Running Head: THE IMPACT OF TRANSMEDIA INSTRUCTION The Impact of Transmedia Instruction on Engagement, Interest, and Academic Achievement of Elementary Students Lisa Falconi Danny Leeming Dominic Maggiolo Scott Skanes University of British ColumbiaTHE IMPACT OF TRANSMEDIA INSTRUCTION 2 Abstract The question of transmedia has been widely debated in the education field, with scholars such as Henry Jenkins arguing that using transmedia within education has “the potential to be a valuable tool for expanded leaming that addresses some of the most pressing challenges facing education , p. 2). Implementing a transmedia storytelling approach today” (Hert-Stephenson, et. al., 201 ‘would require educators to adjust their current pedagogical approach, sometimes quite dramatically, which is a controversial idea, However, the benefit would be a sweeping transformation of the way students are able to lea. This proposal focuses on a plan to introduce a transmedia storytelling method for teaching social studies into three experimental groups, and to compare them against three traditionally-instructed control groups using a pretest-posttest research design. The higher-level thinking skills, as well as engagement and interest levels, of both groups will be tested and/or measured using rubrics or Likert questionnaires where applicable.THE IMPACT OF TRANSMEDIA INSTRUCTION 3 The Impact of Transmedia Instruction on Engagement, Interest, and Academic Achievement of Elementary Students Objective and Purpose of the Study Transmedia, in its simplest form, is the creation of a distinct type of media through the simultaneous use of multiple existing media platforms. Transmedia storytelling makes use of video games, novels, mobile apps, television, and many other media institutions to tell stories. The exciting opportunity here is that not only can transmedia storytelling create narratives that could not exist in one single media form or another, but it can also create them in such a way that the audience can be a literal participant in their unfolding. This participation factor is the key to connecting transmedia storytelling to participatory culture, and the key to integrating transmedia storytelling into classrooms. Transmedia can allow teachers of any subject, across all levels, to change the way they support the learning of their students, One purpose of this study is to focus on this transmedia style of learning and participatory culture in order to show learning in an era of a media convergence; to show that “cross-media/cross-platform/multi-platform narratives are catering to users who are willing to immerse themselves in their favorite entertainment content.” (Fleming, 2013, p. 370). Students are seeking out their own learning more now, in the 21st century, than ever before, and transmedia learning allows a boundless learning process for students. Indeed, in regards to transmedia, “it is the unifying concept of the learning environment that is important since that can become a landscape for learning that has few, if any, boundaries” (Fleming, 2013,