More Tips and Tricks for Developing Branching Scenarios

Last time around, I was discussing through a second blog post, some tips for designing branching scenarios. In summary, there were five C’s to consider:

1. Challenge

2. Choice

3. Consequences

4. Characters

5. Context

Here are a few more random tips and tricks that should compliment nicely the last post.

Create Realistic Scenarios

This instructional methodology only works if you use realistic example of a real-world situation that your learners will face in the future. Start with the end in mind (i.e., your learning targets). By the time learners finish your scenario, what should they now know, be able to do or feel? Once you have your targets, work backwards, that is, work through the next six steps. Creating realistic scenarios relates to CONTEXT.

Have a Trigger Event

The “trigger” event is the crux ofyour story. It is an event that launches the story or the plot around which the narrative develops. The trigger event, of course, must have relevance for your learners. Creating a trigger event relates to CHALLENGE.

Identify Common Mistakes

What are the common mistakes people make in this situation? Where do people get stuck in this process? If you have access to learners or people who have recently learned the skill, ask them too. The mistakes, or incorrect options, are what will help provide feedback for learning but in a low-stakes kind of way (e.g., I don’t want to crash a plane but better to do so in a flight simulator!). Identifying the common mistakes relates to both CHOICE and CONSEQUENCES.

Focus on the Correct Path

When you create your initial draft, consider starting first with the ideal path. Focus just on the correct or best choices. Don’t write all of the mistakes and their consequences on the first pass through writing. At the end of the scenario, after learners have made all the correct decisions, write the ending. The ending should show what it looks like when people meet the learning targets. Focusing on the correct path also relates to both CHOICE and CONSEQUENCES.

(Maybe) Be Emotional and Get your Learners to Relate

For scenarios that involve interacting with other people, it can be challenging for learners to truly connect with virtual personalities. And if they can’t connect, then they’re unlikely to make realistic decisions or relate the impact of their decisions to real workplace scenarios. Information that evokes emotions in us is more powerful and is retained for longer periods than cold, hard facts. One way to build emotion is to use media to engage multiple senses. Another is to consider using short videos with real actors. However, in ten year’s time you may not want your learners’ to simply remember that fun and engaging branching scenario you created (i.e., episodic memory), you want them to remember what they were supposed to have learned from it (i.e., semantic memory). Use emotion carefully. It does make things more memorable but that is often a general kind of memorable, like that awesome restaurant you and your significant other ate at all those years ago. You remember that event in a whole kind of way but probably not the specifics, like what exactly you both ate. Getting your learners to relate focuses around CHARACTERS.

Tell a Story Visually

Make it come alive in front of the learners’ eyes. Scenarios should narrate a story. But beyond that, they should be visual. This will help grab — and keep — your learner’s attention more effectively. And you don’t need to be a playwright to tell a good story. A simple three-act structure (i.e., set-up, confrontation and resolution) will do the trick. Telling a story visually relates to CONTEXT.

One more post to share on this topic next time and that will be some places you can go to see great examples of branching scenario content.