Teaching through motion design and transmedia storytelling. An integrated approach to a critical evaluation

The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed substantially to defining new teaching methods, to accelerating the learning and development of digital tools, and has intensified the use of videos as dynamic and captivating media closer to the younger students. The transition from direct to indirect learning methods and to deferred experience through the use of recorded video-lectures and tutorials was already tested by telematic universities and online courses and forces students into a passive role, with very little space for interaction, collaboration and relationship (even emotional). How can the pedagogical use of animation and motion design be improved in this context? This paper aims to provide a new method for delivering distance learning through animation and transmedia storytelling, trying to implement interactivity and participation. The margins for improvement are numerous, and we discuss the possibility of producing edutainment artefacts filled with interactive activities that ask young children to solve prestructured tasks and to experience multiple predesigned scenarios. «Choose-your-own-adventure narratives» are gaining ground in recent years and associates a playful component in which the viewer participates in the character's choices. Using transmedia storytelling for developing reflective learning can prove to be an interesting trial as it emphasizes the dynamism of the medium in building new learning experiences without removing the focus from the storytelling. A critical approach to the most effective tools to validate the proposed method, process and product is the evaluation objective of the paper. The integrated use of the developed evaluation tools, ultimately, has to test students' learning status and the communication effectiveness of the used method and products.