A story with no challenges is boring and won’t engage your learners. When we use stories for learning, the challenges should mimic the kinds of issues learners will face in their real workplace. You don’t need an evil villain in your story, but you do need obstacles to overcome.
Listen to the recording of my conversation about instructional design certificates and master’s degrees with Luis Malbas and the TLDC community.
Curated links: an extensive podcast directory, research on videos for learning, and what one teacher learned in her transition to instructional design.
I have several upcoming events scheduled where I will present on scenario-based learning, certifications, and lessons learned in freelancing.
Scenarios for learning should include several critical elements: a protagonist or main character, that character’s goal, and the challenges that character faces. The main character’s goal is what drives the scenario. All of the action and decisions in the scenario move you closer or further from that goal.
The free open source tool Twine makes planning, writing, and creating branching scenarios easier. It provides a simple way to create functional prototypes.
In stories for learning, the protagonist should be someone your learners identify with, a person with similar goals and challenges.
How many options do you need in a branching scenario for each decision point? What numbergives the best balance of realism and manageable complexity?
My reflections and review of my blog for 2019, looking back on what changed this year and my goals for next year.
While elearning often focuses on the behavioral aspect of learner engagement, our designs also affect cognitive and affective engagement.