Great resources for elearning scenarios

I’ve written so much on elearning scenarios in this site it’s time I pulled all the resources together for easy reference. I’ll add some of the best places to look outside of the site too.

Designing Predicaments – a job aid for scenarios, and a mini-course

Predicaments is a job aid you can get from this site. This series of articles expands on the brief outline in the job aid and is really a beginner’s course in writing simple but dramatic scenarios.

• Designing Predicaments, a job aid for scenarios
• Step 1: the outline
• Step 2: the characters
• Step 3: the situation in detail
• Step 4: pile on the stress!
• Step 5: the right choice
• Step 6: the right reason
• Step 7: the good outcome
• Steps 8 – 11: the distractors
• Steps 12 & 14: sense-check and the call to action
• Step 13: job aids

 

Branching scenario design out loud

This is series of eight posts showing how one fairly complex scenario came together from the initial discussion with the subject expert to a finished Storyline module (which you can download and adapt).

1. Analysing the needs
2. The learning approach
3. The scenario decisions
4. The situation and characters
5. Prototyping in Twine (part 1)
6. Prototyping in Twine (part 2)
7. The full prototype 
8. Into Storyline

Great scenario examples

• Clark Quinn’s Workplace of the Future
• Cathy Moore’s Learning Zeko and Autoloon Ethics
• Deloitte’s Will You Fit Into Deloitte?
• The Met’s Choose A Different Ending (Knife Crime)
• Cathy Moore’s Connect With Haji Kamal
• Elearner Engaged’s The Broken Co-Worker
• Sunil Rao’s Inner Vision – a dialogue with Death

 

Tips and tricks

• Make your scenarios more believable with angels and devils
• When to branch and when to use a mini-scenario
• Action Mapping to elearning scenario prototype
• Feedback in scenarios
• Using Twine for scripting and prototyping
• How to write a branching elearning scenario
• Why use scenarios?
• Pleease! Not a scenario! – when not to use them

 

Other great resources

• Christy Tucker offers lots of practical and immediately useful ideas on topics like managing and limiting complexity in scenarios
• Learning World Design – lots on Action Mapping and scenarios from Miranda Verswijvelen in Auckland, New Zealand
• Cathy Moore’s online course – this is delivered live online and is a great investment for any designer or developer
• Anna Sabramowicz on YouTube – Anna’s constantly adding to what’s already a huge bank of useful and inspiring videos about scenario construction

Want some in-person help with scenarios?

If you’d like me to come and run a workshop for your organisation on scenarios, I’ve got one ready for you. Of course I can tailor it to where you are in the journey and what you need. Or just email me (info ‘at’ light touch learning.com) or use the contact form. I’d love to hear from you.