Adding Tension to eLearning Stories to Engage Learners

Synthesis

Using eLearning stories with varied elements of tension is an effective way of helping learners focus their attention on learning what they need to learn. Events that stimulate certain tension levels are more likely to imprint in the minds of learners, thus helping them learn the subject and retain what they have learned.

Adding tension to eLearning stories focuses the learners’ attention on response and reaction. With the overloaded learners struggling with competing content, stories with varying levels of tension raise their value and hence help the learners retain and learn the subject.

What situations often call immediate reaction?

Pick one from the list: hope to gain money; paying taxes; fear of death; failure; loss of a loved one; conflict with another person; frustration; absolute boredom; and many others.

In work situations, what might be in the list? Disagreeable boss; hard to manage people; risk of losing a job; being challenged to take action; commitment to goals; unfair treatment and many others.

What is common in the above list is tension. These events or issues cause emotional and mental anguish or excitement. Tension can either be bad or good. And in learning design, particularly in the use of stories, tension serves as a lever, fulcrum or a tourniquet that can be tightened to get the desired action or reaction from learners. People tend to respond to a stimulus that raises their tension level, be it positive or negative. And we can take advantage of this basic human instinct.

The tourniquet is an illustration of how we may increase or decrease tension. The tourniquet controls blood flow. As we tighten the tourniquet, we restrict the blood circulation. Lack of blood supply causes discomfort, death to the cells and will eventually incapacitate the arm.

Tourniquet

Watching your blood pressure

Adding tension is like monitoring a person’s blood pressure. While learning becomes our prime focus for each of the learner, our goal is to design our programs to allow variations in tension levels. It helps your learning design to focus the learner's attention. Hence a better chance of teaching and helping the learners learn.

Opportunities to add tension in your eLearning design are abundant. The following are good examples.

Introducing conflicts and using first person voice

Which one works better: before or after?

The before and after example above shows us that by changing the voice from that of someone explaining a scene to a character, Trump, who is speaking directly to the audience, the tension level of the event dramatically changes.

Inspiring tension

Tension can be also an uplifting experience. In this photo Paraore is shown with a satisfied smile while Mt. Everest is in the background. An image that shows some ways of overcoming difficulties or challenges adds some level of positive tension into a story.

Adding a text 

Simply adding a text to an image helps define emotional expression and adds tension.

Exaggerated metaphors

In the drawing below, exaggeration of a frustrated character shows the extent of emotion, creating more tension. Illustrated graphics may also be used to add tension in a message. Exaggeration is accomplished by creating extreme illustrations of a condition. For example, the person strapped for time is hanging on a clock, or a person is banging on the table and loudly complaining “Why.”

Tension by varying expressions

The different facial expressions of an irritated person suggest their varying moods and how they effectively communicate tension in our story.

Conclusion

Learners respond better to eLearning that has elements of tension. It is human nature and instinct to respond or react to stimulus that raises tension, anxiety and pleasure.

Adding tension helps the learner to focus on the subject and will likely learn the content materials.

Related blogs:

Instant learning:

eLearning Design for Short Attention Span and Overloaded Learners

Ray Jimenez, PhD
3Minute Worlds - Learning Community Social Learning,
Work and Performance 3Minute eLearning Games

"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

What I learned from #LRNCHAT yesterday - Twitter as a spark plug

Twitter is a spark plug for learning.

I am a student of Twitter. I love Twitter since it epitomizes the succinct and instant learning I have been evangelizing (3-Minute eLearning) for about 10 years now. In 2007 I wrote about Collaborative Anthropologists - how Twitter can be a source for new job functions for learning professions.

#lrnchat is a great example http://twitter.com/lrnchat and http://lrnchat.wordpress.com/tracklrnchat/ which uses Twitter for a 90 minute conversation, Thursdays, 5:30 pm PST.

Read the transcript of last night's session. The topic was: Instructional Systems Design (ISD).

I recommend you experiment and join the sessions.

These are my thoughts:

The driver has to learn new skills

• The learner as participant at #lrnchat has to drive differently. Rule: you can almost drive anywhere provided the discussion is focused, approximately. It is pretty much following your own learning interests. Follow people and ideas that interest you. Something like a classroom where everyone is talking; but learning as well.
  
  
• This is no place for orderly minded and anal people.
  
  
• Patience is key.
  
  
• Accepting others' comments at face value; understanding their own interests; respecting their views even counters your own beliefs or styles.
  
  
• Speak from the heart. A sincere interest to participate and add value.
  
  
• Different styles on tweets are needed: make a statement; suggest an idea; respond to others; ask questions; provide structure; encourage deeper conversations; add links when needed.
  
  
• Listening (pausing and reading) is a much needed skill.
  

These behaviors I observed at #lrnchat:

(All my descriptions are made with spirit of candidness and friendliness. No offense intended to anyone - Oh boy a disclaimer.)

• - Provocateurs
• - Emulators
• - Researchers
• - Facilitators
• - Listeners
• - Traffic officers
• - Clowns
• - Creators
• - Gurus
• - Self-promoters
• - Reactors
• - Agitators
• - Parrots
• - Grade schoolers
• - Many more

All needed to make #lrnchat fun!

The most impressive learning for me - the learner is a facilitator too.

A key learning for me is to follow the people I wish to learn from; stay with them; have a conversation.

Conversations

The conversations in the session reflect of conversations I would hear and have when attending a face to face meeting, conference or small group meeting. The difference is that it is all packed in 90 minutes. It is like a focus group in an instant.

I learned that the sessions caused sparks in my mind and emotions to allow me to take a follow-up action, for example like writing this blog, and crystallizing my observations. The Twitter session serves as SPARK PLUG - or a booster for initiating learning.

It is unreal to expect 140 character conversations, but they are connectors, fibers that link people's thoughts; hence trigger follow-up conversations.

The constancy, contacts, and presence in a community of tweeters lay the ground work for relationships to build - a rapport building process. Relationships that can follow more in-depth conversations that leads to sharing and learning.

After the session, I end up thinking of the salient points I picked up from the session and pondering on them; hence this blog.

Improving one's repertoire of meanings and words in 90 minutes

The fun part is learning the games, meanings and words that people play to express themselves.

5 colors of SCORM - Aaron Silvers
Crapid Learning - Tom Stone

many many more .. see the transcript, a very interesting reading.

What I want to do next

I want to learn from the participants' answers to these questions:

What does one do after attending a lively #lrnchat session?
What emotional and cognitive "sparks" lead you to
learning a new skill?

Thanks to the organizers of #lrnchat for providing an experiment that helps people to have first hand experience.

Great work!


Ray Jimenez, PhD
http://www.vignettestraining.com/
http://www.simplifyelearning.com/

"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

The Master SME: How to become one? How to work with it?

If you are in a shipwreck and are stranded in a desolate island with an SME (Subject Matter Expert), what would be your conversation like?

Ask yourselves, “What do we do?”

Both of your concerns become how to get off the island and go back to civilization.

In order of priority you will probably agree to:

• Make a BIG HELP sign on the ground for the search pilots to see
• Prepare a pile of wood and set fire
• Find food and ensure your safety while you wait
• Explore the island

Now you may never find yourself in a shipwreck and in an isolated island (heaven forbids) with the SME, but you are constantly in conversations with an SME, or you might be an SME yourself. If you have this conversation in the office, the dynamics change from having the sense of urgency in an isolated island to the usual behaviors we are all accustomed to, in corporate settings.

“What is important to teach?” You ask.

“Everything,” the SME answers.

“What is important for you to teach?” the SME asks you.

“I need to write the learning objectives first,” you reply.

What is the difference between the office conversation and the conversation in the desolate island?

“What do we do?” versus “What do we need to teach?”



Whatever we do, whether a trainer, instructional designer, eLearning designer or developer, or an SME, we often fail to focus on what truly matters. Instead, we focus on the content, process and the technique of training, design or delivery; we miss the mark in helping learners. Our training and eLearning programs become dull, without focus and fail to impact the learners’ work performance.

What would the Master SME do?

We can learn from the masters in Karate – the ancient martial arts.

Experts say Karate masters focus on the center of balance, speed and power. Whatever their body position is they need to find the balance otherwise they’d fall. Thus, Speed and power are crucial to execute the moves.

In working with the SME or being an SME, we need to organize our content so learners can learn how to find their balance all the time. Balance to me means the key important performance actions the learner must perform at work at all times. Speed and power are the content that helps the learners execute and apply the key important skill and knowledge swiftly and consistently.

In the movie Karate Kid (1984), Miyagi teaches the bullied kid Daniel to defend himself and win the championship by emphasizing the few key moves Daniel can master in a few weeks, against his well trained opponents, the Cobras. Miyagi did not teach Daniel all the techniques. He focused Daniel’s energies and training on the basics that delivered the right blow at the right time.

The Master SME asks these questions:

1. What must the learners learn that are so critical to their success on the job, without which they would fail?

2. What should learners do consistently and swiftly to deliver the critical skills?
In the first questions, ask the SME or yourself using Pareto’s Law - “what is the 20% content that must be learned to deliver 80% of the results?”

In the second question, ask “what are the fatal errors that the learner needs to master and overcome in order to learn and apply the 20%” and “what are the most difficult tasks the learner must learn and execute to master the 20%?”


Where would SMEs find the answers to these questions?

1. SMEs’ personal experience.

2. Customer support logs often show valuable insights. Check chat support logs and audio support recordings.

3. Feedback from operations people who have to deliver and maintain products and services often times see the problems first-hand.

4. Leaders and managers who are watching out on how their products and services impact revenues and costs to the company.

5. Exception reports of accidents.

6. Case files documenting services rendered and provided.

7. Focus groups consisting of customers are good sources.

8. Product or software requirements specifications.

9. Product testing results often show persistent problems.

10. Lost, terminated or cancelled customers are good sources for information.

11. Financial records of returns, damages, and other related costs.

12. Success stories by everyone in your company who touché the products and services.

13. Attendees to past training sessions who have experience with the content.

Today’s business conditions oftentimes make us feel to be in desolate island. There are always urgencies and People need training now and quickly. But we have no total access and could not know all the content so we rely heavily on SMEs. This is also true if we are the SMEs ourselves. To become a Master SME, with excellence in the craft, we need to help them and ourselves by asking the key questions too. `


Ray Jimenez, PhD
http://www.vignettestraining.com/
http://www.simplifyelearning.com/

"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"