The edutainment platform: Interactive storytelling relying on semantic similarity

Abstract

Storytelling has been a part of human interaction since language emerged. It was initially used to convey information, describe events and people, and afterwards evolved into presenting examples of good and bad behaviors. However, stories are not limited to the early stages of child development as they can be used even in university lectures. The game described in this paper brings the power of storytelling in the learning environment, enabling teachers to present lessons as interactive stories. In the context of our serious game, students test their knowledge by answering with free text inputs to the questions presented by the virtual assistant in a challenging and entertaining environment. The prototype version was tested by a group of 26 students who found the game concept very interesting and provided valuable feedback in terms of user experience and functionality.