Combining Simulation and Story to Create Memorable Learning
Online Events Archive
Online Forums 2013 - May 10, 2013


Jack McGrath
President and Creative Director
Digitec Interactive
To remain competitive, today’s business leaders want to increase employee performance significantly—and they’re turning to Learning and Development to make this happen. But according to research by Edgar Dale and the National Training Laboratory Institute for Applied Behavioral Science, passive, lecture-style learning results in only about 5% learning retention—an extremely inefficient way to address this goal. And when this style of learning isn’t applied, retention rates decline even further over time. For over 2,000 years, dramatists have understood the power of story in creating memorable, teachable moments. An interactive story that combines story and simulation can help your learners learn and apply instantly, making decisions that reveal the story and reinforce the learning objectives.
Participants in this session will follow a specific example that describes the “story-arc” model—a model that maps learning objectives to decision “plot points”—and shows how learners can apply their learning through decision-making and experiencing the immediate consequences first-hand.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to apply the story-arc model to specific learning objectives
- How to map simulation to your story arc by aligning learning objectives to specific decision “plot points”
- A simple way to manage multi-path simulation design without going crazy
Handout(s)
Handouts are available for Learning Guild members. Please log in or join to download these files.
Recording
This recording is available for Learning Guild members. Please log in or join to download this file.

Upcoming Events
Recent Job Postings
- Instructional Designer
Pittsburgh, PA, USA - Interactive Learning Experience Developer
Waco, TX - Learning Experience Developer
Waco, TX - Learning Designer
Hartford, CT (Nationwide) - E-Learning Developer - Contract, Remote
United States