Digital storytelling is one of the teaching methods that aims to improve motivation of students, critical thinking and learning outcomes. The results of previous research show the successful use of this method in education, but its use in some subjects is still questionable. The aim of the pedagogical experiment, which was conducted in 2021 at six business academies in the Czech Republic, was to discover whether or not digital storytelling contributes to better study results in business subjects taught at high school. A total number of 856 students were randomly divided into two independent groups. In the experimental group, the digital storytelling method was used in the process of teaching. The students in the control group were taught with the standard teaching method—the teacher’s explanation with the support of the presentation. By comparing the results from the pre-tests and post-tests of the experimental and control groups, the findings reveal that the students from the experimental group reached higher mean values in the post-test than the students from the control group did.

Digital storytelling (DST) is one of the alternative teaching methods and previous research shows its positive impact on students’ motivation and learning outcomes, especially in humanities subjects. In vocational subjects such as economics, the effectiveness of this method is questionable. 856 respondents aged 15 to 19 from six business academies in the Czech Republic took part in the testing, which focused on the effectiveness of digital storytelling in economics. This paper presents other possible factors that may have influenced students' performance in the post-test. A comparison of the results from the pre-tests and post-tests of the experimental and control groups showed that the students from the experimental group reached higher mean values in the post-test than the students from the control group. It was also found that in the group that used digital storytelling, the year of study and the initial knowledge of the students assessed in the pre-test influenced the mean post-test scores. On the other hand, the factor of students' gender was not demonstrated. At the end of the testing, a questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate students' views on digital storytelling and their preferences for teaching methods.