Canva teaching strategy and its impact on academic writing skills for high school students

Abstract

This study analyzed the impact of a didactic proposal mediated by the Canva digital platform on the development of organizational, content presentation, and academic writing competencies among upper basic education students. The research addressed the gap between technological access and actual digital competence. Using a mixed-method approach and a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design with a single group of 40 participants, a four-week pedagogical intervention was implemented to transform academic content into structured visual formats. Data were collected through direct observation with Likert-type rubrics, diagnostic surveys, and semi-structured interviews validated by expert judgment. Results analyzed with the Wilcoxon signed-rank test revealed significant improvement in student performance: the proportion of students with poor textual structures decreased from 62.5% to 10%, while coherent idea organization rose from 25% to 87.5%. The marked predominance of positive ranks confirmed the statistical effectiveness of the tool (p < 0.05). Canva’s integration as a pedagogical mediator was found to enhance written production, information synthesis, motivation, and self-efficacy. The study recommends institutionalizing teaching guides that incorporate digital design tools to strengthen communicative and digital literacy in high school contexts.