Despite being prevalent for years in the entertainment industry, transmedia storytelling’s application within education has only recently begun to be researched. With increased access to technology, educators now incorporate e-books, interactive websites, online journals, and other digital platforms into their lessons, making it possible for transmedia storytelling to be adapted for education (Lamb & Johnson, 2010). In some ways, teachers have always used transmedia strategies by incorporating a diverse range of resources to engage students with the content. Therefore, transmedia learning can be thought of as an extension of what teachers have done for years and it offers a solution for differentiating instruction to meet each student’s learning needs (Sun, 2014). Franceschin (2016) describes transmedia learning as “a storytelling technique, in which educators and learners can expand a core knowledge or experience across different media platforms.” Transmedia learning not only engages students but provides them with the tools to research topics and subjects on their own across a variety of platforms. It helps students develop the skills to find information and establish self-learning habits which will impact the remainder of their lives (Franceschin, 2016). In transmedia learning projects, students benefit from creative and collaborative work using the technological skills developed in their social activities online and from the opportunity to create products which align with their multiple intelligences or learning preferences (Reid & Gilardi, 2013). Transmedia learning allows students to learn at their own paces, according to their own interests, abilities, and intelligence types.

I assert that using transmedia storytelling as an educational framework for curriculum design will improve student grade performance because students will be more engaged with the material. I plan to test this assertion by creating and implementing a transmedia designed curriculum using a mixed-methods study. Two high school 2D art classes will be used in this study: one will act as a control group and receive traditional instruction; the other will cover the same content using a transmedia structure to guide the instruction. Students will be given a pre-test and post-test in both classes. This quantitative data will be analyzed to determine whether transmedia learning is more effective than traditional methods. Throughout the study, I plan to gather qualitative data through the use of surveys, informal interviews, and observation to determine whether students feel more engaged with the material in a transmedia lesson. My hope is that transmedia learning will result in an increased performance on the post-assessment and the qualitative data will show an increased sense of engagement and provide support for the implementation of transmedia learning in curriculum design.