Creating Perfect Learning Moments - Tip #44

The Myth of Orpheus

According to Greek legend, Orpheus was a young man with such a prodigious skill in music that he moved the clouds in the sky and the rocks under the earth every time that he played. When his young wife, Eurydice, died suddenly, the heart-broken Orpheus travelled to the underworld to play his music for Hades, the god of the dead. Touched by Orpheus' moving music, a weeping Hades allowed him and Eurydice to be reunited.

The Orphic Moment

The Orphic Moment is the perfect learning moment.

When we create learning designs, we aim for what I like to call "The Orphic Moment". This is the sweet spot when the lesson you are teaching and the story you use to teach about it come together so perfectly, it's like music to the learners' ears. This is the perfect union of learning and story that makes the overall experience even richer.

Story + Story Questions + Learners Interacting with the Story = Perfect Composition

Here are a few great examples of Orphic Moments that blend together the story and the lesson:

In this story the emotional effect is at its highest. The lesson is so deeply embedded in the story that the reader cannot differentiate one from the other. The learner is moved emotionally and knows, remembers, or is reminded of the lesson.

Mercedes Benz beautifully and skilfully gets people to relate this commercial with their own experiences...and they didn't even mention the car!

It ends with the actor asking.  "What would have happened if I failed to stop the car?" This is a story question that gets the viewer to be part of the story.

How can we design eLearning using this moving approach? The learner is touched emotionally, and at the same time he or she is learning the value of the car's automatic braking system.

Insights from the Orphic Moment

How can we design eLearning using this moving approach? The learner is touched emotionally, and at the same time he or she is learning the value of the car's automatic braking system.

In eLearning design, we may be driven by content, lesson or entertainment, yet have serious constraints in budget and time. However, we can still use the principle of Orphic Moments in our lessons. See the examples below.

When we show this short eLearning story, there is an Orphic Moment. There is no doubt in the minds of the learners that there is a lesson and the story is apparent. The story and content are fused together.

This is a good example of very technical and compliance-oriented content. The learner sees the story, and the content is embedded in the story. For more on Embedded Content see Tip #37: Making Learners Cry by Using Positive Stories.

In the world of mobile learning, we want to use instant perfect moments or Orphic Moments. In the small lesson above, it is obvious that the story and learning ideas are seamlessly combined.

Summary

Orphic Moments perfectly combine the lesson and the story in an emotional and engaging way. In situations where time, or budget is limited, being able to use Orphic Moments guarantee quick retention and comprehension from learners.

References

The Recursive Learning

Embedding Learning

Ray Jimenez, PhD

Vignettes Learning

"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"