A Story-Based Curriculum Results in a 39% Improvement in Students' Learning Performance

Novakid, a leading online English as a Second Language (ESL) learning platform, conducted research on its proprietary story-based ESL curriculum - Novakid Magic Academy - to ascertain the impact of a gamified learning environment and storyline on young ESL students' learning outcomes.

To provide young ESL learners with the opportunity to learn a foreign language in a way that leads to efficiency and fluency, Novakid developed the Novakid Magic Academy curriculum, which is based on different storyline features and gamification elements such as animated comic stories, story-linked individual English lessons, mini-games and interactive homework activities.

To evaluate the impact of this story-based ESL curriculum on students' learning outcomes, Novakid conducted research based on the data on the gamification elements' effectiveness, level of students' engagement as well as the learning content performance. The data was collected via progress monitoring of over 1,500 parameters and interactive mechanics implemented in the content of each English lesson. The data-driven approach to the research minimised the teacher's evaluation, thus ensuring the accuracy of the results.

The research was conducted between October 2021 to March 2022. The research sample consisted of 30,390 Novakid students between the ages of 4 and 12 years old, enrolled on the Novakid Magic Academy story-based English course.

The results of the research clearly demonstrate that this curriculum increases the students' performance in the key language competencies: reading, speaking and listening.

Although the students present the most impressive results in the reading comprehension (a 46% higher performance), the speaking performance results are also high: the outcomes are 21% higher in the curriculum based on gamification and storyline. The listening competencies increased by 16%.

The average learning performance rate is 12% higher after a minimum of four months of lessons, resulting in a 39% better learning performance for students enrolled in the Level I Novakid Magic Academy ESL course.

A narrative environment positively affects the students' motivation to complete homework and additional ESL activities: the students enrolled in story-based curriculum tend to spend 24% more time completing their homework tasks and dedicate 20% more time to games than the students who are not. The daily share of students enrolled in Novakid Magic Academy with character purchase is 30% higher than the daily share of those enrolled in Classic curriculum: they tend to spend more time using different gamification features, their learning time increases and in turn, their engagement rate is higher.

Animated comic stories (Novakid Tales) also have a positive impact on the students' learning progress: the students of Novakid Magic Academy watch the comic videos nearly 15% more often than students enrolled on the Classic curriculum. The performance data confirms that the outcomes are better for those students who enrol on the Novakid Magic Academy English course. Moreover, the students who regularly watch comic stories have a 30% higher retention rate.

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About Novakid

Novakid is an online English school for children founded in 2017 in Silicon Valley (USA) by Max Azarov, Dmitry Malin and Amy Krolevetskaya.

Over 2,000 experienced and qualified teachers conduct English lessons for children between the ages of 4 and 12 years old via this interactive online platform. In 2021, over 2.4 million lessons were taught to approximately 75,000 active students. Total customers on the Novakid platform exceed 500,000 users.

Novakid has been recognised by several organizations across the world:

• According to J'son & Partners Consulting (2021), the Novakid ESL platform is the leader in its segment in Europe.
• For the second year in a row, Novakid has been included in the annual GSV EdTech top 150 list of the leading private companies in the digital learning space.
• Novakid is included on the Forbes Top 500 list of America's Best Startup Employers.
• In 2021, Novakid was listed among the Top 50 companies identified as emerging education technology companies by The Org.