Looking to add some engaging elements to your eLearningcontent? Go watch some television.
Much has been written about shifting viewing habits aspeople become less bound by scheduled programs and more content is available on-demand.While the amount of time people (Americans especially) spend in front of thescreen has been widely panned, one thing is for sure: The amount of time we’respending in front of screens is growing.
However, it’s not narratives alone that have us hooked.
Since the beginning, broadcasters have been coming up withtechniques to engage us, stimulate us, and keep us focused on the tube. Many ofthese techniques can be easily adapted for eLearning, and when used correctly,further engage consumers of learning content.
Let’s take a look at a few.
Have a narrative strategy
Television has been using different and creative narrativestrategies for decades. Narrative strategies are, essentially, storytellingtechniques that can be modified to tell the story from a different perspective.By using a narrative strategy, you can unify your learning content and keepviewers engaged.
Here are a few narrative techniques that easily lendthemselves to eLearning. You can introduce these elements to just about any creativeeLearning presentation.
- Backstory:The story that happens before the story; the past life of characters, history, orthe setting that lends a context for what is to come. Example: St. Eligius was an always-underfunded,understaffed, often-forgotten hospital in one of Boston’s poorestneighborhoods. It maintained this reputation for decades.
- Cliffhanger:The narrative ends unresolved. Example: Whoshot JR?
- Audience surrogate:A character who expresses the questions, confusion, and experience of theaudience. The audience can better relate to the narrative through thesurrogate. I use this technique in a program we produce called Code Cafe. The main character in theprogram is not the coding expert, but the person who is learning to code in acoffee shop. Viewers of this program relate to learning to code through thissurrogate.
- First-personnarration: The story is presented from the point of view of acharacter—most often the protagonist. Example: An adult Kevin Arnold narrates TheWonder Years.
- Spoof:Narrative is presented in the style of humorous imitation. Example: The movie Airplane! spoofs 1970s disaster films.
Front sell and back sell
In the interest of 100 percent accuracy, this one is morefrom radio than television, but the technique is used in both media (Figure 1).The idea is to promote what is coming up in the next few minutes or somethinginteresting that has happened in the past. Since you’re not playing REOSpeedwagon records, you’re going to want to promote (or “sell”) parts of yourcontent coming up that are particularly compelling.
Figure 1: Good ideas come from radio, too
A front sell can be as simple as: “In our next module we’llbe looking at seven things successful leaders do before breakfast to impactothers,” or: “In just about six minutes you’ll actually be creating your veryown database, so watch carefully.”
A front sell can add just a little drama and intrigue aswell as giving viewers a chance to anticipate good things to come.
In radio, they’ve been using front sells since thebeginning. You can front sell within your eLearning, and avoid any referencesto ’80s power ballads.
Front sells and back sells have the additional benefit of previewingand reinforcing material, which can help with setting appropriate expectationsand with retention.
Professional host
Pat Sajak and Vanna White are almost universally liked. Fordecades, they’ve smoothly moved contests from initial puzzle to final spin tothe bonus round of Wheel of Fortune. Butyou don’t need a multimillion-dollar hosting team to succeed in your learningcontent. Hosting duties in learning can include providing backgroundinformation, interviewing subject matter experts, and even helping viewersevaluate what they’ve learned.
The host does not need to be a subject matter expert. Astrong host will be very comfortable on camera, be able to interact withsubject matter experts, and, most importantly, be able to forge a connectionwith viewers.
We’ve used everyone from our office manager to Miss USA(really!) to host learning content that we’ve developed, giving our content amore television-like feel. (Figure 2—not us, by the way.)
Figure 2: An affable and engaging host can help put subject matterexperts at ease and present material on camera effectively
Motion graphics
Watch the average newscast today and the background isalmost always in motion. Bright colors stimulate viewers, and elements likelower thirds and text crawls add elements of energy to the presentation. Thesesame techniques can be used in eLearning content. In most eLearning contentthat I have seen, videos place an interview subject against a boring wall or astark white background. Compare that with a TV newscast, and the contrast istelling. (See Figure 3.)
Figure 3: In LearnToProgram’s WebDev Show, on-camera host Andrew Snyder-Spak introduces a segmentaccompanied by several layers of motion graphics
If you don’t have the in-house capabilities to create motiongraphic assets for your learning content, there are a number of marketplacesthat feature creative professionals who can do this for you economically.
Be episodic
Instead of releasing “courses” and “chapters,” releaseepisodes. An episodic approach lends itself to a better narrative strategy, asyou have “stories” that are wrapped up in each episode and some larger themearcs that inform every episode in your content. We often release content in“seasons” and drip it to learners a week at a time. We find that they oftenlook forward to new content, and knowing it will be released on our websiteeach Thursday, for example, turns the release into an event instead of anobligation to watch.
The fact is that we have a lot to learn from watchingtelevision. People will voluntarily (and eagerly) watch television programming,while avoiding learning content. Perhaps, in borrowing a few techniques fromthe broadcast realm, we can better engage learners in our own learningnarratives.
Thanksfor reading. Have to run. Friends ison.
