Constructing narrative visualizations as a means of increasing learner engagement

Increasingly visualization systems are using storytelling to present complex data. However, many approaches neglect enabling users to independently explore details within the story. The research presented in this paper provides an overview of the implementation and discusses the evaluation of a novel framework (VisEN), which aims to allow users to construct narratives containing multiple exploration paths. The narratives are told through dynamically generated visualization techniques, which are personalized for individual end users, and where every visualization technique in the narrative can be further explored. The evaluation described assesses the role personalized visual narratives had in increasing engagement of weaker students with an online database SQL course. It was found that weaker students who regularly interacted with their personalized visual narratives showed an improvement in engagement.