Storyline Day 5 - Scenario-based eLearning

Intro

In my journey to expand my Instructional Design skills, not just in tools, but also in types of learning experiences, I decided to do a tutorial on making a scenario-based eLearning lesson. In the tutorial, the subject matter was around making eco-friendly choices, but as I knew I'd be creating a scenario around factory work for my portfolio, I chose to have that be my subject matter.

I'd had a short introductory conversation with a subject matter expert (SME) who works as a warehouse facility manager and used some of the information gained then for my scenario-based practice.

Feel free to check out the finished product HERE.

Below is a video walkthrough, with voiceover. Click the video to watch fullscreen and with sound.

Video Walkthrough with Voiceover (3 mins)

Challenge

Having done a few projects prior to this, I found this tutorial quite easy to follow. The biggest challenge that I began to see was the repetitive nature of building the question slides. While the content changes for each question, the function of each slide is identical.

Learnings

To avoid any unnecessary repetition (see above), a scenario-based project like this requires thorough planning. The better you plan what you want your question slides to look like and do, the fewer times you need to create those functions. The repetition then becomes simply changing the specifics of the slide. E.g., what slide to jump to when the user clicks a button, and the actual content of the slide.

Final Thoughts

I can see why scenario-based learning experiences are so effective. They are storytelling tools and put the learner in the driver's seat of the experience. The scenario simply guides them to the ideal/correct outcome while explaining the consequences of poor choices.

When creating my portfolio scenario-based eLearning project, I will be adding a guide to offer assistance when the user gets stuck on a question and more polish to make the experience memorable for retention.