For educational objectives, DST is employed as an embodiment of multimedia production. As a result, it is becoming a part of our lives and is on the verge of becoming a significant aspect of teaching and learning. All of this is made possible by easy access to technology, such as digital cameras and scanners, as well as user-friendly software. For the past few years, many educational institutions have been investigating the use of DST (Robin, 2008).

In the late 1980s, the Center for Digital Storytelling in California developed DST as a tool for community theater workers to record, produce, and distribute stories (Lambert, 2009). According to Normann (2011), digital storytelling is “a short story, about 2–3 min long, in which the storyteller utilizes his voice to tell his own story. The personal element is emphasized, and it can be linked to other people, a place, an interest, or anything else that would add a personal touch to the story” (p. 12). This has evolved in a variety of ways, influenced by developments in personal computing and recording technologies, as well as its application in a variety of academic and non-academic situations (Normann, 2011; Clarke and Adam, 2012).

The student-centered approach to teaching and learning is exemplified by the DST strategy, which prioritizes the role of students over that of teachers. Teachers serve as a guide, facilitator, and monitor during the digital storytelling sessions. Learners can also benefit from the DST technique because they can study at home with these digitalized materials. As a result, due to its democratic potential, DST projects are frequently used in educational settings (Couldry, 2008). Students’ personal information combined with technology can be utilized to tap into students’ interests and abilities (Staley, 2017). Students are allowed to play a vital role in their learning when personal anecdotes are combined with technological advancements.

Besides, DST can help teachers and students use a constructivist strategy for teaching and learning. It allows for the integration of digital material with novel teaching and learning methods. DST fosters additional educational outcomes in conjunction with honing learners’ technology abilities. It helps teachers create constructivist learning environments that stimulate creative problem solving through collaboration and peer-to-peer communication by increasing learners’ motivation. DST can also be utilized to support integrated curriculum development and engage learners in higher-order thinking and deep learning (Dakich, 2008).

Also, DST allows students to engage in active learning processes by building on earlier experiences and assisting them in the formulation of compelling social relationships. According to Prince (2004), the fundamental parts of active learning include student action and participation in the learning process, which cannot occur in a typical classroom where students can only absorb information and knowledge from professors. DST provides an interactive learning strategy that increases student participation, resulting in active learning (van Gils, 2005).

In addition, DST enhances learning engagement, it can help engaging and drive pupils to learn difficult concepts. When combined with improved retention rates and learning efficacy, DST can teach complicated concepts in a more effective and lasting manner (Dupain and Maguire, 2005). It can improve learning strategies such as student engagement, reflection for deep learning, project-based learning system, and technology integration, such as using multimedia technology skills in the classroom; students will be more engaged and enthusiastic in the classroom with DST (Xu et al., 2011). According to Lambert and Hessler (2018), employing various tools to create digital stories using sophisticated technology not only increases student engagement but also helps students acquire technical and communication abilities.

Digital storytelling was also used to help students centralize their learning and explain and position themselves in their lives and education (Clarke and Miles, 2003; Kuh, 2003; Hargreaves, 2005; Robin and Pierson, 2005; Williams et al., 2006; Lee, 2007; Ohler, 2008, 2010; The International Center for Leadership in Education, 2009; Guffey, 2012; Lamb, 2017). According to Nieto (1994), “listening to students’ views about school policies and practices can help change them” (p. 396). Digital storytelling was used to explore adolescent schooling reflections. The stories collected and shared in this article help “know” diverse youth perspectives (Panelli, 2002). Assuming that youth are creators and innovators (Morrell, 2008; Kinloch, 2012), their digital stories and contributions provide valuable insight into contemporary educational issues.

The capacity to make a good argument in both verbal and written situations, according to Lam et al. (2017), is essential in today’s culture. Argumentation is a cognitive talent that is critical for idea generation, issue resolution, and sound judgment. Despite the critical necessity of argumentative writing skills for language learners, little empirical research has expressly focused on teaching students to create argumentative material (Nussbaum and Schraw, 2007; Lukomskaya, 2015).

There should be two main sides to have good arguments: claims and counterclaims (Nussbaum and Schraw, 2007). Because the writer appears to be more informed and less biased, the integration of claims and counterclaims is clearer and more convincing in written texts than in spoken dialog (O’Keefe, 1999). As a result, writers must express certain statements about a topic, challenge those claims, provide supporting details with reasons, examine the reasons, rebut them, and finally reach a conclusion (Kuhn, 1991). Toulmin et al. (1990) established a well-known model of argumentative writing, which incorporates evidence, claim, warrant, backing, and rebuttal.

Argumentative essay writing needs solid argumentation and reasoning strategies (Wingate, 2012). It is a dynamic literacy practice in which the author establishes a dialogic relationship with an audience to convince, gain adhesion, or persuade them of a point of view (Álvarez, 2001). Argumentative essay writing is regarded as an important educational goal and a popular activity among higher education students (Noroozi et al., 2016; Wu, 2016; Asterhan, 2018), particularly when dealing with complex and contentious issues. Argumentation has always been regarded as an essential component of all essays (Wingate, 2012). Argumentative writing skills necessitate reasoning and higher-order thinking skills like predicting, analyzing, and synthesizing. Such abilities are difficult for any FL student, let alone for writing in one’s first language. Argumentative writing discourse is critical for foreign language students to articulate their ideas in academically appropriate patterns and approaches.

Learners in social constructivist learning paradigms engage in discussions with their peers, argue and negotiate meaning with them to learn about the topic, (co) construct knowledge, and/or solve complex problems (Noroozi et al., 2012). It aids in the acquisition of knowledge, the development of scientific thinking skills, and the improvement of comprehension (Golpour, 2014). Furthermore, argumentative writing can boost intrinsic motivation and improve problem-solving skills in academic settings (De La Paz, 2005; Chinn, 2006; Sampson and Gleim, 2009).

Many learning assignments, from elementary school to university and beyond, require argumentation. Computer-assisted argument scaffolds can help learners in a group engage in argumentative discourse while also engaging in interactive discussions (Noroozi et al., 2018). DST is a dynamic mixture of tales and technology (Rossiter and Garcia, 2010), it is effectively used in writing classes to increase students’ academic performance and writing skills. Researchers have recorded strengthening writing skills through multimedia and modalities (Vasudevan, 2010). Gakhar and Thompson (2007) claimed that DST has significantly increased students’ writing abilities, critical thinking abilities, and media literacy. Dogan and Robin (2008) also showed that students in classrooms where teachers used DST demonstrated technical, presentational, research and organizational, and writing skills. When instructors used DST, struggling writers found themselves straying.

DST strategy with multimedia was beneficial in boosting feature writing especially argumentative writing skills. It was also that DST digital storytelling improves students’ creativity and critical thinking (Tang, 2016). In a comparable context, Sepp and Bandi-Rao (2015) observed that employing DST is beneficial in improving the ESL writing skills of urban community college students. A previous study conducted by the same two researchers, Bandi-Rao and Sepp (2014), found that employing digital narrative assignments for learning basic writing abilities while using the TPCK framework had a good impact.

The definitions of metacognition, self-regulation and self-directed learning are all ambiguous in the literature (Alexander, 2008; Kaplan, 2008; Loyens et al., 2008). There are no clear-cut lines between these three notions; two of them are connected but separate from one another, namely meta-cognition and self-regulated learning; both concepts should be regarded as subtypes of a more general capacity of self-regulated action (Kaplan, 2008). Self-directed learning, on the other hand, is a broader notion that incorporates self-regulated learning in the context of problem-based learning (Loyens et al., 2008).

Self-regulated learners take ownership of their learning needs by accepting or refusing assistance from others, whether teachers or peers, expressing their learning objectives, identifying human and material resources for learning, selecting, and implementing appropriate learning strategies, and taking initiatives to assess learning outcomes. Self-regulated learning is a process that involves both cognitive and behavioral learning; it is a cognitive process that allows learners to view their surroundings and the world through a different lens as they work toward changing their perspectives based on action thinking (Knowles, 1975; Brookfield, 1986).

Students who have self-directed learning skills are conscious of their duties in learning; they operate autonomously without the assistance of others, are curious, eager, and self-confident, successfully arrange their time, and plan to accomplish their tasks (Hall, 2011). In this context, self-directed learning is synonymous with DST because it includes setting learning objectives for creating and implementing DST. Students take an active role in contributing their own opinions or points of view, picking the best background music, and adding their unique touch by recording their voices. Self-directed learning strategies, like DST, involves changing the roles of both teachers and learners. In self-directed learning, students must acquire knowledge and skills to identify learning needs, evaluate these needs, reflect on their learning experiences, and manage information accurately and critically (Patterson et al., 2002; Acar et al., 2015).

In recent years, there has been a larger emphasis on learner autonomy. Learner autonomy is an important issue for many philosophers, with connections to humanism, constructivism, and experiential learning. In humanism, learner autonomy refers to the process of placing high respect and value on the learner, viewing learning as a means of self-realization, making learners responsible for their learning, participating in decision-making processes, and teachers serving as facilitators in the learning process. As a result, Wang and Dovidio (2011) contend that constructivist teaching and learning encourage student autonomy. In experiential learning, the student is the cornerstone of the learning evidence; thus, learning occurs as a result of acting roles that learners perform (Orakci and Gelisli, 2017).

According to Ming-Chi and Yueh-Min (2017), learner autonomy requires learners to take more active roles in their learning, to be accountable for accomplishing their goals, and to work constructively and productively with others. Even though they operate in a team or a group, they are still self-directed in their learning. Autonomous learners, according to Dam (1990), are active participants in the social processes of learning and active interpreters of incoming information in terms of what is already and uniquely known. Learner autonomy has long been regarded as one of the ultimate aims of education in general, and language learning (Bajrami, 2015).

Taking all the aforementioned factors into account, this study focuses on the use of digital storytelling as a strategy for improving learners’ argumentative writing skills (Stephens, 2011; Abdel-Hack and Helwa, 2014; Zakaria and Abdul Aziz, 2019) and enhancing students’ self-directed learning skills (Hava, 2019), and learner autonomy (Liu and Huang, 2017). Because of the features mentioned above, Storybird was chosen for the digital storytelling activities. This popular tool for promoting argumentative writing skills and soft skills has several advantages, including a good user experience, adaptability to language level and skills, diversity of content, social interaction, user safety, and data security (Yunus and Wan Ishak, 2018).

Nonetheless, many teachers in our country still do not use or are unaware of the digital storytelling strategy’s use and benefits. As a result, this study contributes to shedding light on the use of digital storytelling through Storybird and the possibilities it provides for teaching and learning argumentative writing skills, self-directed learning skills, and learner autonomy in the Middle East and especially in Egypt. As a result, the following research questions are addressed in this study: What effect does digital storytelling have on improving argumentative writing skills, self-directed learning skills, and learner autonomy of pre-service EFL teachers? What are the pre-service EFL teachers’ thoughts on using digital storytelling to improve these skills?

Three intact classes were employed; two classes were assigned as experimental groups at random, while the third class served as a control group. Group A consists of 21 EAP learners (prospective teachers of English), while group B consists of 25 students aged 18–22 who are enrolled in an academic English course at Hurghada College of Education as one of their credit-hours courses. The control group (C) consists of 20 students of the same age range and attending the same college. The study participants’ language proficiency was assessed using the admission test, which is one of the college entrance requirements, and DIALANG, an online adaptive diagnostic web-based assessment tool. The DIALANG test results, which were presented in levels ranging from B1 to C2, indicated that the participants’ writing skills in both groups were at the B1 level.

To ensure that the results are attributed solely to the effect of the current study’s online and mixed learning methodologies, students in all groups completed DIALANG to assess their basic English language proficiency level. Furthermore, because the two experimental groups, who learned to produce online and offline digital storytelling, have similar digital literacy backgrounds, a digital literacy scale measure was employed to confirm their comparability.

Table 1 presents the results of the one-way ANOVA which examines the impact of implementing online DST, offline storytelling, and traditional storytelling strategy on the post-tests of the participants’ argumentative writing skills after controlling for the pre-tests (i.e., covariates).

Table 2 presents the results of the one-way ANOVA which examines the impact of implementing online DST, offline storytelling, and traditional storytelling strategy on the post-tests of the participants’ self-directed learning skills after controlling for the pre-tests (i.e., covariates). Based on the mean scores of the three groups, online DST designers, offline DST designers, and traditionally taught students achieved the mean scores: M = 20.90, M = 27.04, M = 15.00, respectively.

Table 1 presents the results of the one-way ANOVA which examines the impact of implementing online DST, offline storytelling, and traditional storytelling strategy on the post-tests of the participants’ autonomy levels after controlling for the pre-tests (i.e., covariates). The mean scores of the total scores in the self-directed learning skills of the three groups; online DST designers, offline DST designers, and traditionally taught students, are M = 178.14, M = 230.33, and M = 146.36, respectively.

Table 3 presents the results of the one-way ANOVA which examines the impact of implementing online DST, offline storytelling, and traditional storytelling strategy on the post-tests of the participants’ autonomy levels after controlling for the pre-tests (i.e., covariates). The mean scores of the total scores in the learners’ autonomy of the three groups; online DST designers, offline DST designers, and traditionally taught students, are; M = 41.63, M = 53.85, and M = 36.88, successively respectively.

The results in Tables 1–3 indicate that after controlling for the pre-tests, producing and using digital stories through offline software and applications (blended learning) had a significant and positive impact on the post-tests of the experimental group EAP learners’ argumentative writing skills, self-directed learning skills, and level of autonomy among language learners. Group (B) learning through online websites also achieved a high, it is only a little bit lower than the blended learning experimental group. The least achievement was that of the group (C), which was taught through the traditional storytelling strategy. It could thus be suggested that blended learning serves as an effective tool for students to produce content-based digital stories to enhance digital, literacy, and thinking skills. Online learning also proved to be effective in promoting the target skills but with a certain restraint. Both approaches are shown to be effective in developing EAP learners’ argumentative writing skills, self-directed language learning skills, and increasing learners’ autonomy levels with priority to the blended learning approach. The least to achieve is the control group, which was taught using a traditional storytelling strategy.

The philosophy of qualitative inquiry is important not only from a scholarly standpoint but also as an integral part of the educational profession because it emphasizes the immense and manifold complexity of human experience and the social-cultural environment in which children and educators function (Denzin and Giardina, 2008). Qualitative inquiry deals with the subjective encounter of participants’ and researchers’ various realities. It tries to convey the truth as constructed by the researcher through the participant’s eyes in the event’s natural setting (Kacen and Krumer-Nevo, 2010; Sha’anan, 2015).

To assess students’ perceptions concerning the use of online DST in language learning, especially in developing argumentative writing skills as well as enhancing their ability to participate actively in their learning, transcribed semi-structured interviews were analyzed. Thematic analysis resulted in some themes, which were presented in Table 4.

Findings generally indicated positive perceptions and attitudes of language learners toward producing and implementing online DST in enhancing students’ academic achievement in argumentative writing skills; it also has a positive effect on promoting self-directed learning skills and learners’ autonomy. These findings corroborate the quantitative findings of the testing process’s statistical analysis. As a result, mixed-method analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data obtained from statistical treatment of testing processes, as well as semi-structured interviews with participants following the experimentation, are combined to support the effectiveness of online DST in language learning.

Positive attitudes toward using offline software and applications to create digital stories that promote target skills were expressed in students’ casual responses, for example:

Creating digital stories necessitates not only increased digital literacy but also a highly developed written script. When students create their own digital stories, they can combine their digital and literacy skills. A well-written script of a story based on students’ research typically begins with 500–1,000 words. Following that, students work down to make the story more concise, focusing on precise language for powerful communication. The editing and reduction processes assist them in getting to the heart of the issue they are researching.

Finding revealed that both offline and online digital storytelling applications proved to be effective in developing argumentative writing skills, self-directed learning skills, and learner autonomy. Using digital stories through offline software and applications had a positive impact on the post-tests of the experimental group EAP learners’ argumentative writing skills, self-directed learning skills, and level of autonomy among language learners. It could thus be suggested that blended learning serves as an effective tool for students to produce content-based digital stories to enhance digital, literacy, and thinking skills. Online learning also proved to be effective in promoting the target skills but with a certain restraint. The least to achieve is the control group, which was taught using a traditional storytelling strategy.

Digitally designed stories showed to be useful for EFL pre-service teachers and in-service teachers. Teachers are therefore encouraged to use digital storytelling strategy—whether offline or online—in developing different writing genres. DST should also be implemented as an online learning strategy to enhance the four basic language skills: writing, reading, speaking and listening. DST represents one of the most promising educational strategies for improving students’ argumentative essay writing and learning is online peer feedback. Peer feedback, for example, has been shown to improve students’ writing quality (Noroozi et al., 2016; Huisman et al., 2018; Noroozi and Hatami, 2019; Valero Haro et al., 2019), as well as students’ feedback quality (Gielen and De Wever, 2015; Noroozi et al., 2016; Huisman et al., 2018).