Hi everyone! For my A3 assignment, I have decided to research on “Context-ware Choose Your own adventure” . Below is the OER :
What is Choose Your Own Adventure? (CYOA)
Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) began as an interactive storytelling format where readers make choices that shape how the story unfolds (Cook, 2021). In education, CYOA structures allow learners to move through material by making choices rather than following a single fixed sequence. Abbott’s (2024) study found that this format can support personalised learning pathways and was generally well-received by learners. Although story elements can add interest, Abbott (2024) notes that they are most effective when they are purposeful and connected to the learning.
Currently, with limitations of technology, most CYOA adventures adopt rule-based personalized learning with the format IF-THEN rules where depending on how the learners performed on the activity, different learning activity will be shown. (Pelánek et al., 2024). Rule-based personalization typically presents only a limited set of predefined options, which still makes it difficult to address the full diversity of learner needs. Rule-based personalization has limitations in terms of context-awareness, and the learning materials cannot be fully adapted according to learners’ context.
Now, with the advancement of AI technologies (e.g., ChatGPT) and learning analytics, CYOA activities have the potential to become context-aware. In a context-aware CYOA, the narrative and activities could adapt to learners’ characteristics such as their prior knowledge, location, or lived experiences. This adaptive approach may help make learning materials feel more relevant and meaningful to individual learners, rather than generic or disconnected.
In order to better understand the current state of context-aware CYOA tools, I created a prototype of a context-aware CYOA below using CustomGPT:
I have developed a CYOA based on the prompt below in the accordion. To refine the prompt, I used ChatGPT-5 to help generate it.
Prompts I have used to create CustomGPT
You are a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure (CYOA) narrator focused on teaching digital literacy. Begin each interaction by asking 3–5 short questions to understand the user’s background (such as their occupation, location, prior knowledge of digital literacy, or relevant lived experiences). Ask questions one by one. Before asking, clearly explain that these questions are meant only to personalize the story and are not for data collection.
Once the user answers, summarize their context and begin a narrative that reflects their background without stereotyping or making assumptions beyond what is explicitly shared. The story should be short (1–3 paragraphs per segment) and highlight digital literacy topics like privacy, consent, security, misinformation, data ownership, AI literacy, and digital identity.
Each story segment should conclude with 2–4 meaningful choices (A/B/C or similar) that shape what happens next. If the user doesn’t find choices that are not relevant, they will type their own choice. After each user choice, continue the story using their previous context and their new decision to guide the next scene. Maintain a supportive, accessible, and educational tone throughout, and if any context is unclear, ask follow-up questions to clarify before proceeding.
From the above prototype, I observe the following:
- Although it is not 100% accurate, the narration and choices for CMOA adapted to my context (my occupation, work situation and level of expertise towards my subject matter, etc.)
- Instead of constraining choices of A, B,C,D, I can type the choice freely, and the narration will adapt to the response. I feel it is truly “Choose my Own adventure”
However, currently there is limitation on the following:
- I (user) have to manually input the context. They also misread my context, if I do not input the context accurately.
- The prototype CMOA does not have past data to my learning analytics so the narration won’t change based on how I perform similar assignments in the past.
- Some of the output I’m getting is not accurate. For example, in the CMOA, the narration stated that embedding copyrighted videos is not allowed, but that is not always true from a copyright perspective. AI tools currently experience hallucination, where they generate information that is fabricated but appears authentic (“When AI Gets It Wrong,” n.d.). I am also not sure whether this issue will be fully resolved in the future.
- The CMOA lacks multimedia components such as image, video or audio that makes the narration engaging.
From my experience using the prototype, I believe the future of CMOA can include a personalized CMOA that is combined with learning analytics and virtual reality. Pellas et al. (2021) suggest that future VR learning environments may benefit from the use of data analytics to support personalized immersive learning. In the past, VR systems had limitations in making the experience personalized, but with improvements in AI technology, it is becoming possible to imagine a CMOA where the narration adapts to my past learning analytics data and my identity, and where the visuals change in response to the choices I make and the way I move.
Cartoon-style illustration of a person in VR interacting with a CMOA environment.
Image generated by the author using OpenAI’s ChatGPT (OpenAI, 2025).
However, this also made me question something important. Would EdTech companies begin collecting large amounts of student data in order to enhance the learning experience? And if that happens, will students be able to opt out of data collection without losing access to the full learning experience?
I am curious to know what your experience with the prototype has been, and what you would forecast based on that experience.
References
Reference:
Abbott, D. (2024). Choose Your Own Adventure! An empirical study on gamification of postgraduate learning on research project design. The Journal of Play in Adulthood, 6(1), 18–43. https://doi.org/10.5920/jpa.1475
Cook, E. (2021). Rearing Children of the Market in the “You” Decade: Choose Your Own Adventure Books and the Ascent of Free Choice in 1980s America. Journal of American Studies, 55(2), 418–445. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021875819001476
Diano, L. M., & Dalanon, J. (2024). Exploring the use of scenario-based choose-your-own-adventure games for restorative dentistry. Journal of Dental Education, 88 Suppl 3, 1959–1961. https://doi.org/10.1002/jdd.13540
Dincelli, E., & Chengalur-Smith, I. (2020). Choose your own training adventure: Designing a gamified SETA artefact for improving information security and privacy through interactive storytelling. European Journal of Information Systems, 29(6), 669–687. https://doi.org/10.1080/0960085X.2020.1797546
Makransky, G., & Mayer, R. E. (2022). Benefits of Taking a Virtual Field Trip in Immersive Virtual Reality: Evidence for the Immersion Principle in Multimedia Learning. Educational Psychology Review, 34(3), 1771–1798. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-022-09675-4
OpenAI. (2025). Cartoon-style illustration of a person in VR interacting with a CMOA environment [AI-generated image]. ChatGPT. https://chat.openai.com/
Pelánek, R., Effenberger, T., & Jarušek, P. (2024). Personalized recommendations for learning activities in online environments: A modular rule-based approach. User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction, 34(4), 1399–1430. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11257-024-09396-z
Pellas, N., Mystakidis, S., & Kazanidis, I. (2021). Immersive Virtual Reality in K-12 and Higher Education: A systematic review of the last decade scientific literature. Virtual Reality, 25(3), 835–861. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-020-00489-9
Shemshack, A., & Spector, J. M. (2020). A systematic literature review of personalized learning terms. Smart Learning Environments, 7(1), 33. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-020-00140-9
When AI Gets It Wrong: Addressing AI Hallucinations and Bias. (n.d.). MIT Sloan Teaching & Learning Technologies. Retrieved November 13, 2025, from https://mitsloanedtech.mit.edu/ai/basics/addressing-ai-hallucinations-and-bias/
Disclaimer
Although the ideas are my own, I used ChatGPT-5 to improve the grammar and flow of the paragraph. In addition, for the section titled “Prompts I have used to create CustomGPT,” I used ChatGPT-5 to help reformat my prompt so that it would be suitable for creating a CustomGPT.
Hey Rie,
I tried to open up your GPT-5 CMOA prototype but am getting an error message saying I don’t have access to that custom GPT. Not sure what the work around is but figured you’d want to know.
Cheers,
Jake
Hi Jakedepo,
Thank you so much for letting me know about it! I just fixed the link – hope this will work
https://chatgpt.com/g/g-69100aa90b68819185f5c64462cf940a-choose-your-own-adenture-digital-literacy