The Power of Choice and Consequence in Learning
Are you old enough to remember the choose your own adventure books? Those works of fiction for kids from the early 80’s where you got to change the direction of the story by making choices for the main character. You’d come to the end of a section and would be asked what you want to do next. Depending on your choice, you’d turn to a certain page in the book and then continue the story off of that choice you made. Reading the same book could be done multiple times with a different ending each time. Today, not only are there new titles in the choose your own adventure genre for kids, you can find books for adults too.
Or maybe you remember interactive fiction (IF). First popular around the same time frame as the choose your own adventure books, it often featured role playing and complex puzzles to solve that was done in a text-only format on a computer. I loved watching the AMC show Halt and Catch Fire, which took place in the 70’s and 80’s and revolved around the rise of the personal computer and eventually the Internet. One of the characters, Cameron Howe, a programmer, built an IF game she called Parallax. She’d get frustrated as the majority of people that tried it didn’t like it or even understand it.
Chooseco is a company that has revitalized the choose your own adventure book genre. In this article done by Atlas Obscura, they lay out in images the twists and turns the plots behind a number of the books take. It’s very cool to look at them and see how each differs. They’re like individual works of art. You can see from the initial choice you have to make in a book how it branches out into other choices. Then some of those choices end, while others continue to branch or to take the reader back to a previous location.
The instructional design connection here are the potential branching scenarios that make up the foundation of these types of entertainment. There’s a problem or puzzle to solve and the story you follow doesn’t unfold on a linear path. Through your own choices, you can end up with different outcomes and consequences. That’s what makes the branching scenario — also called simulations by some — so good for learning and not just for entertainment.
And those decisions made in the early stages, says instructional designer Cathy Moore, affect the later stages of the story. Moore says that makes this kind of pedagogy good for:
· Recognizing and challenging their own assumptions
· Recovering from mistakes in a long or complex process
· Navigating extended, ambiguous situations
· Deciding when to stop gathering information and act
In a learning context, elearning developer and training consultant Don Clark notes that branching scenarios:
· Are built around real-life experiences that participants will face in their future learning or work lives
· Focus on application instead of theory
· Are low stakes allowing the participant to make choices and learn about the consequences without actually experiencing those consequences
While instructional designer Nikos Androitis states:
· Participants take an active role in their learning via the making of decisions and this can increase engagement
· Participants are taught to better use skills like problem solving and critical thinking
· Branching scenarios compliment other more information-driven forms of pedagogy in providing the participant with both the theory and practice needed to learn
And branching scenarios are good for almost any form of content, according to Karla Gutierrez from the company Shift. They’re especially good for content that deals with complex events where every choice impacts the decisions to come, says Gutierrez.
Not only are branching scenarios productive and fun to use, they’re fun to make. I really enjoy the times when I get to work on this type of content for faculty and staff here at the University. Next time I’ll talk more about some tips and tricks for developing branching scenarios.
