In this article, Michael Thomson, senior consultant at HSI®, describes the benefits of using an interactive narrative learning strategy for eLearning design and development. An interactive narrative essentially provides a conceptual framework, context, and agency, while increasing immersion, invoking emotion, making eLearning memorable.
What Is Interactive Narrative Learning And Why Is It A Great Way To Design eLearning?
To make eLearning fun and engaging for your learners, adopt an interactive narrative learning strategy. Popular in the gaming world, interactive narrative learning is a digital learning experience that uses storytelling to structure learning. Combining traditional narrative with visual arts and interactivity, its purpose is to place the learner in the digital environment, so that they believe their choices are central to the unfolding of the story. Presented with an overarching theme, learners make meaningful decisions that shape the outcome of the story.
Here are 6 reasons why interactive narrative is an effective elearning strategy:
1. It Provides A Conceptual Framework To Structure Your eLearning
2. It Makes eLearning Contextualized
3. It Means Agency
4. It Increases Immersion
5. It Invokes Emotion
6. It Is Memorable
To find out more about interactive narrative elearning, click here to read the full article on eLearning Industry.
Final Word
As James Wallis says, “Our brains have a natural affinity not only for enjoying narratives but also for creating them. In the same way that our mind sees an abstract pattern and resolves it into a face, our imagination sees a pattern of events and resolves it into a story”. Using a narrative framework with interactivity provides agency, a deep contextual experience that’s immersive, and the opportunity to invoke emotion, makes interactive narrative an effective and memorable instructional design strategy for building eLearning and engaging your learners. The storytelling structure holds it all together, connecting the learner to an important human tradition that makes learning stick.