Using Online Services to Create Comics with Elements of AR in the

Educational Process of Elementary School

Dmytro M. Bodnenko

1 a

, Oleksandra V. Lokaziuk

1 b

, Lesya A. Poryadchenko

1 c

Volodymyr V. Proshkin

1 d

and Svitlana H. Lytvynova

2 e

Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, 18/2 Bulvarno-Kudriavska Str., Kyiv, 04053, Ukraine

Institute for Digitalisation of Education of the NAES of Ukraine, 9 M. Berlynskoho Str., Kyiv, 04060, Ukraine

Keywords:

Cloud Services, Comics with AR Elements, Comic Book Creation Algorithm, Readiness, Educational and

Methodological Materials.

Abstract:

The article presents the actual state and practical ways to solve the problem of students and teachers of elemen-

tary school readiness to use cloud services to create comics with AR elements. The didactic potential of comics

as a means of learning in the educational process has been clariﬁed. A comparison of modern cloud services,

programs, and applications for creating comics is given. Their advantages and disadvantages are highlighted.

The functionality of AR programs for creating content based on comics (Vuforia, EasyAR, Maxst, ARCore,

AR.js, 8th Wall) is analyzed. The results of a survey of teachers on distinguishing the most popular cloud

services are given, among them are Pixton, Marvel HD, Comica. Algorithms of the educational materials’

development in these cloud services for the creation of comics are presented. The levels of readiness for the

use of cloud services for creating comics with AR elements (elementary, basic, creative) have been developed.

The real state of readiness of teachers and students to use cloud services to create comics with AR elements is

presented and characterized. Educational and methodological support has been developed for implementation

in the practice of university education and the teacher development system. The prospects of the study, which

are to further monitor the readiness of students and teachers to use cloud services to create comics with AR

elements after the introduction of the author’s educational and methodological support, are given.

1 INTRODUCTION

Modern teaching methods in elementary school fo-

cus on the use of non-traditional, in particular inter-

active and playful methods of working with children.

The traditional lesson is often not effective, which en-

courages teachers to look for new means and forms

of teaching. The teacher should become an innova-

tor and be able to organize an interesting lesson-play,

lesson-travel, lesson-quest, etc. One of such educa-

tional tools is comics, which allow forgiveness, visu-

alization, and virtualization of complex information.

The visual quality of comics increases the level of

learning. Movies and animation, unlike comics, are

visual, but “time-limited”. Language and actions in

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https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8596-8907

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9785-0612

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5450-6635

cinema and animation are “fast-paced”. Time in the

comic book progresses as fast as the reader moves his

eyes across the page. The speed of information trans-

mission is fully determined by the reader. We agree

with Chykalova (Chykalova, 2020) that comics is one

tool for the development of imagination and fantasy,

skills to clearly and capaciously formulate and ex-

press their opinion, to distinguish the main, key from

the text. Working with comics contributes to the for-

mation of the skills of younger schoolchildren of the

21st century: to emphasize the main thing and be able

to cooperate in a team.

Today, educational technologies for the use of

comics have proven to be quite effective and produc-

tive. As evidenced by the pedagogical experience of

the authors of the study, educational materials con-

taining or based on AR technology are especially pop-

ular. However, the analysis of the real practice of

the educational process in primary school allows us

to state a lack of high readiness of teachers to apply

comics in pedagogical activities in general and with

554

Bodnenko, D., Lokaziuk, O., Poryadchenko, L., Proshkin, V. and Lytvynova, S.

Using Online Services to Create Comics with Elements of AR in the Educational Process of Elementary School.

DOI: 10.5220/0012066000003431

In Proceedings of the 2nd Myroslav I. Zhaldak Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology (AET 2021), pages 554-563

ISBN: 978-989-758-662-0

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

the use of AR in particular. On the one hand, there is

a lack of methodological developments on the use of

comics with AR elements in training. Another signif-

icant problem is the weak capacity of teachers to de-

velop and use comics with AR elements using cloud

services. This outlines another signiﬁcant problem –

the preparation of future primary education teachers

for the use of cloud services for creating comics with

AR elements in professional activities.

2 ANALYSIS OF PREVIOUS

RESULTS

The importance of comics used as a means of learning

is outlined in several studies (Panchenko et al., 2020;

Panchenko, 2021; Kuzminsky and Omelyanenko,

2008; Danylenko, 2010; Olshansky, 2002; Pustin-

nikova, 2013; Danylenko, 2011; Bilousova et al.,

2021). Of particular interest in the context of the

problems of our work are studies on the use of dig-

ital technologies as a means of effective visualiza-

tion in the use and development of comics. The

works (Azman et al., 2016, 2015) analyze the modern

software Bitstrips, Comic Life, Pixton, MakeBeliefs-

Comix, Cartoon Maker, and Graphix Comic Builder,

their functions, characteristics, capabilities, and dis-

advantages. Fragments of the use of the said soft-

ware for implementing the educational process are

presented. Zerkina et al. (Zerkina et al., 2019) ana-

lyzed the possibilities of using Pixton to form the ICT

competence of engineering students using a project

approach. Different didactic possibilities of the spec-

iﬁed cloud service are given in the studies (Meyers,

2014; Cabrera et al., 2018; Hobri et al., 2019). We-

ber (Weber, 2015) considered the use of cloud-based

graphic narrative software in medical ethics teaching.

In addition, the theoretical and practical aspects of

data visualization and the use of digital technologies

for this are presented in the works (Segel and Heer,

2010; Yuksel-Arslan et al., 2016; Sadik, 2017; Bod-

nenko et al., 2014). The subject of research is the

use of augmented reality to work with comic book-

based teaching material (Damopolii et al., 2022; Nid-

hom et al., 2019; Koutromanos and Alivisos, 2018).

3 THE OBJECTIVE OF THE

RESEARCH

The purpose of the article is to reveal the possibil-

ities of using online services to create comics with

AR elements in the educational process of elementary

school.

The purpose of the study is speciﬁed in the follow-

ing tasks: to identify the most popular cloud services

for creating comics among teachers and characterize

them; to reveal the algorithms for developing educa-

tional materials in cloud services for creating comics

with AR elements; to investigate the actual state of

readiness of future teachers and students to use cloud

services for creating comics with AR elements; to de-

velop educational and methodological support for the

use of these cloud services in the educational process.

4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

To implement the study, the following methods were

used: theoretical (analysis and synthesis of psy-

chological, pedagogical and methodological sources,

programs, handbooks, systematization and general-

ization of theoretical material; study of the experience

with the research problems; clariﬁcation of the basic

knowledge of the studied problem), empirical (ped-

agogical observation, interviews with teachers and

questionnaires, writing methodological recommenda-

tions, formulating conclusions and determining the

sequence of research), statistical (Pearson’s criteria

for identifying the real state of readiness of students

and teachers for the use of cloud services).

The study was conducted based on Borys

Grinchenko Kyiv University, 11 schools in Kyiv dur-

ing March – to December 2021. The study was at-

tended by 28 primary school teachers, as well as 84

students of the specialty “Primary Education” of 1–4

years of study.

5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

5.1 Analysis of Cloud Services for

Creating Comics

Comics are a new, effective and democratic tool of

the primary school teacher in the formation and com-

prehensive development of the initiative and creative

personality of the schoolchild. Combining visual and

playful nature, comics can satisfy the interests and

meet the peculiarities of the course of mental pro-

cesses in modern junior schoolchildren, representa-

tives of the generation, to prevent the occurrence of

stress during the study (Chykalova, 2020). There are

plenty of online services and apps to create comics.

However, not all of them are suitable for the teacher

to organize work in class. Most services are paid, too

Using Online Services to Create Comics with Elements of AR in the Educational Process of Elementary School

555

complex, and require special knowledge and skills,

or their content is not created for children’s audience.

Finding the right program, service, or app is difﬁcult

and time-consuming, which teachers usually lack.

Lack of time for training is also a problem because

the service must not only be found but also learn to

work in it and know how and when to use the devel-

oped materials.

In the study, we were interested in functional, free

and, most importantly, simple services that provide

easy access to programs for both teachers and stu-

dents (table 1).

Each of these online services contains a certain

number of templates grouped by types:

• people (children, teens, young men, adults, el-

derly people);

• animals;

• things;

• transport;

• special characters;

• backgrounds (school, forest, city, houses, histori-

cal and mythological views, nature, etc.).

When creating a plot, you can choose the expres-

sion of the face, the position of the body, the mood of

the hero, change his appearance, clothes, etc.

It should be noted that in table 1 you can also get

acquainted in detail with the main characteristics of

modern online services, programs, and applications

for creating educational comics, which can be used

not only for working online but also for working in

the classroom with the ability to print material.

All offered by us online services, programs, and

applications for creating comics can use instant trans-

lation in Ukrainian and maintain it in the services

themselves. Using these services, the teacher can di-

versify the form of educational material presentation,

will be able to convey complex ideas and concepts us-

ing minimal artistic means, and will be able to orga-

nize not only face-to-face but also distance learning

qualitatively and interestingly. It is also possible to

organize work with services not only individually but

also in a group format.

The services are quite simple, so schoolchildren

will be able to work with them. Most of them do not

require users to register, and they can start working

with them right away. Talking about the advantages

of using these services, we can note the following:

• Availability of services in material terms (most are

free or have the possibility of using the trial/free

version);

• Simple interface (intuitive);

• Use of templates (each service has its template

database for use);

• The ability to create a completely new product

(the ability to download own resources is pro-

vided);

• Dissemination of materials (it is possible to dis-

seminate or embed the created materials of the au-

thor);

• Versatility (materials can be used to work in any

lesson for individual or frontal work, both online

and printouts). It is also worth highlighting the

disadvantages:

• Other-language interface (most programs are for-

eign, but there is a possibility of using Google in-

stant translation);

• Preliminary training of teachers and students;

• Conversion (not all ﬁle formats are supported;

their size is limited).

The creation of training materials such as comics

using the speciﬁed software can be supplemented

with AR elements. The experience of implementing

the educational process using AR also allows us to

highlight programs for developing and working with

AR.

• Vuforia can easily create marker-based AR,

markerless-based AR, and cloud-based AR. Pro-

vides sufﬁcient support to create an application

for minor tasks. In particular, it allows you to

recognize 2D and 3D objects, English text (the

vocabulary contains over 100,000 words, or you

can use your dictionary) and allows you to play

videos.

• EasyAR offers its next-generation SDK, which

has some features such as SLAM, 2D–3D screen

tracking and recording, cloud-based object recog-

nition, and unlimited recognition requests. In ad-

dition, the free version can store up to 1000 tags

on the device.

• Maxst offers two types of augmented reality soft-

ware: Maxst AR SDK 2D and Maxst AR SDK

3D. The ﬁrst tool can only recognize 2D images,

and the other is much more powerful and can track

3D objects. The Maxst AR 3D SDK has features

such as SLAM, physical engine effect, and oc-

clusion effect. The Maxst AR SDK 2D features

multiple image recognition (up to 200 images per

channel), video zoom, instant object tracking, im-

age and marker tracking, and a QR/barcode scan-

ner.

• ARCore is not only supported on Android, but

also on iOS devices, allowing you to develop

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556

Table 1: Modern online services, apps and applications for creating comics.

Online services Need to be uploaded

StoryboardThat Price: Free basic version; Comic Life SW: Windows/macOS;

Language: English. Price: Free version – 30 days;

Language: choice.

Pixton Price: Free; Krita SW: Windows;

Language: Italian. Price: Free;

Language: choice.

Make Beliefs Price: Free; MediBang SW: Windows/macOS;

Comix Language: choice. Paint Pro Price: Free;

Language: choice.

Debate365 Price: Free;

Mobile apps

Language: English.

Canva Price: Free; Comica SW: Android/iOS;

Language: Ukrainian. Price: Free;

Language: choice.

Write Comics Price: Free; Comic and SW: Android/iOS;

Language: English. cartoon maker Price: Free;

Language: choice.

Marvel HD Price: Free; MomentCam SW: Android/iOS;

Language: English. Price: Free;

Language: choice.

cross-platform AR applications. Features of the

application include: in addition to identifying

key points, ARCore can detect ﬂat surfaces, and

can also estimate the average illumination around

them; determining the size and location of ver-

tical, horizontal, and inclined surfaces; tracking

movement according to the position of the phone,

accurate placement of virtual objects; assessing

light and understanding depth.

• AR.js is an open-source AR SDK based on

JavaScript. Can create AR scenes based on mark-

ers. The tool comes with an A-Frame and three.js

extension that works with any smartphone, re-

gardless of its OS version, including Android,

iOS, and other. Markers are stable but limited in

shape, color, and size.

• 8th Wall provides support for markers (Image Tar-

get), World Effects, Face Effects, SLAM. Video

recording, light evaluation, and relative zoom

function are available. Can be used in combina-

tion with Unity and Unreal engines.

When choosing modern online services, pro-

grams, and applications for creating comics, as well

as AR, which a teacher can use in his educational ac-

tivities to study in elementary school, we were guided

by three main criteria:

• Service availability;

• Easy to use;

• Functionality.

As a result of a survey of primary education teach-

ers, it was found that all services meet such re-

quirements, but separately, for working with primary

school students, the following services are most often

distinguished: for teachers – Pixton; for schoolchil-

dren’s work – Marvel HD, and the app installed on

the gadget – Comica.

5.2 Algorithms of Development of

Educational Materials in Cloud

Services for the Creation of Comics

Let’s start with Pixton comic book designer that al-

lows you to create your stories almost from scratch.

Allows you to customize models, background images,

people’s postures and emotions, and other image de-

tails, allowing you to create interactive comics. We

start working at Pixton by choosing the type of user

(teacher, pupil, parent, or business). We are interested

in the user-teacher. A sign-up window appears, in-

dicating that you can sign up for free. After regis-

tration, the user is ﬂipped to the conﬁguration panel.

Suggested three steps to set up the service.

Step 1 – Watch an introductory video where pupils

who work with this service share their impressions.

After watching the video, click the “Next Step” but-

ton.

Step 2 – Familiarize yourself with the process of

creating comics in the Pixton service. Press the but-

ton “Create a comic book” and go to the Pixton work

Using Online Services to Create Comics with Elements of AR in the Educational Process of Elementary School

557

ﬁeld. The work ﬁeld contains a page panel, four

comic creation toolbars, a search bar, and a comic dis-

play area. In the ﬁrst toolbar, select the background

of the comics (for example, the pupil’s room) and the

main characters (the girl). Use the search bar to en-

ter the name of the desired background or character

(in English) or use the suggested groups (under the

search bar). You can also upload your own materi-

als – the camera icon under the comic book display

area. Go to the toolbar to focus the image. Select the

desired type of drawing (for example, “to the right”).

Next, go to the text panel and enter the lines of the

characters. This can be direct language (round di-

alog window), thoughts (window-cloud), shout (or-

ange window), and whisper (dotted window). In the

face setting panel, choose the desired emotion, for ex-

ample, a thoughtful look. There is also the option to

choose the character’s look. The last panel is the po-

sition setting of the hero’s body. Here you can choose

the posture, the direction of movement and the possi-

bility of holding objects in the left or right hand. In

the upper-right corner, click the “Finish” button and

go to the third step of the settings.

Step 3 – enter the name of the comic book and

choose a class. Next, the service offers to make

a teacher’s avatar, which is created similarly to the

comic, following the instructions offered by Pixton.

Then the user is moved to the personal account,

where the existing 4 sections (created classes, student

comics, class photos and printed versions of comics)

are also displayed on the right-hand side, where the

“Link for pupils” button is displayed, from which the

teacher can invite students to the virtual classroom. A

fragment of work with the program is shown in ﬁg-

ure 1.

The following program, which was chosen by us,

is excellent for both individual and group work of ju-

nior school students. It is not required to register and

ﬁll out various forms here. There is an opportunity to

create the simplest comic with ready-made templates.

Write Comics – is the easiest service to create

comics and stories. After all, this is just one page

where you can set all the parameters of your plot:

characters, background; text box.

We start by entering the name of the comic. Scroll

the cursor further and select the characters in our

story, dragging them to the desired location in the

comic book image area. Next, we choose the back-

ground, the place where the events of the story take

place and enter the lines of the characters. Press the

“Finish” button, the comic book is ready (see ﬁg-

ure 2).

The next program that can be used to create

comics in primary school is Comica. This is an app

Figure 1: Example of a comic created using the Pixton on-

line service.

that you can use to create a comic from your own pho-

tos. First, you need to download the app and install it

on your gadget. It can be done in any user-friendly

service (for example, in the Play Market).

Open the app and view the menu: Gallery – pro-

cessing of one photo in the comic book editor; Cam-

era – instant photo creation; Multi is the comic book

editor.

Select “Multi”, set the number of episodes in the

picture (for example, 3 pictures), click on the ﬁeld and

select a photo from the gallery. We process the photo

in the photo editor and choose the comic style. We

individually adjust brightness and contrast, if needed.

Next, we select the stickers and the comic book el-

ements that the user needs. We do the same thing

with the other two photos and create an episode of

the comic. Download the comic book or share it (see

ﬁgure 3).

These services are quite convenient and under-

standable. The key value of resources is that

in each program there is an opportunity to use

ready-made templates of drawings, characters, back-

grounds, signs, objects, etc., and to adjust them as

needed. Working with these applications does not re-

quire special knowledge and skills, which is why it is

an immense advantage. After all, even junior school

students will be able to work in the service.

However, a signiﬁcant disadvantage is that the de-

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558

Figure 2: Fragment of work with the Write Comics service.

velopers of these online services and applications do

not provide any instructions on how to work with

them, so users have to deal with the way applications

work by themselves.

5.3 Determination of the Real State of

Readiness of Teachers and Pupils to

Use Cloud Services to Create

Comics with AR Elements

As a result of a survey of teachers, it was found that

many people “do not know where to start” or con-

sider it an impossible mission to create comics on

their own. Many teachers know about cloud services,

where you can ﬁnd ready-made developments, but

can not select the appropriate comic for a particular

learning situation or lesson. Most teachers do not

know how to create comics, including with AR ele-

ments, using cloud services. These and some other

circumstances keep many teachers from introducing

this kind of teaching activity into teaching practice.

The analysis of the student survey also shows that

within the informatics disciplines at the university, the

use of cloud services for creating comics is not given

due attention (table 2).

As a result of the experiment, we found the will-

ingness of teachers and students to use cloud services

Figure 3: Comic Book Editor Comica.

to create and use comics in educational practice. Ap-

propriate criteria and levels of readiness have been

identiﬁed and developed.

• Level 1 – elementary, characterized by superﬁcial

knowledge of working with cloud services to cre-

ate comics with AR elements;

• Level 2 – basic, characterized by a focus on the

use of cloud services at the demonstration level;

• Level 3 – creative, characterized by the active use

of cloud services to create comics with AR ele-

ments.

As a result of the questionnaires developed by us

on the theoretical principles of using cloud services,

tasks on working with cloud services and the results

of self-assessment, the real state of readiness of teach-

ers and students to use cloud services for creating

comics with AR elements was revealed (table 3).

According to the results of the study, students and

teachers showed approximately the same ability to

use cloud services. Most students (63.1% of the total

number of respondents) and teachers (67.9%) have an

elementary level of readiness. Only 10.7% of students

and 8% of teachers reached the creative level.

The results conﬁrmed the problem of the the

preparation of future primary education teachers for

the use of cloud services for creating comics with AR

elements in professional activities.

Using Online Services to Create Comics with Elements of AR in the Educational Process of Elementary School

559

Table 2: Levels of readiness of teachers and students to use cloud services to create comics with AR elements.

Level Characteristics of the level Teacher skill level requirements

Elementary Lower awareness of cloud services use, in partic-

ular AR. The teacher knows fragmentarily about

the peculiarities of working with these cloud

tools, but does not have a goal to learn how to

create comics, cannot relate to the pedagogical

expediency of their use.

Using the pedagogical capabilities of comics at

the starting level, for example, conducting a les-

son with a multimedia presentation or a ready-

made animated resource already developed by a

bulk product with AR elements. Using didactic

materials with the help of cloud services, already

developed and ready for the lesson comics.

Basic Uses cloud services to create comics and AR at

the demonstration level (presentations, pictures,

slides). Formulates the request in relation to the

speciﬁc topic of the upcoming lesson. Can as-

sociate with the pedagogical feasibility of their

use. Can create his own comic book by analogy,

including with AR elements, using step-by-step

instructions.

Designing tasks for pupils using cloud services

that involve the use of comics, including with

AR elements in class and outside classroom

hours, for example, for homework tasks related

to search and selection of information, including

on the Internet.

Creative Actively uses cloud services to create new and

use ready-made comics with AR elements. Dis-

seminates its developments and participates in

network communities.

Integrated use of cloud services and modern edu-

cational technologies: integrated lessons, project

activities of pupils using comics with AR ele-

ments. Advise colleagues on using and work-

ing with resources to create comics with AR el-

ements.

Table 3: The state of teachers and students readiness to use

cloud services to create comics with AR elements.

Level

Students

(84 persons), %

Teachers

(28 persons), %

Elementary 63.1 67.9

Basic 26.2 25.0

Creative 10.7 7.1

Table 4: Critical value of the Pearson criterion χ

(p = 0.05) χ

(p = 0.01)

5.991 9.21

To compare the results obtained, we used the Pear-

son criterion χ

. For this purpose, statistical hypothe-

ses are formulated:

H0 – the level of students’ readiness to use cloud

services does not exceed the level of teachers’ readi-

ness;

H1 – the level of students’ readiness to use cloud

services exceeds the level of teachers’ readiness.

The obtained empirical value of the Pearson’s cri-

terion χ

= 0, 932 we compared with the tabular val-

ues (for the number of degrees of freedom 2 (table 4).

Thus, we accept the hypothesis H0 that the level

of students’ readiness to use cloud services does not

exceed the level of teachers’ readiness.

Note that given the insufﬁciently large sample

size, we certainly do not claim a strong scientiﬁc jus-

tiﬁcation for the state of this readiness in the context

of the activities of all teachers and students of primary

education. The data obtained, rather, indicate an over-

all trend regarding the research problem and require

ﬁnding ways to improve it.

5.4 Educational and Methodological

Support for Teachers

As a result of a survey of teachers, we identiﬁed fun-

damental problems with the use of cloud services.

Among them, we can note the lack of time for self-

education and learning.

Taking into account this problem, Iryna R.

Chopyk have developed a website, where the nec-

essary information was collected and methodologi-

cal recommendations were prepared on the organi-

zation of the teacher’s work using cloud services for

creating comics in classes in primary school (https:

//blogger090.wixsite.com/comics).

This educational website helps elementary school

students and teachers improve their own competen-

cies in using cloud services to create comics.

Thus, the work of the website is aimed at helping

the primary school teacher to create their own devel-

opment of interactive educational content, as well as

using them in lessons in primary school. The website

contains 4 sections:

1. Homepage;

2. “About the project”;

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560

3. “For teacher”;

4. Feedback.

The homepage provides a brief description of

the project, links to articles, and a contact window

where anyone can contact the author of the website if

needed. At the top, the site menu is presented, which

is intuitive and allows the user to go to the following

categories (ﬁgure 4).

Figure 4: The main page of the developed website.

The section “About the project” provides basic in-

formation about the master’s study, the purpose of

creating the site, what its work is aimed at, and short

theses “Here you will learn”:

• What is a tutorial comic?

• How to work with online services to create

comics?

• How to organize work in the classroom using the

comic book technique?

The category “For the teacher” contains three sub-

divisions:

• “Theoretical information”, which provides infor-

mation about what is the process of reading and its

importance in human life, reveals the essence of

basic concepts, describes the reasons for the pop-

ularity of educational comics, and identiﬁes the

strengths of their application in education;

• “Services”, where the user can ﬁnd a list of free

and available online services for creating their ed-

ucational comics. Separately, in the section, there

are links to instructions for the described services.

• “Methodological recommendations”, which pro-

vides practical advice and methodological recom-

mendations for working with the technology of

using comics in primary school. The unit pro-

vides a step-by-step description of the technology

of working with comics, describes the preparatory

work with pupils, deﬁnes the rules for selecting

the subject of comics, provides examples of build-

ing educational tasks for working with comics and

links to online resources for creating educational

comics.

Looking at the “Services” section in more detail,

users can see the rating from the TOP-3 online ser-

vices for creating educational comics. This rating of

tools was formed based on three key criteria: func-

tionality, affordability (all services are free) and ease

of use of the service for both teachers and pupils.

Each presented service contains instructions for

use, which the user will be able not only to view but

also to download to himself on a PC as a MS Word

document.

Each service title contains a link to its main page,

which the user of the site will be able to start work-

ing on creating his own educational comic, using the

downloaded instructions and methodological recom-

mendations presented on the educational website.

Thus, the work of the educational website is aimed

at helping teachers of primary education in the de-

velopment of relevant educational comics using on-

line services Pixton, Write Comics and Comica for

conducting lessons in primary school, as well as for

methodological support of educators.

6 CONCLUSIONS

1. It has been established that the use of comics with

AR elements in primary school is one of the effec-

tive didactic means that increases the interest of

children in learning, and allows simplifying, visu-

alizing ,and virtualizing complex information. As

a result of the analysis of modern cloud services,

programs and applications for creating comics,

their advantages are highlighted: the availability

of services in material terms; a simple interface;

the use of templates; the possibility of creating

a completely new product and distributing mate-

rials; versatility. The major disadvantages have

been clariﬁed: a foreign language interface, the

need for preliminary preparation for working with

them; conversion. The functionality of AR pro-

grams for creating content based on comics (Vu-

foria, EasyAR, Maxst, ARCore, AR.js, 8th Wall)

is analyzed. As a result of a survey of 28 primary

school teachers, considering the availability, ease

of use and functionality, the most popular cloud

services are highlighted: for teachers – Pixton; for

pupils – Marvel HD and the app installed on the

gadget – Comica. Algorithms of the development

Using Online Services to Create Comics with Elements of AR in the Educational Process of Elementary School

561

of educational materials in these cloud services

for the creation of comics are presented.

2. The levels of readiness for the use of cloud ser-

vices for creating comics with elements of AR (el-

ementary, basic, creative) are highlighted. It is es-

tablished that most teachers and students have an

elementary level of readiness. To improve the real

state of readiness of teachers and students to use

cloud services, an educational website has been

developed. Its goal is to help primary school stu-

dents and teachers improve their competencies in

using cloud services to create comics. Method-

ological recommendations on the use of comics

in primary school using digital technologies have

also been developed.

3. The next step of the study will be the implementa-

tion of the developed methodological recommen-

dations in the practice of university education, in

the system of teachers certiﬁcation training, as

well as further monitoring of the readiness of stu-

dents and teachers to use cloud services to create

comics with AR elements in the main school.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The research was performed within the framework of

a complex scientiﬁc topic of the Department of Com-

puter Science and Mathematics of Borys Grinchenko

Kyiv University “Mathematical methods and digi-

tal technologies in education, science, technology”,

DR № 0121U111924.

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