Pssst. Want to know the secret to engaging e-Learning content? The key to unlocking a captivated audience is strong storytelling.
Stories have the power to transport our mind to an imaginary world, tug at our heartstrings and engage us to take action.
We all have a story to tell and e-Learning is no different. It’s a story we use to teach our students.
Learning through storytelling is nothing new to us. From an early age, we were wired to enjoy stories. Think about all the books your parents read to you as a toddler and the cartoons you watched as a child. They were all based on a story. Incorporate storytelling into your e-Learning material to resonate with your learners.
5 Links Between Storytelling and e-Learning
Stories help students process and recall information at a later date. It’s no wonder storytelling is referred to as an art. Incorporate that art into your e-Learning program, and you will have a powerful tool.
Using a story as part of the learning process has many benefits including:
#1 Stories Create the Motivation
If your learner is motivated, you don’t need to persuade them. A story can be all the motivation someone needs to want to learn and achieve an outcome. Give them the hook that will motivate them to complete the program.
#2 Stories are for Sharing
For thousands of years, good stories have been shared, passed down through generations long before they could be written out. Humans love to share stories. If you want your message shared, turn it into a story. Make it memorable and easy to recall so people can talk about it with colleagues, friends and family.
#3 Story Format
Most stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. Your eLearning material should use the same structure to make it easy to digest and recall. When preparing your content, think of it as a story, and it is more likely to follow a logical order.
#4 Stories that Involve Emotion
If you want to make your message memorable, add something that taps into the learner’s feelings. When we are emotionally involved in a project, we are more likely to retain that information compared to something that makes us sad, angry or happy. Know your audience and how the material will make them feel.
#5 Stories with Pictures
Every good storybook has high-quality images, and eLearning material should be no different. Source graphics that will appeal to the students. The pictures are the difference between an average and excellent eLearning program.
RELATED: e-Learning ROI: 5 Ways to Measure your Program’s Effectiveness
What Does Your e-Learning Need to Tell a Good Story?
Ensure your story has a plot which is the path or structure the story takes. Most stories have at least one main character that the reader can relate. You should set the scene for your story either somewhere enjoyable or familiar to the reader, and finally, the tone or language of the story should fit the reader.
Engaging e-Learning Examples with a Storyline
Every brand has a message. Communicating the message through storytelling makes it memorable. There are plenty of successful e-Learning corporate stories, here are just three examples.
Virgin Atlantic Flight Safety
Elucidat nominated the Virgin Atlantic Animated Flight Safety Film as an inspirational e-Learning example for its storytelling approach and the strong script. Capturing the attention of the flying public to pay attention to the safety information isn’t easy, but the five-minute video was more successful than the usual flight attendant presentation.
Swansea’s Medieval History
The story of the UK city of Swansea and its medieval history is told through interactive engaging e-Learning content. Multimedia content for each location appears with detailed information on the past, images, and tours making it a valuable resource for visitors to the city.
Connect with Haji Kamal
This e-Learning program was developed for the US army as homework for a lesson on building rapport across cultures. The game places the learner in the story as a US Army sergeant in Afghanistan helping a young lieutenant overcome cultural differences.
If you’d like a solid storytelling strategy to help you create engaging e-Learning content, send us a message and we’ll start crafting a narrative.