"How to Ask for a Raise" Scenario Plus 10 Reasons Why Scenarios Work

Synthesis:
All learning approaches point toward imparting relevant content . But scenario- based learning possesses a distinct advantage ,tremendous value and the power to alter views, practices , accepted norms and even culture . Find out the 10 reasons why scenarios work and how it can empower your eLearning programs.
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Imagine that you would like to ask your boss for a well-deserved raise. How will you go about it? Do you have what it takes to successfully negotiate this?

Click on the image to play out this scenario to see how it can help you.

(Produced by Michael Gibson)

In a number of instances, I hear complaints that scenarios are challenging to produce – difficult to a point. However, for those who realize the incredible value it adds to their eLearning programs , this serves as a stimulus to press on and explore various cost-effective formats to achieve their goal.

At the onset, it is best to recognize that learners approach online learning quite differently from other formats. They can click away with their mouse or simply drop the study altogether. They are in almost total control of their learning. So how do you compel or engage them to learn?

Answer: put them on the spot. Thrust them into situations that require them to think, act and decide. Moreover, provide your learners with the opportunities to enact and respond to real-life scenarios. Simulate actual situations that deal with day-to-day experiences. Use stories to make their learning experience real, alive, living and enthralling.

Here I list the 10 reasons why leveraging Micro Scenarios and Interactive Stories truly works:

1. Learners’ participation is harnessed through story and experience sharing

Each of us carry stories within us. Micro Scenarios and Story interaction coaxes learners to share their own real-life accounts, listen to others and learn from each other.
(See related blog)

2. It boosts content absorption and retention in participants

People learn best when they can relate information to real-life situations. They do not remember facts easily. Stories help learners understand and recall the concepts behind the learning
(See related blog)

3. Learners get immersed in engaging real-life simulations for better job performance.

Replicating real-life scenarios help the learners recognize valuable nuggets of content that they can readily apply to actual job performance.

4. It challenges learners’ cognitive skills, evaluation and decision-making processes

Adding tension to eLearning stories focuses the learners’ attention on response and reaction. 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.
(See related blog)

5. Un-learning perceptions, beliefs, accepted norms, practices and methods that bring about individual and organizational change.

“Stories help us unlearn and replace inadequate or outdated mental models by appealing to us at an emotional or intuitive level instead.” (excerpt from the writing of Deborah Sole, Learning Innovations Laboratories, Harvard Graduate School of Education)

6. Promoting new ideas or concepts and make them easily acceptable to learners

“If we are to achieve results never before accomplished, we must employ methods never before attempted.” Sir Francis Bacon

The story-based approach affords you a highly engaging and compelling method of presenting fresh, novel, innovative ideas that eases your learners into your desired mode of acceptance.

7. Learners embark on a journey through scenarios to synthesize complex ideas and skills

It is about recognizing patterns from a series of choices leading to the discovery of the ideas.
(See related blog)

8. Sharpen learners’ ability to identify high-impact ideas immediately applicable to their jobs.

Instant learning happens as a quick loop of experience consisting of an event, feedback and discovery. In the rapidly changing work environment where the demand for new knowledge and skill is fast and in constant flux, we have opportunities to use the instant experience loop. How do we do that? We replicate the instant experience loop by sharing stories and the realities of life.
(See related blog)

9. Converting boring, technical content into easily understood, user-friendly case scenarios of actual real-life work situations.

Using the case and scenario techniques enhances the effectiveness and efficiency of the learning process. Technical content becomes more engaging and learners become skilled and are able to rapidly apply knowledge in the real world or work.
(See related blog)

Here listed are some of the ways to tell stories in eLearning. Find out how you can use them.
(See related blog)


10. Turning boring, static and stale learning objectives from mere documents into valuable tools - stories that spin off the discovery of more hidden stories.

The key benefit of stating a learning goal as a story is that it allows us the opportunity to continue using the story to deliver the rest of the lesson.
(See related blog)

Conclusion

Everyone has a story to tell. People listen to them. Engage your learners. Hold their attention. Encourage interactivity. Promote sharing of real-life stories. Achieve your learning objectives with Micro Scenarios and Interactive Stories. Push your learners to the brink of a new learning threshold – content discoveries through stories.

Rediscover the power of stories that are applied to eLearning designs to provide a highly creative way for eLearning professionals like you to bring learning content to life.

Related Blogs

The Battle of Stories – Instructional Design Approach

Adding Tension to eLearning Stories to Engage Learners

How to instantly grab e-learners attention!

How to Embed Learning Goals in Stories



Ray Jimenez, PhD
3Minute Worlds - Learning Community Social Learning, Work and Performance3Minute eLearning Games
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

The Battle of Stories – Instructional Design Approach

Synthesis
For stories to really be effective and serve their purposes, of imparting lessons that the learners need to learn, we also need to identify the strongest ideas or stories that we want to change or “battle” with. Finding the impact stories and slogans is a great starting point in gathering what we need to know regarding the ideas that we want to change. And from there, we can “gear up” with the right stories and win the “Battle of Stories”.

How to Use it to Improve your eLearning Program

How do you find high-impact stories for your eLearning program? What right, appropriate and engaging stories become the basis for your design and development of a lesson?

Designing and delivering eLearning is like winning the “Battle of Stories.” The more powerful and well-designed the story is, the more that the lesson within that story will win the minds and hearts of the learners. Many of the ideas I discuss here were triggered after I read “Re:Imagining Change” by Patrick Reinsborough and Doyle Canning . It showed me a lot of parallelism in the work we do in eLearning especially with story impacts.

Here are examples of battle cries we hear in our organizations.

On Ethics
It is OK to cheat, for profit’s sake
VS
Small, harmless cheating leads to monstrous problems

On performance
“I work as hard as I can when my boss is around or inspires me”
VS
“I am driven by my passion”

For every idea, there is a story that promotes it. We are constantly battling using different stories to help learners “un-learn” things.

Instructional design question

Our instructional design and development of lessons should start with identifying the strongest idea and story we want to change in relation to the content we want to teach.
So we ask basic design questions:

• What are the stories that promote a particular idea?
• What are the new ideas and what stories can promote these new ideas?

Finding the right stories to battle with, as the saying goes, is a key design consideration. Failure to find the right stories diminishes our efforts and investments in helping learners learn. Finding the right idea to battle with is just the first step; how to use them is the second step. We need to develop a counter idea or an idea we wish to promote and build the stories to support it.

Let me focus on how to find the stories that are most important to battle with.

The first part is to ask “What are impact stories on performance?” and the second part is learning “how to find impact stories”.

Impact Stories – those that affect performance

What are the characteristics of these stories?

Stories that impact performance are powerful stories that carry the ideas and the beliefs with them. They are “memes” that are handed down by work and group practices. Often times, these stories are unquestioned, and are accepted as truths.

Impact stories are experiences that control people’s or learners’ behaviors, thoughts, and beliefs. We can also refer to them as high-impact stories or stories that impact performance. Different organizations and each work aspect have their own impact stories.

Impact stories have slogans

It is easy to detect impact stories because they have slogans attached to them.
These are good examples of impact stories (notice the slogans) worth having a battle with:

• Ethics: Cut corners, do not get caught
• Sales: Customers always complain
• Performance: It is OK to fail, befriend your boss
• Safety: It is a Cover Your Ass thing (CYA
• Software: Let the user figure it out: trial and error

The examples above seem to sound pessimistic or show the negative aspects of our workplace. The point is that these types of stories are what we battle with everyday in a learning situation. They don’t have to be negative stories, but they are stories that can erode or weaken the positive content you wish to teach.

These are good examples of impact stories (notice the slogans) which we hope to win the battle for:

• Ethics: This is a very ethical organization
• Sales: Customers tell us how to be better
• Performance: We adhere to the highest performance standards
• Safety: It saves lives, families and makes good business sense
• Software: We should make it easy to use
• Brand new content

However, one might ask: How about ideas that are completely new? There might not be stories associated with them yet. This is a good question since many of us design courses with new content. For example, the content might be a new data entry system that is being added into a software database - a brand new software and brand new method. Even in this case, there is an impact story. The learner’s current skill, past experiences, and inclination to technology carries some stories that often control behaviors and thoughts. These impact stories are so ingrained, we often think that they don’t exist.

Finding the impact stories

If we want to wage a battle, we better identify the right ideas to support. This sounds very familiar since we often see a lot of issues surrounding our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I am reminded of an interview by NPR on the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War. The researcher for the Pentagon Papers was asked, why the war continued even with all the protests and body counts. He answered: “Our leaders truly believed that losing a war and allowing North Vietnam to occupy South Vietnam would cause a domino effect. And that communism, belief systems of Russia and China, would continue to drive more occupation to other countries”. This is their story. So strong is the story in the minds of our leaders that the stories of the protestors could not win the battle of stories.

There are scientific and formal ways, as well as informal ways, to find the stories to battle with.

Click here to play the exercise.

Mapping impact stories

Mapping stories means capturing the stories and organizing them so we can identify and prioritize which ones to battle with.

The most common method is conducting interviews with subject matter experts, people on the job and customers (internal or external) who are affected by the topic area.


Conduct a survey, interview and ask these questions:

• What are the beliefs, practices, and methods that help achieve results?
• What are stumbling blocks, and challenges that stop the results?
• What are real and verifiable facts?
• What are the moving stories, experiences, success cases and incidents?

The key to obtaining good impact stories is to direct the questions to specific “delivery points” or “contact points” where the stories are experienced at the highest level. For example:

• Sales: at points where there is contact with customers
• Safety: where accidents are most likely to occur or dangerous areas
• And/or records that show the above

Slogan mapping - “Slogan Jam Sessions”

Slogans are the ultimate expressions of strong beliefs and engrained knowledge in people. These are instinctive and instantaneous. Slogans are used by people to express their views, and emotions regarding a subject. If one needs to know what the deep seated feeling of a group of people is, one can ask the question: what slogan do you say to express your view on a subject?

These are examples of slogans. Try to fill blanks after each phrase with the beliefs and knowledge that drive the slogans.

“Let’s kick ass” ______________________

“Innovation is collaboration” __________________

“Super-charged team” ___________________

“We are a green organization” ________________

Capturing slogans is a good way to find stories and identify the idea that you want to battle with. You can do this by interviewing people or conducting “Slogan Jam Sessions”.

Conclusion

To win this “Battle of Stories”, we need to use the right “gears”. We can do this by examining the impact stories and slogans that have brought about the ideas and stories that the learners need to “un-learn”. Once we are able to gather this, it will be much easier to battle with the ideas, and create and design stories that we can use to successfully teach to the learners.


Ray Jimenez, PhD3Minute Worlds - Learning Community Social Learning, Work and Performance3Minute eLearning Games"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

eLearning Design for Short Attention Span and Overloaded Learners

Synthesis:
With the barrage of distractions thrown at these already-overloaded learners, we are faced with the challenge to help them focus on what is necessary, must-learn, what is of immediate relevance and content that is rapidly applicable to their jobs and tasks at hand. My goal here is to provide helpful tips to engage our learners’ attention and achieve our learning objectives.
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Design for Short Attention Span Learners
Word Play Exercise (Fill in the Blanks)

(Click here to play the exercise)

Do learners have short attention span or are our learning programs too long that we lose our learners in the process?

At the eLearning Guild Learning Solutions Conference, March 23-25, 2011, I facilitated a breakfast session on “Design for Short Attention Span Learners.” It was refreshing to hear so many good ideas on how to help learners assimilate knowledge in spite of the distractions, mobility and rapid demand for learning.

These are the common themes.

1. Useful content immediately
Programs should be focused on must-learn and immediately-useful content. The ultimate goal of total content mastery can be learned while on the job.

2. Valuable content
Work with the SMEs to enlighten them that not all content is important. The designer should take on the challenge of highlighting what the SMEs consider as valuable aspects of the learning when presenting the program design.

3. Quick Search
Enable the program to provide a quick search, to allow learners to dive into the details of the lessons. This helps learners to study quick references and materials while on the job.

4. Small releases
Release small sections of the program progressively instead of attempting a big launch period after several months of work. Learners will definitely benefit from small lessons spread over several determined intervals instead of taking them through a huge chunk of learning data at one singular time.

5. Easy navigation
The navigation design should assist learners to access all available types of content at one glance or in a single site. For example, they can click on videos, audio, references, lessons, reviews, programs, lessons, modules, tests, etc. rather than keeping them hidden.

6. Indexing content
Prepare a good index list of topics that are linked to specific pages in the lessons or programs to facilitate rapid access for the learners.

7. Multi-format
Design programs so that some of the content are in simple formats like PDF, Word, PowerPoint and HTML with a good mix of the more complex formats (audio, video, image or Flash) resulting in an engaging, definitely interactive yet comprehensive, compact and not overly produced learning model.

8. SMS and Mobile
For new updates on the programs, use SMS, text messaging and mobile devices with links to the specific pages.

9. Synthesis
Always provide a short synthesis to inform learners about the gist of the content.

10. Bookmark and sharing
Learners can bookmark and share relevant pages to help other learners. Certain programs cannot be shared by just focusing on specific single pages. Learners have to read the whole lesson or module before they unearth useful content.

11. Unbundle authoring content
Consider authoring lessons and modules as separate or stand-alone units of programs rather than creating traditional closed and encapsulated courses developed by simply following the structures of authoring tools. They become a flexible and easily transferrable set of learning objects. Learners can then scan, view and select quickly from small lessons rather than large programs.

12. Simple time savers
Simple time savers are: 1) video and audio files that show how long they are; 2) a short introduction or synopsis before asking learners to read a long document.

13. Working competency versus full competency
Help SMEs and internal clients understand the difference between programs that help learners acquire vital and critical skills and knowledge immediately needed on the job (working competency) and those that they can master later (full competency). Sometimes, programs become excessively long and very boring because they force the learner to develop full competency even at the onset of the learning process.

14. Instant conversations
In many instances, learners simply need a person to call, chat or exchange emails with, to inquire, validate, or acquire more understanding. We often forget that the ability to have instant, quick and short talks makes a huge difference.


Related blogs

How to instantly grab e-learners attention!

FREE: Millionaire Game - How to create the iPhone touch, look and feel in your e-Learning? Use e-Learning Reusables

DIYEL #13 How to avoid impersonal programs and encourage conversations




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

Are you an Agnostic or Principled Learning Professional?

Synthesis:
As learning professionals, have we analyzed how our approaches affect our learners and their specific learning and performance environments? Why does one choose to adhere to his/her present method? Are you an AGNOSTIC or PRINCIPLED Learning Professional? A deeper understanding of these professionals may hopefully lead you to an enlightened decision. Perhaps, the Agnostic is the unbounded innovator in us and the Principled is the traditionalist in us.
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As learning professionals, have we analyzed how our approaches affect our learners and their specific learning and performance environments? Why does one choose to adhere to his/her present method? Are you an AGNOSTIC or PRINCIPLED Learning Professional? A deeper understanding of these professionals may hopefully lead you to an enlightened decision. Perhaps, the Agnostic is the unbounded innovator in us and the Principled is the traditionalist in us.


Image provided by eLearning Arts.

An executive I work with complained to me:

“This vendor is telling me to spend 200 hours in task analysis. Don’t they know that we pretty much know the tasks?”

“We have so many learning rituals that are irrelevant.” he continued.

“We should rid ourselves (trainers and learning professionals) of practices that appear to be based on sound principles but are actually impractical and apparently outdated thinking.”

As I attend conferences and meet clients and friends, I also keep my ears to the ground and listen to how learning professionals evolve or drastically change their approaches. I look for patterns that help deliver results, improve learning, drastically cut costs and increase speed of delivery. Moreover, I specifically look for something out of the ordinary that I can also learn from. In fact, I’d like to share some interesting differences between the Agnostic and Principled Learning professionals.

Before I share my observations, allow me to define some terms. An Agnostic is a learning professional that is passionate about immediate results. This practitioner uses learning principles and practices only if they serve the end results. The Principled learning professional is also results-focused, but strictly adheres to practices that have been proven and tested in the past. The differences basically lie in the mind set and outlook of these two specialists. These determine their inclinations towards being Agnostic or Principled.

Here are a few of my observations. For easier understanding, we shall refer to these learning professionals as either AGNOSTIC or PRINCIPLED from hereon.

ROI in training and learning

The Principled believes in exact, long-drawn and often, stringent systems of measurements and time-tested scientific methods. As a result, the ROI reports tend to be historical, like a financial accounting process. They tend to be less adventurous and adaptable in their approaches.

The Agnostic uses anecdotal data to gauge learning impacts. This allows for quick information gathering. Jeff Beck of Knowledge Advisors says that anecdotal data are valuable ROI measurements. They are faster to collect. They attribute a deep value to the link between rapid and applicable learnings to job performance. See my related blog - Proof of Direct Link between Learning and Performance.

Don’t bother tracking learning completion

I am familiar with a division within CISCO that does not bother to track learning or training completion. This is the work of an Agnostic. The Principled will insist on tracking completion because it is part of the delivery process.

In the case of CISCO, the change and demand for new content is rapid. Systems engineers need the knowledge in a matter of minutes. For example, there are hundreds of anti-virus and malware patches released each day that it does not make sense to track if the learner has completed the lesson. The ultimate test is how well they apply the ideas on the spot.

Train learners on the essentials and let them learn how to find solutions

One large online retailer I worked with, reduced their two weeks on-boarding training to two days. Initially, the Principled insisted that the 10-day on-boarding program should persist. However with 100,000 products, the Agnostic realized it was impossible to train or even begin to orient workers on all these, during on-boarding classes. As a result, workers’ orientation centered on the basic policies of the company and trained them on the usage of the Wiki Product and Customer Management System to find answers to questions and provide solutions.

Twitter that impacts immediate performance

Mark Oehlert, in one of his presentations on Social Media mentioned about how a company applied a Twitter-like application to help engineers deal with electrical transmission line emergency responses. Engineers found it faster to send a tweet to alert other engineers of problems in their area that would impact other aspects of the electrical grid. The Agnostic found a practical way to use Twitter. The Principled would have been stuck with the question-how do I apply Twitter to learning and training instead of asking “where can this tool impact the performance of people?”

Just-in-case and just-in-need training and learning – very costly impact

The Agnostic uses eLearning beyond its traditional definition - from just-in-case-knowledge to a just-in-need learning. Knowledge and skill requirements are changing so fast that the Agnostic focuses on immediate “working knowledge” rather than “full competency” training for ongoing learning on the job. The Principled continues to focus on compacting all knowledge in one training because of the fear that learners may miss the knowledge. Unfortunately, most learners can only retain so much in one sitting. Consequently, investments in long and elaborate courses are wasted. See related blog on How Much Training is Enough Training?

“They don’t know what they don’t know”

This is my favorite because it continues to be a training professional meme. It is so well-accepted that many use the statement without much thought.

I often hear “the Principled” say …

“If we don’t train learners on the content, they will be unable to do the job” or “learners cannot be trusted since they don’t know what they don’t know.”

Many of the “Principleds” adhere to the notion that people lack inherent wisdom to perform their jobs. The truth is, it’s pretty much the opposite.

Reversely, the Agnostics believe that the learners have a certain amount of experience, regardless of quantity and quality. Their approach aims to help the learners build on these experiences and connect them to the learning environment. This understanding of the learner’s wisdom is the foundation of social and informal learning. People can learn and contribute while they share with others. The job of this learning professional is to multiply this capacity. Please see Jay Cross on information learning.

Conclusion

Whether one is Agnostic or Principled is often a reflection of our growth process as learning professionals. We tend to be Principled when we stick to rituals from principles and practices we are accustomed to. In the process, we have ceased to question them or assess its efficiency especially in performance applications. The Agnostic is that part within ourselves that awakens to the realization that learning environments and its learners are evolving, sometimes faster than we can change our mind sets and outlook with a willingness to adapt better performance results.

Perhaps, the Agnostic is the unbounded innovator in us and the Principled is the traditionalist in us.


Related blog

Proof of Direct Link between Learning and Performance

How Much Training is Enough Training?
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Ray Jimenez, PhD
Vignettes Learning
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

Is it spoon-feeding or discovery scenario learning?

Synthesis:
Scenario- based learning should take learners through a journey of discovery ; involving them in the events that take place at various points in your scenarios. It propels learners to think about the choices presented and not merely determining the right or wrong answers. Join me on a train ride to gain a better understanding of how to create a more engaging scenario for your next SBL challenge.
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I conducted an informal survey of 20 workshop participants asking them this question:
How do you know if your scenario-based elearning program works? The responses were:
•Learners pick the right answer or options.
•Learners do trial and error until they find the right answers.
•Learners reflect on the choices provided.
•Learners were engaged.

It was intriguing to me that no one mentioned about learners discovering the learning points from scenarios.

On the surface, the responses seemed descriptive of a scenario- based eLearning program. However, on further scrutiny, they were symptomatic of a surface- level or shallow understanding of how scenario-based eLearning works.

The Heart of Scenarios

Although the answers described some characteristics of scenarios, they did not mention the core idea of why scenario-based eLearning works, which is:
It is about recognizing patterns from a series of choices leading to the discovery of the ideas.

The emphasis is on PATTERNS and DISCOVERY.
•Identify the end idea to be discovered.
•Set up different choices leading to the discovery of ideas at the ending.

Signs of Spoon Feeding

After more prodding, I confirmed my suspicion. Oftentimes, scenarios are unknowingly used as extensions of instructivist (telling) methods, rather than the implementation of the constructivist (discovery) methods.

It is spoon feeding when “scenarios” pose multiple choice-like questions.
•When it is a memory recall question.
•When choices lead to a right or wrong answer.
•When feedback is like a lecture ...this is right or this is wrong.

This situation stems from a lack of clarity that scenario-based eLearning is a constuctivist(discovering ) method and not an instuctivist (telling ) method. Due to strong previous backgrounds, many developers or instructional designers write scenarios as if they are writing instructional lessons rather than presenting a series of choices for learners to discover ideas.

Hollywood Vs. Training

In the moviemaking industry, script writers are into discovery writing to allow its audience to experience the unveiling of events and revealing more of the story as the film progresses. They cannot simply shift to just “spilling the beans” and telling everything outright about each scene. That would certainly bore the moviegoers.

In the elearning industry, trainers and instructional designers who have gotten used to the traditional instructional styles would find it particularly difficult to shift from simply instructing or using the telling method to integrating scenarios that will allow the learners to pinpoint patterns and discover ideas, thereby, creating materials that engage their learners. However, in this case, the shift is totally beneficial for a more positive learning experience.

Seeds of Discovery are Like Train Travel

Scenarios are like train tracks. They have metal rails, wooden ties and the ballast.

e-Learning,

The ballast is the content which is the foundation of the scenario. The metal rails and the wooden ties represent the story which helps roll the train coaches. The train stops are the events of the story while the final destination is the outcome. The learners are the passengers.

Content is not to be apparent or immediately divulged . Rather, it should assume a story form that draws in the learners.

The story should glide, lubricate and move the train. It ought to allow the participants to get involved in the unfolding of events and solicit insights instead of just telling them to listen in a communication scenario. Use characters to represent the content and let learners discover the idea/s through the actions and behaviors of the characters. This initiates discovery.

We shall look into the story about a character named John, a sales person rejected by prospects. He appears not to be able to understand what the customer wants.

But to illustrate my point just a bit further, do you notice that when traveling a certain distance by train, we begin to enjoy the trip when conversations revolve around the people, the places and highlights of these places along our journey? These conversations are the train stops. Each stop triggers certain questions in our minds. What is this place? What landmarks can be found? The questions vary depending on how the ride goes. Nonetheless, train stops arouse curiosity and interest. In scenarios, the train stops are the events.

The train stops - as events- are natural places to pose questions to the learner. This is where learners choose options. The choices are presented in story form and must be continuous. Using John as our primary character, the events might play out like this...
- Event 1- he sent a proposal to the client
- Event 2- client rejected the proposal
- Event 3- John has to review and redo the proposal
- Event 4- John meets with his manager. He gets warned that he needs to get this sale..
So on and so forth....
Each event asks questions of the learner to help them discover what John should do.
This becomes an opportunity for deeper learning.

Opportunity to link event discoveries and develop into a pattern

Scenarios are not one-time discoveries of answers. That would be too boring. The gradual discovery of John’s actions and attitudes ,triggers something within us. It sort of acclimatizes us to get more involved in the story and the various situations of its character/s.

Arriving at the destination is a sure thing. But you gradually build a conclusion based on your travel.

Scenario-based eLearnings are like travels

Let’s say we travel from an urban setting to the rural area. We begin to notice new patterns at every stop. The sky gets bluer, more trees dot the landscape, people appear to live in a different way and buildings are less imposing. We now begin to grasp clues of certain patterns. Ultimately we gain better perspectives.

Conclusion...

One way you can test how SBLs work is to imagine yourself in this scenario.

Let’s say you and other learners are hauled in enclosed carts ...no stops...no windows...destined for somewhere ... seemingly regarded like cows for delivery. No alternative options.

Sounds stifling , right? No chance to discover ideas along the way. I’m not sure what experience that is but I don’t think I would like to take that route or even attempt to go there.

Click to play these example that may help inspire you in your scenario building efforts:



Related Blogs

How to add the human touch in your eLearning design

Inspire others - be a Master Storyteller -Study the Profile and Survey

How to Embed Learning Goals in Stories
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Workshops
Join Ray's work on Scenario-based Learning and recieve a $150 discount.
Use the code: tctrj

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

Creating Micro-Scenarios – X-Men Plays Hockey

The purpose of Micro-learning is to provide short, snappy and provocative stories to help learners reflect on a real-life situation or provoke social learning conversations in discussion rooms, Twitters, Blogs, etc.

Full-scale scenarios are elaborate scenarios with multiple branching while micro-scenarios are small vignettes with 1 to 2 branches or a single compelling story leaving learners to reflect on the choices and consequences.

Even if Micro-Scenarios are 1-3 minute activities, they contain these key elements:

1. An emotional event
2. Characters involved in a story
3. Emotions are high
4. Conflicts have to be resolved
5. Choices are presented
6. Consequences have failures or successes

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Preview Examples
To view examples of Micro-Scenarios, please click here, and Search (top right) for “Micro-Scenario.” Or you can visit www.simplifyel.com and Search (top right) for “Micro-Scenario.” You will find these two scenarios below.

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Hockey stick

The hockey stick has three parts: toe, heel and handle.

In storytelling, which is the heart of scenarios, the toe represents the past or present situation before problem (or the heel). The heel represents a depression or change where the emotions are heightened due to a problem that needs to be resolved; the heel is pointed down or at the bottom. And the handle represents an upward result from resolutions of the conflict.

This is a very rudimentary example.

“I was OK.” (Toe)
“But then something went wrong.” (Heel)
“Thank God with his help I recovered.” (Handle)

This is another example.

“My performance was great last year.” (Toe)
“Today, they are dropping to 30%.” (Heel)
“I was procrastinating on some tasks.” (Heel)
“What do I do?”(Heel)
“Once I started to focus on the must do tasks,
my performance started to excel.” (Handle)


Let’s use the X-Men playing Hockey illustration.

Using the X-Men approach represents having two or more involved characters. They have their respective toes, heels and handles. In X-Men we combine the two characters into one scenario. This approach is beneficial since many learning issues usually involve other people and emotions are oftentimes heightened between characters.

Let’s see an example below.

(1a/1b) Toes - John and Sarah

John was a manager and Sarah reports to John. John promoted Sarah because she has been an effective leader. Sarah was thrilled with the news.

(2)
Heels crossing between John and Sarah.

(2a)
Months went by and Sarah noticed that John has become overly demanding and to some extent unreasonable with his expectations.

(2b)
One day, John and Sarah had an altercation which ended with Sarah rushing to her lawyer and filing a suit against John. John was appalled.

(3)
When John was asked by Nancy, the Human Resources Manager, what happened, John said, “Well heck, I just asked her to treat one of our key customers to dinner.” Nancy asked: “So what should you do John?”

At this point, we now have all the elements: Event, Characters, Emotions, and Conflicts that needed to be resolved. Now you are ready to present the Choices.

Conflict Resolution Question

Before presenting the choices, we need to add a “conflict resolution question.”

For example: “So what should you do John?”

Then we can present the choices:

Choice 1 – “Nothing”, John Says.
Choice 2 – “What do you think Nancy,” asks John.
Choice 3 – “I should talk with Sarah and ask why?”

(4)
The scenario – the handle

Each choice has a consequence which leads to a resolution and/or a failure which could lead to more conflicts and choices. If the answer leads to a resolution, it allows John and Sarah to resolve the conflicts; the resolution represents the handle of the hockey stick. If the consequence is a failure and does not lead to a resolution, the problem continues to be in the heel of the scenario.

Scenarios without handles for self-reflections

Open-ended Micro-Scenarios are short stories without the choices and consequences. They are are excellent ways to provoke and encourage learners to submit and share their ideas on how to resolve the scenario. Learners can post their comments in discussion rooms, webinars, classroom training, and social learning sites like Twitter, Blogs and Wikis.


Related blogs

Compelling Characters
http://vignettestraining.blogspot.com/2007/02/compelling-characters-in-scenario-based.html

I’ve been robbed
http://vignettestraining.blogspot.com/2008/03/ive-been-robbed-ive-been-sexually.html

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

"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

Stories & Scenarios in e-Learning 2.0

Web 2.0 and e-Learning 2.0 succeed partly through conversations and exchanges of stories and scenarios.

Obama's inauguration had millions of people each one with a unique story to tell. Imagine the conversations in blogs, twitters, photo-sharing, etc. Mind-bugling.

Tony O'Driscol talks of a similar example during the post-Virginia Tech event.

Tony Karrer suggests the need for the New Work Literacy. I agree. Though, in my humble opinion, aside from learning how to search or use tags, learners and trainers must re-learn making conversations in e-Learning 2.0 meaningful, engaging, enriching and value-adding.

What is the quality of your conversations?

Ray Jimenez, PhD

Book Release - Scenario-Based Learning (SBL): Using Stories To Engage e-Learners"

After hundreds of hours conducting workshops, developing SBLs, learning and researching with friends, my book Scenario-Based Learning (SBL): Using Stories To Engage e-Learners" is out. Go to www.lulu.com, search for SBL or Ray Jimenez.

It has over 200 pages and a dozen of online demos, resources and references. The book has exercises and examples. I am happy to say that if the reader follows the exercises, he/she can develop an SBL.

I used storytelling in writing the book ... practicing what I am preaching.

These are some chapter titles:

Emotional bursts
Chatter
Fluff and absurdities
Bucket list
One thousand cranes
Groundhog day
Trip to the monastery
Etc.

I had so much fun writing the book!

A million for those who helped me.

I am sure you will it find valuable.

Ray Jimenez, PhD

Orlando Guild Articulate - Session on Stories and SBL

March 9-10, 2009, I will present on Stories and SBLs - how to engage eLearners.

My presentation starts with the story of "Pursuit of Happines" as a stage to show the elements of stories and how they engage learners.

Then I share on how to build scenarios by "embedding learning goals and learning themes in stories."

I then debunk the myth that "learners must get direct feedback in SBLs so they don't miss learning points." This myth is so unnatural in stories and SBLs and kills the story and the SBL itself. As a natural consequence of a good story, learners will learn when they make an error or succeed in their decision.

This will be fun!

Ray Jimenez, PhD
3-Minuet e-Learning
Scenario-Based Learning (SBL)

Do You Tell Stories, Rumors or Controversies?

Jakob Nielsen: E-Learning: An Oxymoron? Story Telling, Narrative and Web Reading, and Social Learning

Jakob Nielsen Alert Box, June 9, 2008, compares Writing Style for Print vs. Web.
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Application Points: Participants in social learning are ALL engaged but differ in pursuing stories. Creators are “'ruthless” problem-solvers. The spectators allow others to weave the stories. In Learning 2.0, stories are foremost.
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First, I like the way he adds a summary on top of the page:
__________________________________
Summary: Linear vs. non-linear. Author-driven vs. reader-driven. Storytelling vs. ruthless pursuit of actionable content. Anecdotal examples vs. comprehensive data. Sentences vs. fragments.
_________________________________

The summary tells the reader instantly of the "application points." So starting today, I should apply what I preach. Add “Application Points” in my Blogs and comments.

My second observation is how Nielsen connects the role of story telling with web scanning and “ruthless pursuit of actionable content” as opposed to linear, author-driven narrative.

"In print, you can spice up linear narrative with anecdotes and individual examples that support a storytelling approach to exposition. On the Web, such content often feels like a filler; it slows down users and stands in the way of their getting to the point."

"Web content must be brief and get to the point quickly, because users are likely to be on a specific mission. In many cases, they've pulled up the page through a search. Web users want actionable content; they don't want to fritter away their time on (otherwise enjoyable) stories that are tangential to their current goals. "

Nielsen reinforced what I often observed (e-Learning Behaviors). In web scanning, searching and learning, the reader uses the website to support his/her own story (to piece together their own story), while in linear, author-driven narrative for educational purposes, the author leads in the storytelling approach. The author can spice up the stories. The reader allows the author "to creatively construct the experience" for the reader.

Nielsen's ideas helped me connect storytelling, engagement and learning in social learning environments. I continue to wrestle with these issues. Scanning, picking fragments of data is our way of completing “incomplete stories”. In Social Learning, Networking and Collaboration, the learner or user characterized as a creator is goal-driven and takes some action to solve or satisfy his/her needs. The creator writes a Blog, shares video or makes comments on others' Blogs as a way of finding a solution or following a path with the end result of resolving some concerns.

For instance, when I asked others why they Blog, oftentimes, they say:

“I want to be part of a conversation. The conversation adds different dimensions to my thinking process. I always don't rush to write a Blog, but I read (form of listening) what others are saying. I ask questions. I devise my own answers and in some cases, I ask others to comment on my thoughts. It is a very personal process.”

From Nielsen's comment, I infer that scanning information in the Internet and social networking is a “process” of completing one's story. Our needs are our own stories and our stories engage us to action. Roger Schank (Tell Me A Story) says, our minds consist of “incomplete stories.” Seeking to complete our stories in conversations aids us to complete our stories and move along.”

Practical Impacts:

In social learning, participants get more engaged when postings are conversations and storytelling. That is why successful professional Bloggers who blog for a living, use stories and rumors to engage readers.

Can we do the same in business social learning? Do you tell stories?

Some things I have tried doing.

1. Start with a controversy, conflict or throw a “monkey wrench” in your audience's mind.
2. Use exaggerated visuals. They communicate faster, crispier, and vividly.
3. Start with “summaries” like Nielsen's Alerts or “Application Points” – ideas that really matter.
4. Be Succinct (Opppss .. I better end this).
   
   
   

Ray Jimenez, PhD http://www.vignettestraining.com/
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"