“Jenny felt an intense pang of despair, and her muscles involuntarily tensed to run for the door. She had just logged in to her online course, only to discover that her professor had uploaded another hour-long lecture full of dense slides in bullet-point format. She fought her growing sense of dread and got up to pour herself a cup of coffee. It was going to be a long night.” Does this scenario seem familiar? Presenting information as a stream of facts and figures can quickly become dull and overwhelming. It can soon lead to cognitive overload and disengagement.

Research shows that providing information in the form of a story results in higher student engagement and better information retention. Creating an interactive story that allows students to make choices and see the effects of those choices can be even more compelling. This may sound intimidating, but you do not need to have a background in creative writing, or expensive or complicated tools, to create a great interactive story. In this session you’ll get hands-on experience with examples of storyboards and interactive stories, and you’ll have an opportunity to create your own powerful story for learning.

In this session, you will learn:

• About the benefits of presenting information in the form of a story
• To identify the elements a story should contain to activate deep learning
• How to create an interactive story for online delivery using a free tool called Twine
• How Twine can help you storyboard more complicated media projects

Audience:

Designers and developers

Technology discussed in this session:

Twine, Muzzy Lane, and Articulate Storyline

Technology required:

Attendees can download Twine if they would like to, but they can access and use it from any browser without creating an account.