Designing Predicaments Step 5: The Right Choice

Welcome back to our walk through the stages of bringing storytelling into our elearning scenarios.

Today we’ll look at stage 5 – the right choice.

Up till now we’ve put our character in a situation where they have to make a decision. We’ve added other characters to present different viewpoints. We’ve added factors like timing or emotion to increase the stress on them.

Now we start on the decisions they have to make. In most elearning scenarios this amounts to a multiple-choice question. The best choice and a number of wrong choices – let’s say for argument, two.

In Step 5 we simply state the best choice. What will the character do if they already fully understand and accept the learning point you’re trying to get over? What would the high-performing individual do in this situation?

If it’s an action, describe the action. If it’s something they’d say, put the words in their mouth.

Where does it come from? The key learning point you defined in Step 1. In instructional design terms, the behavioral objective.

So in our ‘positive feedback’ example, that was

“the learner (a new manager) will choose to invite the member of staff to her own desk area to give the positive feedback”

So the choice will be ‘Invite Alex to come to your desk’

Even if your main learning point is what they shouldn’t do – learning to avoid a common mistake – it’s always best to write ‘good’ path of the scenario first.

But that’s only part of the story. There’s no point in teaching someone that the right thing to do with people called Alex is invite them to your desk!

That’s why we focus on Step 6 – what’s the principle behind this? What can you apply to other situations?

That’s what we’ll look at next.