The rapid integration of Web 2.0 technologies and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is transforming digital content production in e-learning environments, raising new questions about coherence, pedagogical intent, and design accountability. Within this evolving ecosystem, digital storytelling has emerged not merely as an engagement technique, but as a structural design strategy that organizes interaction, progression, and meaning-making across multimodal learning materials. This study adopts a qualitative, design-oriented approach grounded in artefact-based analysis to examine how digital storytelling is operationalized within contemporary content production platforms. Rather than focusing on learner outcomes or user perceptions, the study systematically analyzes publicly accessible Web 2.0, AI-supported, game-based, and immersive digital artefacts to identify recurring narrative design logics and affordances. Drawing on thematic analysis and theoretical synthesis, the study proposes the AI-Supported Digital Storytelling Design Model (AIDSTM), which conceptualizes storytelling across four interrelated dimensions: narrative generation, narrative structuring, narrative enactment, and narrative immersion. The model also introduces an optional governance layer to address provenance, ethical responsibility, and quality assurance in AI-supported content creation. The findings contribute design-oriented knowledge for e-learning by offering an analytical framework that supports intentional storytelling-based design, critical evaluation of digital tools, and informed integration of generative AI into online learning environments.
Serap Uğur (Thu,) studied this question.