1: Close reading of a work of digital literature.

Paper #2 Collaborative reading of a work of digital literature

Group assignment: designing and justifying strategic IDN (40%)

  • Platform: Adobe XD
  • Purpose: Students:
    1. Have gained an understanding of the key features of narratives and storytelling [assessed based on the submitted theoretical justification of the IDN + the application of these features in the IDN itself];
    2. Have gained an understanding of the interactive possibilities of narratives [assessed based on the theoretical justification of the IDN + the application of these features in the IDN itself];
    3. Have gained an understanding of the narrative experience (e.g., identification, transportation) and related behavioral effects (e.g., narrative persuasion, learning) [assessed based on the theoretical justification of the IDN];
    4. Are able to design and create a professional online interactive narrative based on scientific literature [assessed based on the IDN itself].
  • Requirements:
    • Project Length: 
        • IDN: approximately 3,000 to 4,000 words
        • Theoretical justification: max. 1,500 words
    • Project Size: NA
    • Project Aesthetics: some points are given for an aesthetically pleasing design that fits the content. However, the main focus of the IDN is on the narrativity and interactivity of the IDN and the IDN’s potential to yield an effective narrative experience.  
    • Coding Proficiency: no particular coding skills are required. Adobe XD is a user-friendly prototyping tool that doesn’t require coding skills. We teach the students the basics of Adobe XD in a tutorial and we are available for any coding questions during the whole process. 
  • Evaluation: 
    • Interactivity: The IDN is scored on, a.o., whether the interactors are capable of making real-life choices with a meaningful and noticeable outcome, and whether the interface is easy to navigate. On top of this, the IDN is scored on whether the interactivity is beneficial to the experience and intended strategic effects of the interactive narrative. 
    • Story and narrative: The narrative is scored on whether the story structure is engaging (i.e., clear story structure, no distracting sidelines, convincing tellable event, clear take-home message, presence of conflict, multiplicity of possible storylines and lasting consequences), whether the characters are realistic, round and identifiable, and whether the language is concrete and vivid (enabling mental imagery). On top of this, the IDN is scored on whether the narrative elements are beneficial to the experience and intended strategic effects of the interactive narrative, and whether the course material is applied correctly here. 
    • Production values: The production value doesn’t have the main focus in this assignment; the students are developing a prototype, which needs further development. However, the design of the IDN should be aesthetically pleasing, and the aesthetic design choices should fit the content. Typos and grammatical errors are not accepted.  
    • The assignment needs to get a passing grade to pass the course. One retake is offered when the grade for the first take is insufficient.   

Exam (60%)

  • Format: 
    • 1 open-ended question with excerpts and a description of a professional IDN and the assignment to analyze and evaluate this IDN on specific narrativity and interactivity factors
    • 30 mc questions
  • Purpose: Students demonstrate in this exam that they: 
    1. Have gained an understanding of the key features of narratives and storytelling [assessed with the open-ended question and mc questions];
    2. Have gained an understanding of the interactive possibilities of narratives [assessed with the open-ended question and mc questions];
    3. Have gained an understanding of the narrative experience (e.g., identification, transportation) and related behavioral effects (e.g., narrative persuasion, learning) [assessed with mc questions];
    4. Have gained an understanding of how (interactive) narratives can mislead [assessed with mc questions];
    5. Are able to analyze and evaluate professional nonfiction interactive narratives based on scientific literature [assessed with the open-ended question].
  • Evaluation: 
    • Open-ended question: this question gets a subgrade (max. 10) which counts for 25% of the overall grade. 
    • MC questions: A guessing correction is applied to arrive at a subgrade (max. 10). The subgrade for the mc questions counts for 75% of the overall grade. 
    • The overall grade for the exam needs to be sufficient to pass the course. One retake is offered when the overall grade for the first take is insufficient. An insufficient subgrade can be compensated with the other subgrade. 

Course Best Practices

  • The scientific content is presented in video lectures accompanied by weekly live Q&A sessions with practice tests. This format enables students to keep up to speed while being able to rewatch the video lectures in preparing for the exam.
  • The course combines theory and practice. Every first lecture in the week, the students are being provided with a sound theoretical basis (narratology, IDNs, game studies, human-computer interaction, (media/cognitive) psychology, educational sciences, persuasion research, etc.). Every second lecture in the week focuses on practice: on analyzing and designing professional interactive narratives. The group assignment brings theory and practice together by letting the students design their own IDN based on the scientific course literature. 
  • We try to make the course program as coherent as possible. We start with lectures making students acquainted with the literature on narrativity and interactivity in lectures. Then, we let them analyze a professional IDN on its narrativity and interactivity. The next lectures familiarize students with the experience and effects of IDNs linked to the narrativity and interactivity in these IDNs. Then, students design their own IDN while strategically using narrative and interactive elements based on what they have learned so far. The course ends with an exam testing all the theory on narrativity, interactivity, experience and effects, basically repeating what students have applied in their two assignments. 
  • The group assignment starts as soon as possible, to enable the students to deliver a complete and satisfactory IDN within the 7 weeks of the course. 
  • Important requirements for the authoring tool are that 1) it has all the required features for building the desired IDNs, 2) no coding skills are required (given the background of most of the students) and 3) the authoring tool is freely available for all students. Adobe XD hits the brief as it 1) has the required features (using some additional plug-ins like UI faces and Undraw), 2) doesn’t require coding skills and 3) is currently installed on all student workstations on campus. Note that the authoring tool doesn’t need to be IDN-specific. Adobe XD is a general prototyping tool for apps, websites, etc., that also allows to make the IDNs for this course.     
  • A tutorial is offered to make the students acquainted with Adobe XD, and teachers provide technical support for Adobe XD during the process. Students are free to use other authoring tools if they feel more comfortable with those tools. They don’t receive technical support for these tools. 
  • We have a big group of students in this course (up to 160). However, we do make sure to connect with the students as much as possible. We are available for course-related questions around all lectures and in the online learning environment. We have weekly online Q&A sessions with practice tests in which all students can ask their course-related questions and check and discuss their progress. We use Padlet to let them share their favorite IDNs in the field. And we have editorial meetings and tutorials in smaller groups to enable fruitful, more in-depth discussions involving all students and all of their projects.  
  • The students’ end product is a professional IDN aimed at a target group outside academia. This narrative – if of sufficiently high quality – may well be published professionally, for example in a digital newspaper or on a professional blog. In general, interactive narratives like the one that students are creating in this course are narratives abundantly created by professionals in various domains (health communication, journalism, education, marketing, et cetera). Students of this course are well equipped to create and evaluate such narratives as well.

All student IDN’s are published on the course’s blog. Each year, a shortlist of the favorite student IDN’s (selected by both the students and the teachers) is published on the blog of the overarching track New Media Design.