Data Storytelling Editor: A Teacher-Centred Tool for Customising Learning Analytics Dashboard Narratives

Abstract

Dashboards are increasingly used in education to provide teachers and students with insights into learning. Yet, existing dashboards are often criticised for their failure to provide the contextual information or explanations necessary to help students interpret these data. Data Storytelling (DS) is emerging as an alternative way to communicate insights providing guidance and context to facilitate students’ interpretations. However, while data stories have proven effective in prompting students’ reflections, to date, it has been necessary for researchers to craft the stories rather than enabling teachers to do this by themselves. This can make this approach more feasible and scalable while also respecting teachers’ agency. Based on the notion of DS, this paper presents a DS editor for teachers. A study was conducted in two universities to examine whether the editor could enable teachers to create stories adapted to their learning designs. Results showed that teachers appreciated how the tool enabled them to contextualise automated feedback to their teaching needs, generating data stories to support student reflection.