Using Storytelling and the Bizarreness Effect to Improve Learning Experiences
s i h t t u o b A Book
What is storytelling?
Well, this guide is here to answer that question. We’ll talk you through how to create content that engages your learners, using tried and tested techniques to help people remember what they’ve learned. By the end, you’ll have a step-by-step guide to creating your own learning content, with the benefit of our extensive experience, not only with learning and development, but with storytelling and design, too. And you’ll have a pretty good picture of what it is that makes learning this way so special.
TheorPyotwelelring of St Storytelling has been around as long as mankind, with cave paintings showing the part it plays in communication and teaching us about our most ancient relatives. As well as for entertainment, storytelling is a really effective way of learning – As children, we learn through stories. Think back to your favourite childhood book or film and remember how much you loved it - It captured your attention and imagination.
o t g n i l l e t y r o t S g n i s U f o s t i f e n The Be Frame your Learning
Blended Learning
o t g n i l l e t y r o t S g n i s U f o s t i f e n The Be Frame your Learning Using a story will help frame your learning in a bunch of ways. Not least of which is that any story has a beginning, middle and end. Sounds simple, but every good story has them and so should great learning content. More than that though, a story will: 1. Carry your learning and your learner. 2. Make them want to come back to learn more. 3. Probably make them want to go on and learn more about the topic they’ve just taken.
Harnessing Storytelling in
your Learning Experiences ent challenges is m p lo ve e d d n a ig learning ure. Storytelling lt cu One of today’s b g in rn a le a nd support to create, drive a emorable and m , g in g a g n e t n makes conte r a great learning fo s e k a m , rn tu enjoyable. This, in for any learning ck lo b g in ild u b l a ssenti h each and every it experience – an e w e k ta e w s p e are the st culture. Up next we make. piece of content ur rmula to create yo fo r u o u yo e iv g own to es. We’ve broken it d ing learning stori ir sp in d n a e rr a iz own b
Bizarre or unusual things
stick in people’s memory t c e f f e s s e n e r r The biza The bizarreness effect is that well-known scientific theory that Einstein never invented. We firmly believe in its existence though! Its concept is simple... Visualise two identical introductions to a course on ‘Having Honest Conversations’. One features a standard text opening covering off the objectives, the other features Sherlock Holmes investigating the curious incident of who left the crumb-infested knife in the butter dish! Which one would you remember later?
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Scripting This is the backbone of any project. Often, you can involve a subject matter expert, but be aware that you’ll always need to transform this into a learner script to ensure it’s engaging, easy to understand and not too technical! The average person can speak at around 150 words per minute, so bear this in mind when calculating the length of your script and content. The script stage is also the perfect time to introduce the bizarreness effect and grab the attention of your learner, with a quirky introduction, eye-grabbing statistic or funky cultural reference.
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n g i s e D l a n o i t c u r Inst Once you’ve created your script, get an Instructional Designer to help you work out how best to deliver that material. Which parts should be interactive? Which could be animated? Which could be delivered through blended learning? Is your content hitting the learning objectives (is it actually teaching people something)?
g n i d r a o b y r o t S This is the creation of a frame-by-frame view of what’s going to happen on screen. We hand-draw everything, but you might be using stock imagery, background video that you’ve filmed or simply constructed scenes that ensure that the on-screen action matches the text and voiceover. This stage also covers off the digital creation of any assets you need so that you can put everything together.
Voiceover This can almost happen at any stage of production - after you’ve got your script, of course! VO (that’s ‘voiceover’ in industry speak) makes a huge difference. We’ve all had to listen to courses where the voiceover just drones through the exact same text that you can read on-screen. You can make the most beautifully animated or lovingly constructed course but ruin it by getting Bob from Marketing or Sue from IT to voice it. Don’t underestimate the benefit of some truly conversational and characterful voiceover. You wouldn’t drone on at your mates in the pub, so don’t do it to your learners.
Animation The most labour-intensive part of any piece of content, if you’re going down this route, of course. This can range from whiteboard style animation to high-end 2D character animation. A typical 10-15-minute course will take around 10-12 weeks if you’re pulling out all the stops.
Course build This is all about bringing together all the component parts of your course and using a relevant authoring tool to create a SCORM-compliant piece of content. Most tools these days allow you to do far more than just stitch things together, so you can create something fantastic.
e c n a r u s s A y t i l a Qu We do this during and after every single stage above. Check, check and check again. You don’t want things going awry after all your hard work, so make sure you’re checking everything, including the words on screen, the script, the VO and the graphics. You don’t want typos or blurry images detracting from your message.
Things may seem unreal at first, and you may feel
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We think about accessibility right the way through any project. This includes creating learning as ‘mobile first’ and then also thinking about colours, text on screen and delivering appropriate subtitles so that learners with different needs can all access the content. Other blended learning helps too, like transcripts and podcasts.
Using storytelling to support the cha
allenge & create a learning culture One of today’s big learning and development challenges is to create, drive and support a learning culture. Storytelling makes content engaging, memorable and enjoyable. This, in turn, makes for a great learning experience – an essential building block for any learning culture. Ultimately, it’s about creating courses that people want to take. Nothing will do that better than an authentic story, featuring characters that resonate and scenarios a learner can empathise with. Add animation or video content into the mix, and you’ll create a compelling combination of materials that support the drive to encourage, embrace and enjoy learning throughout your organisation.
t n e t n o c g n i n r a e l e r e l l i k r u o y Checklist for Research Scripting Instructional design Storyboarding Voiceover Animation Course build Quality assurance Subtitles Popcorn – sit back, relax, and enjoy your masterpiece