Five Best Videos on the Story-Based Design Approach - Tip #63

I am thrilled to present you five of my best videos, each one providing you with a sneak peak, as well as helpful tips, on how the Story-Based eLearning Design can transform your courses into high-impact learning events.

Must Learn - Does Your Learner Need 1,500 Pages?

• How many percent of 1500 would a learner require in order to start working at their new job? It depends on the content, but never all 1500 pages.
• Why do we expect our learners to go through all 1500 pages as if we expect them to master the massive information?
• Must-learns -  important information we want learners to learn quickly because they need learning competencies and skill sets they can build on the job quickly so that they can perform.
• Mastery or full competency - these are learnings they can only learn over time so they can become masters of it.
• We don't want to train a master in just one hour or even a 5-hour eLearning course.
• Focus on separating the must-learn from the working competency to the full competency content so we can focus our energies.

 Extreme Stories

• In selecting stories, we tend to select those that show extreme emotions.
• There is a science behind it - our minds no longer respond to typical situations.
• Sometimes, we get so used to typical situations on routine, we go on autopilot but when something particularly eventful happens, we tend to remember that for a long time.
• When you tell a dull story, nobody will pay attention to it.
• When you design stories you need to infuse these with new information so you tend to exaggerate the details.

Embedding Content in Stories

• Sometimes you encounter participants who have no experience or idea about embedding technical aspects of a module into a story.
• Add more elements into the story so learners will see information that he may not have known ahead of time, or skipped through.
• If it's the first time for a learner to encounter a policy, a good strategy would be to have one of the characters explain the benefits and the impact of the policy to help learners gain a better understanding.
• Allow learners to discover the facts and learnings embedded in the story. As they go deeper into the story, the more they will discover.
• The more you embed, the more you will be providing them with a more enriching experience.

I would love to hear from you! Share your thoughts in the comments section.



Ray Jimenez, PhD
Vignettes Learning
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"