Htqe.2022.07

https://doi.org/10.22364/htqe.2022.07 | 98-107 | PDF

Digital Storytelling as a Resource for Reducing Students’ Emotional Burnout

Dace Medne
Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, Latvia

Abstract. The emotional well-being of students has been identified as an important learning dimension even before the COVID-19 pandemic, as it increases students’ academic and non-academic achievement, as well as promotes the growth of students’ personalities. In higher education, the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of emotional well-being has identified significant risks from two points of view: the first is the abrupt termination of on-the-job training, and the second is the remote learning process. Thus, the COVID-19 pandemic has become an extraordinary and challenging pedagogical situation for both educators and students. This situation is characterized by both isolation and uncertainty in the implementation of the learning process, as well as exponentially increased students’ independent workload and uncertainty in the requirements, which are pretexts for students’ emotional burnout and dysfunctional emotional well-being in digital learning settings. The aim of this study is to identify the benefits of digital storytelling as a method of pedagogical support to reduce students’ emotional burnout and promote emotional well-being. This article presents the results of a case study in one Latvian higher education institution. For four months, each week, 12 participants shared stories on topics relevant to them. Transcripts of each session were encoded and analysed using the high-quality data processing program NVivo 12. Analysing the obtained data, categories were identified that describe the process and benefits of digital storytelling as a method of pedagogical support. It is concluded that digital storytelling promotes the exchange of information, collaborative learning, understanding the meaning of one’s problems, self-efficacy, reflexivity, expands the repertoire of emotional burnout management methods, therefore it is considered a resource in reducing emotional burnout.

Keywords: COVID-19, digital storytelling, emotional burnout, higher education, NVivo, pedagogical support, well-being

In: Human, Technologies and Quality of Education, 2022. Proceedings of Scientific Papers = Cilvēks, tehnoloģijas un izglītības kvalitāte, 2022. Rakstu krājums
Riga, University of Latvia, 2022. 1135 p. Ed. L. Daniela
https://doi.org/10.22364/htqe.2022
ISBN 978-9934-18-911-1