How to Increase Engagement with eLearning Scenarios
Want to create eLearning scenarios that truly engage your audience? There’s a secret hidden in Star Wars that every instructional designer should know…. PLUS get 5 tips to make your scenarios even more effective.
Watch the Video HERE:
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What’s Wrong with Traditional eLearning?
Low audience engagement is frustrating for instructional designers. You spend hours building out a training course. But then - when you finally roll the course out, it seems to fall into a black hole...
Some people totally ignore the course, while others rush through it. And when you check with the people who did complete the course, it seems like they’ve forgotten 90% of what they learned.
Many eLearning developers and instructional designers live with this frustrating reality every day. But it doesn’t have to be this way...
The Secret to Engaging eLearning Scenarios
In this video, I’ll share a secret that will take your eLearning scenarios to the next level. This strategy is so simple, yet very few people are using it. And make sure to watch through to the end, when I’ll reveal five tips to make your scenarios even more effective.
How to Use the Hero’s Journey in eLearning
The secret to creating engaging scenarios is to wrap them in a story structure called the Hero’s Journey. You might already be familiar with the Hero’s Journey, but stick with me here, because I’m going to show you a new way to apply it to scenario-based learning.
The Hero’s Journey is a literary pattern that shows up in books, movies, and popular shows. This familiar story arc grabs people’s attention, tugs at their emotions, and helps them remember a story long after it’s finished.
What Instructional Designers can Learn from Star Wars
To demonstrate how the Hero’s journey works, let’s take a look at a well-known movie: Star Wars, A New Hope.
At the beginning of the story, the hero, Luke Skywalker has an ordinary, boring life. He's a farm boy, living with his uncle and aunt on the planet Tatooine. And it seems like his life is going nowhere.
Then - there's an inciting incident. In this case, Luke’s uncle and aunt get killed by Stormtroopers. Suddenly, Luke has to leave his ordinary life behind, and decide what he's going to do next.
The Hero’s Journey in Star Wars
At some point in the story, the hero usually meets a mentor or a guide, who points them in the right direction. In this case, Luke meets Jedi master, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan takes Luke under his wing and begins teaching him about the force.
Then the hero has to face a series of challenges and decisions. These challenges can become increasingly difficult as time goes on. Sometimes things don’t turn out the way they want, but the hero learns from these mistakes, and grows even stronger.
Ultimately, the hero overcomes all of the challenges, and shows they’re capable of making courageous and wise decisions. And by the end of the story, the hero’s life has been completely transformed, and they reach a happy ending.
The Hero’s Journey vs Traditional eLearning
Notice how different the Hero’s Journey Framework is from Traditional eLearning.
In Traditional eLearning, the structure usually goes something like this. It begins with a lot of information transfer in the form of presentations, slides, or click and reveal activities. There might be intermittent knowledge checks, followed by a quiz.
Sometimes the information is chunked down, and various activities like drag and drop interactions or mini games are added for fun. But at the end of the day, there isn’t any story.
Benefits of using the Hero’s Journey Framework
When you use the Hero’s Journey as your framework, everything changes. Simply by adding a few extra screens, you can introduce the hero of the story, show an inciting incident, and then take them through various challenges that ultimately lead to a happy ending.
5 Tips for eLearning Scenarios
1) Start with a Sympathetic Hero
2) Focus on Story instead of School
3) Stay Flexible within the Framework
4) Use the Hero’s Journey like Glue
5) Learn more about Interactive Storytelling
To find out how to use these tips effectively, check out the details below.
5 Tips for Effective Scenario-Based Learning (Instructional Design Tips)
Tip 1: Start with a Sympathetic Hero
By introducing a relatable hero at the beginning of your scenario, you give the viewers someone to root for. This focuses your eLearning scenario on a person instead of an abstract problem or learning objective. It’s this personal touch that awakens people's emotions - and that’s what makes scenario-based learning so effective.
Tip 2: Focus on Story instead of School
Almost every Pixar movie and Hollywood blockbuster film uses the Hero’s Journey framework. So when craft your eLearning scenarios, think of yourself as a creative director, instead of as a school instructor. This will help you avoid those information dumps that everyone dreads.
Tip 3: Stay Flexible within the Framework
I use the Hero’s Journey Framework every time I create an interactive video for one of my clients. But I don’t always use the Framework exactly the same way it shows up in Star Wars.
For instance, you don’t always need to introduce a character to serve as the hero’s mentor. Sometimes, it doesn’t make sense in the story you’re trying to convey, and there might be another way for the hero to get guidance.
For example, in my interactive video, Workplace War Zone, the hero Steve doesn’t have a mentor in the form of another person. Instead, Steve simply remembers taking the Emotional Connection training courses, then goes back to review those videos before he starts using his EmC techniques at work.
So stay flexible and use the Hero’s Journey in a way that makes sense for your project.
Tip 4: Use the Hero’s Journey like Glue
Because the Hero’s Journey is such a familiar storytelling pattern, it acts like glue for learning. Think of the Star Wars movie again - if I asked you to recall what Darth Vadar’s voice sounds when he talks, it’s easy to remember that, right?
So if you have to present a bunch of disjointed facts or word problems, see if there’s a way to connect them within a story narrative. That will make the learning a lot more “sticky”.
Tip 5: Learn more about Interactive Storytelling
This is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s so much more to learn about the Hero’s Journey, how to craft compelling characters, and the art of interactive storytelling that I won’t be able to cover here.
If you’d like to learn more, I highly recommend downloading the Free Case Study at ScenarioSecrets.com - I’ll include a link in the description below.
Watch The Instructional Design Tip Series
In the coming weeks, I’ll add even more videos to this Instructional Design Tips series. You’ll see those videos on my YouTube channel as soon as they're available. Click here to watch the Instructional Design Tips series now.
Are Interactive Videos Right for You?
I design interactive videos that take training to the next level. To find out if this could be the right solution for your organization, see samples of my work HERE.