A comic-themedtemplate and stock characters might make your eLearning project seemlike a comic, but a true instructional comic must begin with visualizing thestory. Think about it. When usingthe video medium to communicate a learning concept, you wouldn’trandomly shoot video without a plan and a script. Similarly, you can’t shovecontent into a comic-style format and call it a learning comic. Myrecommendation is to visualize the story first when designing instructionalcomics.
Think first about the story
Start by putting on your design hat and thinkabout the story you want to tell. If you approach this phase withfocused instructional intent, the rest of the project will fall into place. Itis hard because some content, such as compliance and policy-driven subjects,are dry by nature. But our brains are wired for stories, and storytellingis the most powerful means of communication. Your audience wants to relate tothe content. The emotional connection between the content and your audience isthe hook.
Determine character roles
A comic character can take on the role of a human, an animal,or an object. Think of your characters in terms of roles as opposed toappearance. Here is a basic list of characters you could choose from:
- The hero or protagonist—usually the maincharacter; friendly and relatable
- The villain or antagonist—struggles with,challenges, or fights the hero
- The dispatcher—sends the hero off on his or herjourney
- The donor or helper—prepares or assists the heroin the quest
- The prize—the goal or objective
There are countless ways of approaching your story usingcharacter roles. One example could be that you are selling a product and place thehero or protagonist in the center of the story. The product could be the donoror helper character. The villain or antagonist could be the problem the productis attempting to solve. Another example would have the customer be the prizethat needs saving, with the product as the hero.
However you decide to approach your story, character roles willhelp you frame the plot and overall story structure.
Create the plot
The plot motivates and drives the reader/viewer through thestory. For an eLearning instructional comic, ponder how a learner might performa task, learn a new procedure, or change a behavior. As you think about yourcontent with different character roles, consider how they would in interact inyour story.
Here are seven basic plots, with instructional suggestions.
- Overcoming the monster—the hero sets out toconfront the villain that threatens his or her home
- How a learner overcomes adversity to becomestronger or wiser
- Rags to riches—the hero begins with little,gains a want, loses it, and fights to regain it
- How a learner owns a mistake or benefits fromtaking risks
- The quest—the hero sets out in search of aspecific prize, overcoming both physical and emotional obstacles to succeed
- How a learner must grow emotionally to succeed
- Voyage and return—hero travels to an unfamiliarplace, befriends new characters, together they overcome difficult obstacles,and the characters help the hero return home
- Demonstrates the power of teamwork and showslearners the benefits of being open to change
- Comedy—the hero begins with confusion,misunderstanding, or mistaken identity, which leads to conflict before endingin celebration
- How a learner might negotiate a difficultsituation or how teams learn how to support each other
- Tragedy—the hero is good but flawed and iscompelled to break the rules, setting in motion a series of events that lead tothe hero’s downfall
- How a learner performs a task or procedure bylearning from mistakes
- Rebirth—the hero is bad or flawed in some wayand is shown his or her true self through a series of events or other characterrelationships that lead to the hero redeeming him or herself
- How learners benefit from having the capacity tochange
Build structure
The structure pulls the character roles and the plot together.There are many story structures used by writers and movie makers. The typicalstory structure used in writing (exposition, plot, climax, falling action,resolution) doesn’t work well when designing instructional comics for eLearningbecause the climax is in the middle of the arc. Also, unlike a 300-page novel, eLearningmust be short. It must capture the learner’s attention immediately, and hold itthrough meeting the learning objectives.
The most common structures that can be applied toinstructional comics are:
- Monomyth—classic tale of hero’s journey; leavinghome on an unknown adventure to then return home with a prize to share with thecommunity
- A new sales representative departs on a longtrip to earn the business of a larger customer
- Mountain—mapping a story that builds to aclimatic ending
- Finance and accounting discover a major errorand forensic accounting skills are applied to solve the problem before alooming shareholder meeting.
- Nested—several narratives run at the same time; whyis at the center, surrounded by the howand what
- Change management of why a new policy orprocedure is introduced, surrounded by how it impacts employees and what theorganization will do to mitigate the change
- Sparklines—comparing what iswith what could be
- Organizational culture
- In mediasresstarting in the center of the story, where it is the most exciting
- Executing a new health care initiative thatsaves a life, and then what led up to that critical moment
- Convergence—different modes of thinking cometogether to form a single idea
- Two or more roles having similar but unrelatednegative experiences who unintentionally share with each other, and thatinspires a solution
- False Start—begins with a predictable storyline,disrupting, and starting over
- The predictable safety and personal protectiveequipment training disrupted with role reversal where the equipment becomes theHero characters
- Petal—multiple unconnected stories center arounda single concept that all relate back to a single message
- Diversity training with unconnected scenariosthat merge together to increase awareness.
The key with structure in an instructional comic is theclimax, which provides the excitement or the drama. Regardless of whichstructure you choose, a good technique is writing how the objectives are met,and then write the instruction by backing into the structure. For example, apetal structure with a rebirth plot around diversity could contain two or morescenarios where an offender, the Hero, redeems him or herself throughawareness.
Conclusion
Instructional designers who choose to present their work ina comic medium must consider the story first. Otherwise, the eLearning is justartwork skinned around content and made to look like a comic. A good story willelicit emotion in your audience and connect them to the objective. Remember tovisualize the story first when designing instructional comics.
Citations
Booker, Christopher. The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories.New York, NY: Continuum, 2004.
Smeda, N., E. Dakich,E., and N. Sharda. “Developinga Framework for Advancing e-Learning through Digital Storytelling.” International Association for Development ofthe Information Society (iadis) Digital Library, Vol. 1, pp. 169-176. July2010.
Sparkol. “8Classic Storytelling Techniques for Engaging Presentations.” 28November 2014.
Wikipedia. “TheSeven Basic Plots.”
