Monthly inspiration – Clive Sheppard

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Clive Sheppard’s more than blended learning model

Clive Sheppards more than blended learning model

As part of Bloom’s International Learning Leaders webinar series I attended a webinar last month from Clive Sheppard about blended learning.

Here are some takeaways and reflections I got from this webinar:

Learning occurs over time and that’s why blended approaches are needed
In learning solutions build in plenty of opportunities for practice, feedback and reflection. Most learning solutions in organisations do not do this well and operate on delivering events (online or facilitated) rather than a complete learning journey.  Learning occurs over time and with practice.

Clive explained if no opportunities for practice and reinforcement are given then performance and confidence can even be damaged by one off training events. In the below slide, Clive shows how a typical corporate blend wouldn’t move staff beyond the conscious incompetence stage to improved performance:

Clive Sheppard unconscious incompetence


There is no specific formula for blends and they must include lots of practice
The blended solution will depend on the content and the environment. There is no one particular blend that is better than others. You can and should go beyond traditional blends such as an elearning course followed by a facilitated session. Remember to use simple solutions as part of your blends as well, such as, job aids, manager discussions, on the job assignments, peer sharing.

I’ve built myself a job aid that has a multitude of learning solutions that could be used during different phases of learning. This reminds me of how many different options there are to practice and reinforce learning. Why not build yourself something similar so you can see the huge variety in blends open to you and you could add to it from time to time with new solutions you’ve utilised.


Look at blends from different angles e.g. delivery and social blends

I particularly like that Clive encourages looking at blends from different angles. Often it’s easy to think of blended learning in terms of the delivery method only. Clive’s model and approach to blended learning encourages us to look at different parts of blends, such as, what will happen on the learning journey and when. The type of media that will be used. And importantly the type of social interaction that will occur during different parts of the learning journey.

In the slide below Clive shared a hypothetical blend for learning how to salsa dance. Notice how the blend is made up from different angles and not just delivery methods:

Clive Sheppard.png

Want to know more about Clive Sheppard’s blended learning approach:

Clive Sheppard’s blended learning model – http://www.bloomlearningsolutions.co.nz/design-engaging-blended-learning/

Clive on learning – http://clive-shepherd.blogspot.co.nz/

Want to know about more professional development opportunities like this:

Bloom Learning Solutions regularly puts on professional development events for the Learning and Development community. Keep an eye on their events and blogs and I’m sure you’ll find something of interest. The next webinar I’m attending is Augmented Reality (25th May 2016) and then one of my favourite International Learning Leaders Nigel Paine is taking a webinar on Leadership development and why it doesn’t work.

NZATD Content Curation session

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content curation presentation.png

Thank you to all the people who attended the NZATD session on Content Curation this week. This is a follow up blog as I was asked for a copy of my presentation, and I also promised some links to further resources on content curation.

There was a good hum in the room and lots of learning and experience shared. As always I came away with some learning for myself. I learnt of some content curation tools, such as, Tubechop, this allows you to take a snip of a Youtube video rather than the whole video.

We brainstormed what skills are involved in content curation and came up with a wide range including: artistic ability, Google searching well, time management and knowing when to keep focused and avoid going down rabbit holes (or getting distracted by the panda as it was called in this session). Plus so many other skills that I haven’t listed here.

It was amazing to see how easy it is to put in place content curation solutions within any organisation. We even had people who weren’t from L & D and still they had great learning solutions with regards to content curation! Some solutions I heard while walking around and listening to group discussions included utilising the Intranet better by making content easier to find – hey that’s not rocket science and what a great win! Others wanted to become more active themselves in content curation for their own professional development. Some wanted their team to pull together and keep their IP in one place so succession planning is easier.

As promised here are some links I’ve curated on content curation: http://www.scoop.it/t/content-curation-by-lorraine-minister

Below is the presentation used for this session, it may not make complete sense to those who weren’t there. You are welcome to use the presentation as long as you reference back to me and my blog.

Content curation session

Here are some of my other posts on content curation:

Learning resources from content curation

Content curation how can it be used?

The art and skill of content curation

Second hand shopping for elearning

I’d love to hear how you’re putting content curation into practice in your organisation (or how you intend to). Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Developing flexible modern content

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bigstock-Power-Of-Knowledge-Line-Style--97636706.jpg

Over the last several weeks I have been participating in Jane Hart’s Modern Workplace Learning group. This weeks task is to look at developing flexible modern content in the workplace.

So what does this mean? In Jane Hart’s Modern Workplace Learning she identifies that technology and web is enabling new ways of learning. That people are becoming more self directed to solve their own learning and performance problems and this approach is very different from traditional learning approaches. Modern content is continuous, on demand, bite sized, on the go, social, not designed, serendipitous and performance orientated. Read more in chapter 2 of Jane Hart’s Modern Workplace Learning – A resource book for L&D.

I agree with all of Jane Hart’s observations on the characteristics of modern learning. Here’s a personal example of modern learning in action. My husband recently built a pizza oven at our house. He had never laid a brick and is a bus driver and stay at home dad by day. He did not go on a pizza oven building workshop, nor did he get tutored or mentored on how to build pizza oven. Instead he was self-directed in his problem solving and researched the web and found websites and Youtube clips with how to build different types of pizza ovens. He took bits of information from different sites, sometimes commenting and asking the bloggers specific questions. He trialled techniques and went back to research when more info was needed. From this he built his own customised pizza oven, in his own time, that met his own specific needs (i.e. fitted in the limited space and used the fire bricks we bought cheaply). His performance was measured through the results – which I must say are delicious!

pizza 3

So how do we bring this modern learning into the workplace? It is such a contrast to what happens within workplaces as most view that learning can only happen and be believed to have happened if it is delivered to the staff (workshops, online courses, programmes etc). Completion and attendance can be checked off and the job of learning is done – then we move onto the next learning job.

To embed modern learning into the workplace is mostly a change of mind set and usually this is required first from the Learning and development departments that are wedded to courses and outputs. Learning and development departments need to take responsibility with showing the workplace ways people really learn and embedding this in practice. Learning is a continuous process not a one off event, a one-off training event will do little to solve performance problems.

Curating content and communicating resources to staff members is one way in which modern learning can be brought into the workplace. Here’s a blog on how I’ve started doing this in my workplace – learning resources from content curation. Why would we not point staff to useful bite-sized resources that they can pull and utilise as they need it? Why not even follow up on ‘learning events’ with curated relevant content? I know some excellent learning resources that would be useful for all staff such as Lynda.com, Tedtalks, Mindtools and many more. Why not promote these resources to all staff then they too can be familiar with resources that can help them grow?

Working as learning consultants rather than just learning deliverers is another way in which to build continuous learning practices into teams and management, teach the skills and practices around learning rather than just the content. Building new attitudes and culture towards workplace learning means that learning can be viewed as a continuous, embedded and forever improving approach to work performance.

Does this mean courses are bad and shouldn’t happen? I think no, courses (elearning or facilitated) will always have a place – just a smaller one. They shouldn’t be the automatic first or only offer of help from L&D. And when a course is deemed an appropriate learning response it needs to be more than a one-off event. Courses can and should be supported by other techniques such as learning plans, curated content, self-directed research, social learning and learning communities. The course anatomy will also need to adapt, for example, small bite sized chunks are more suited to modern learning now than a week out at a workshop.

How do you see flexible modern content? What are you doing your workplace to move towards this? I’d love to hear your thoughts…

 

The art and skill of content curation

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Content curation is a smart way of using already existing resources, such as, images, animations, videos, websites, blogs, apps and artifacts, and blending them together in a new and creative way for a specific purpose.

Skill level in content curation will make the difference between completely missing your audience with parts that don’t make sense together or have no purpose, to creating a cohesive story that powerfully connects and makes your audience think beyond the resources that have been curated.

This curated video that gives an overview of the skill involved:

Here Welenia 2013 give a visual overview of  different processes to organise and sort the best and most relevant content:

Let’s look at the skills of content curation in a bit more detail:

Knowing where to find stuff

When curating on a topic it is important to know where you can find quality content fast.

Externally curating

You can curate content externally from the world wide web. Here are some excellent websites that have quality content that can be used for learning resources:

Ted Ed lessons worth sharing – this site consists of lessons built around curated videos both from Ted Talks and from Youtube

Ted Talks – hundreds of inspiration talks on a wide range of topics. Many talks given by thought leaders in their field of expertise.

Mindtools – online training materials for management, leadership, and personal effectiveness skills.

Depending on your purpose and topic you may  find relevant content in Youtube, blog posts, industry websites, and Twitter feeds. Finding out who the thought leaders are for your subject can be a good strategy, as their digital content may point you to relevant videos, images, infographics, websites or blogs.

Think outside of the box to illustrate a point. For example, a learning objective I recently had in body language resources was about ‘the importance of matching body language to what is being said to build trust and credibility’. A video of a child lying and a forum discussion activity surrounding this demonstrated the objective well and made it interactive. A video of the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal with a link to a web site that analysed his body language also supported this learning objective well.

Internally curating

You can also content curate from staff in your organisation by inviting them to share expertise and resources on a topic. How about having a list of staff expertise so others can find the right person to ask?

Internal curation may include processes, job aids, information on the company intranet such as policies, useful information for use within teams.

What ways could you curate content internally?

Mass content curation

Why not invite others to content curate for their learning or invite staff to share resources and content they’ve found useful on the topic you’re curating.

Everything has a purpose

Make sure everything has a purpose and your learning objectives and performance outcomes are well defined. All the curated resources and content should be linked to the learning objectives and performance outcomes.

Be brutal here, if the content doesn’t link back to your objectives and outcomes leave it out. Don’t get distracted with using a cool animation you found in Youtube that has bling and looks beautiful, but lacks in message.

Be selective, prioritise resources that support your purpose the best. If you have found a large amount of resources on your topic don’t include everything, include the best ones only.

It’s also important to know when to stop when you can’t find a resource to illustrate your point. Once I spent an hour looking for the perfect image to illustrate my point, which unfortunately didn’t seem to exist, only to find that I could create my own in 30 minutes.

Storytelling and flow

Storytelling and flow is really important for curated learning resources.

Museums are a great example of this. Check out some reputable museums in your area. Each exhibition will have a flow of curated resources to tell a story – the flow could be based on a timeline or by type of content (for us it could be grouped under learning objectives). Look at how museums tell stories and see what you could apply to digital content curation.

Here’s some examples from my local museum Te Papa (Wellington, New Zealand). An exhibition about immigration in New Zealand uses creative ways to make the history into stories. In the photos, see the time line on the floor of when different immigrants arrived in New Zealand, and the table where you can view videos of people sharing their immigration stories.

immigration stories table
immigration timeline

Extremely powerful and it was all from existing information. Believe me I spent a couple of hours in just this one exhibition!

For learning we too can get creative with our presentation of curated content, look for inspiration everywhere.

Make it interactive and continuous

Curated content for learning should be interactive and make people think about their situation and beyond. Design questions, social interaction, and activities to support the curated content. Why not show staff how they can practice these skills in different ways in the workplace. Go beyond event based learning and into continuous and self-directed learning.

In short, curation is a smart way of using already existing resources. To do content curation well though, still requires skill, insight, and creativity.

How have you used content curation for learning? What are your thoughts are content curation – share and let’s curate together🙂

Content curation how can it be used?

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I’ve been dabbling in content curation for a few years now. My initial views on content curation in the learning space were rather limited, focused mainly on using content curation for course or learning resource design and development. I have an Instructional Design background after all!

My view of content curation has evolved and become broader. I now see many ways and levels it can be applied to the learning and development field and business.

Here are some levels I see content curation being applied to learning:

Content curation levels 3

Individual content curation

Individuals curate content for their own purpose and meaning. For example, I curate content for myself around learning topics that I’m interested in. I use my blog and other curation tools such as Twitter, Scoopit, and BagtheWeb, to organise the content I’m collecting. I refer back to my curated content when I have a project that is relevant to it.

Team content curation

Where a team collaboratively curates content and shares it within the team. The content is of common purpose and goals. I have worked in a team where we curated content on tools, templates, job aids, and useful websites around elearning and the LMS system that was in place. The content was curated within an Excel spreadsheet (old school but effective). It was used for team reference and was also used to help induct new staff members entering our team.

Learning resource curation

This is where resources are curated for particular audiences for a learning purpose. In another post I give an example of content being curated for customer service learning resources – learning-resources-from-content-curation.

Organisation curation

This is curating and putting meaning on content that is organisation wide. Examples of this could include databases or knowledge centres that contain business processes. Staff would look up the database when unsure on what to do and be advised of the correct process and any supporting documentation.

Industry curation

Curation that goes beyond an organisation or business and looks at the wider industry. This may include industry leaders or websites that curate content for their members, or just sourcing content from reliable industry sources. My own business is a learning solution business, specialising in elearning. There are some well known industry sites that provide curated content to help people in this industry, for example, The eLearning Guild, Elearning Industry, Articulate Storyline Community and eLearning Heroes.

What ways have you curated content for learning purposes?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on how curated content can be used.

A – Z of my work place learning

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People Hands Holding Red Word Never Stop Learning

Continuous learning is critical in modern work places. Jane Hart’s Modern Workplace Learning book and blog describes a multitude of valuable ways to learn going way beyond typical training courses. As part of the 2016 L&D Challenge run by Jane Hart we were given the challenge to reflect on how we learn in the workplace. Below is an A – Z of how I manage my personal work place learning. This reflection is awesome for learning professionals, I also think it is valuable for any professional to look at their methods for continuous learning.

A

ATD membership – reading blogs and magazines to identify trends coming out in the industry

B

Blogging – both reading and writing. Helps me reflect on and refine my practice.

C

Committee member (just became one) of New Zealand Association for Training & Development – NZATD. This will make me actively connected to local people who share their talent and expertise. I always learn something new from the speakers. If you’re in Wellington NZ check out the next event.

D

Daring to do new things

E

Elearning Guild – reading reports to help embed my practice in theory or research. Also watching webinars while exercising on my cross trainer to broaden my knowledge on different learning techniques and strategies

F

Follow thought leaders – checking in on both Twitter and their blogs. I often pick up new ideas which then I research further and look for opportunities to implement. Blogs are perfect for me as being a mum of young ones and having my own business I don’t read much books because of the time commitment, they are an easily digestable way to keep up with trends.

G

Government learning group (local group) – networking and finding out what other people are doing in the learning field in the government agencies. Very valuable for sharing ideas. And of course Google comes under G too…

H

Help – being able to ask for it when needed and knowing where to find it, and being grateful in return– no-one is an island😉

I

Inspiration from other industries e.g. movies, marketing, gaming, IT etc… looking at blogs or just taking ideas in when I’m not working – everything is inspiration!

J

Jane Hart – top of mind of course! Reading the MWL book by Jane Hart, blogs and participating in this L & D challenge experience

K

Kids – playing and watching the kids gives me insights into so many things

L

LinkedIn and Lynda.com – Lynda.com means I don’t have to remember how to use different tools I can just jump into a video for the specific thing I need to do. I use it as a performance tool.

M

Mentoring others new to L & D, keeps me fresh and thinking about my practice. Great for consolidating my learning and keeping fresh.

N

Networking – both with learning social groups and outside of learning groups e.g. talking with another parent from my daughter’s playgroup I found out he has a games analytics job and we talked about the commonalities and differences between our professions

O

Online learning courses e.g. Udemy, Moocs, Lynda.com, Elearning guild

P

Personal learning network – I can call friends in my learning network to ask advice or talk and bounce about strategies and they do the same with me. I find this really useful for reality checking

Q

Questions, questions, questions – spending effort in learning how to ask good questions ( so I get quality information back both with collaborating with others such as SMEs and with learning professionals. In fact one year I set this as my main professional development focus.

R

Reflective practice both during projects and after it has finished

S

Sharing – when sharing my learning I often find that those I’m sharing with have extra gems to add and therefore enhance my learning even more and expand my view.

T

Twitter – I find it hard to get to many conferences with family commitments so around conference time I search the hashtags to find out what’s new and what’s being talked about. I’ve also implemented it as a learning tool for a University course I was the Educational Designer for.

U

Udemy – taking some online course such as UX design and also helping a friend with developing her content for her own Udemy course

V

Virtual classroom – attending an Elearning Guild online course.

W

WordPress feed – where I can read both learning related and also non-learning related blogs.

X

Xperience – I know a bit of cheating😉. I find it useful to directly experience a method before implementing it myself if I can. For example, learning about virtual classrooms during a virtual classroom course by elearning guild.

Y

Youtube – When learning to use new tools such as using a new sound recorder. I search Youtube and find someone else has already put a succinct video up and this helps reduce my learning time. Thank you world!

Z

Zen – for me it’s important to take time out from learning and thinking to relax and just be – I often find this a valuable time and when insights come afterwards

Concept Handwritten With Chalk - Color Image. ** Note: Soft Focus at 100%, best at smaller sizes

Reflecting 2015 and learning 2016

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You may have noticed I had a little break from blogging at the end of 2015, well now I’m back with a vengeance and will have heaps of tips and gems to share in 2016.

In 2015 I enjoyed exploring learning and content approaches beyond traditional blended learning. In one project I used curated resources and activities for a pull rather than push learning experience for customer service. In another project I created learning resources that were delivery method independent and therefore more flexible, adaptable and scalable than anything I’ve seen before! You can read about these approaches here: Learning resources from content curation, Going beyond blended delivery to…

The most popular hits on my blog in 2016 were: Rapid prototype vs storyboard? and The game of learning design. If you missed these why not check them out?

So what’s my plan for 2016?

I’ll carry on exploring curated content and using alternative learning solutions in my design rather than defaulting to “traditional online, facilitated, or blended courses”.

To support this I am engaging in the 2016 L&D Challenge run by thought leader Jane Hart, why not join me and start to think about modern workplace learning in a different way. To find out more check out Jane’s book Modern Workplace Learning and her blog http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/blog/.

I’ll be exploring some new technologies to support story telling and graphic design – keep an eye out for posts on these. Video will be a big part of my work plan this year so expect some posts on this as well.

Happy 2016 everyone, what’s on your radar for the coming year?

Learning resources from content curation

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content-curation

Want to work smarter, how about repurposing already existing content? I love curating and repurposing content, check out my post – Second hand shopping for elearning.

So how can you curate content and use it for your learning resources? Here’s an example of how I’m doing it now.

I’m working on a customer service project. At first glance it looks mammoth with the huge amount of possible content, and also the need to contextualise the content for different audiences. But I’ve found ways to make this project smaller and more work efficient. The most critical factor is reducing the amount of development of “new” resources and to instead use existing content/resources in a smart way.

You may balk and think you can’t do this as your customer service needs are specific so you’ll need your own tailored content – and you’re right, your needs are specific. Learning will still need to be targeted, have context, and be meaningful to your people. However you can provide context and meaning without having to develop everything from scratch. Context and meaning can be provided through activities and questions surrounding the content, allowing you to use already existing content that you’re curated from the internet or youtube. You can also use existing resources curated from within the organisation you are working with.

Here’s a taster of how curated content could be used:

Example: Empathy and customer service

  • Start with a poll e.g. ‘how important is empathy for providing customer service?’.
  • Ask thought provoking questions about empathy and how it is related to their work role.

From this we can see context is provided through the poll and, questions – not through creating new resources. Then we can use already existing resources to create a deeper meaning of empathy. There are some excellent videos around empathy that could be linked to, here’s an example of one:

 

  • Questions or activities could be provided around any of the learning resources. You can also increase social learning by suggesting questions are discussed with their team, manager or peers.

There are a multitude of activities that could be designed around curated content, the only limitation is your imagination. Think reflective learning, social learning, problem solving and learner sourced content. How about an activity recognising empathy blockers or a challenge where the learners are the agony aunt and have to provide responses?

In summary

Using curated content means that the majority of your effort is used finding high quality resources rather than creating. It’s much more time efficient – how long would it have taken you to make an animated video about empathy? You could make a story out of your curated resources so they have flow. Bring the learner in by designing activities around the curated resources that give context and the opportunity for staggered practice and mastery.

How have you used curated content for learning? – share your thoughts in the comments and we can all learn more together!

Going beyond blending delivery to ….

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Blended delivery has been around for years and the term is often banded around in Learning and Development circles. Essentially what it means is that training content is delivered by a variety of delivery methods. Some parts might be facilitated, some online and some parts other delivery methods such as on-the-job learning or coaching. With blended delivery the mode of delivery is usually fixed. There will be set delivery methods for each part of content. For example a blended training solution might consist of a pre-requisite online module, a facilitated (or virtual classroom) session, work place assignments and coaching sessions.

The content within blended delivery does not usually easily translate to different delivery methods without requiring a significant amount of rework and adapting. Usually the facilitated parts of your content will only be suited to facilitated delivery, the online content will only be suited to online delivery. How many times have you heard someone say they are going to change a facilitated course into an online course? If you’ve experienced designing eLearning you’ll know there is a significant amount of rework changing facilitated content into online content. Extra thought is needed for how to make the content work effectively in a new delivery mode.

Well what happens when blended delivery isn’t enough to cater for your business in the future?

This is the challenge I’ve had. The business I’m working with can (and has before) changed rapidly as a result of natural disasters. There could be a slow trickle of people who need training from attrition or a sudden large amount of people who need training when a medium or large natural disaster occurs. The audience who need training at any one time could be dispersed over the country and could range from just one person to groups of up to 20 or more in quick succession. Not only that, but I also don’t know what will the Learning and Development team would look like in the future. Would there even be the team resources to deliver facilitated sessions or manage complex training solutions?

What if we start off with learning resources that can be delivered in a variety of ways – adapting to the changing needs of a business?

Rather than deciding how content is going to be delivered, why not start with making sure the content could be delivered in a variety of ways to a variety of audiences. This way the content would not have to be reworked and redesigned for each new situation or audience and can bend and flex with the business’s needs.

In my solution to this challenge the learning resources respond rapidly to change in a way that is not dependent on location or number of audience. It’s parts rather than a whole solution – pick and mix. The parts can be utilised in different delivery methods – face-to-face sessions, online, flipped classroom, catch up sessions or in a blended manner – without having to be adapted or reworked. The delivery approach and make-up can be selected based on the circumstance and audience rather than the content.

What is this approach called?

What do we call learning resources that can be put together like different ingredients to suit different audiences and delivery methods? I think it’s more than blended delivery… What do you think? I’d love to see your comment.

Steps to build better branching scenarios

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Word Decision And Arrows

Branching scenarios are an effective way to practice decision making and demonstrate how to apply particular knowledge or skills. In saying that, there are still too many times when branching scenarios are done poorly when just a little more effort could make a huge difference.

Here are some steps to help build better branching scenarios:

1 Have clear learning objectives

An effective branching scenario has the learner practice a decision and then reinforces the behaviour that is required for success. Write clear learning objectives to make sure your branching scenarios have purpose and are reflective of the desired performance. Remember to ask your Subject Matter Expert (SME) to check if they are correct too.

2 Source content from your SME

Source the content from your SME – the questions you ask will effect whether your branching scenarios are targeted, authentic and going to make a difference. Find out the decision points, common mistakes, what the consequences of making a wrong choice could be, and what the benefits of making a right choice are.

3 Context

Typically the content of a branching scenario has at least three steps – challenge, choice and consequence. I suggest having another step – context – this is where the scene is set before jumping straight into the challenge. Context will help your learners identify with the situation and will make it easier for them to imagine making the choice in the real life situation.

branching scenario postits2

 4 Challenge

Now that your audience has the context, it’s time for a challenge. This should come from decision points sourced from your SME. It is important the challenge is both realistic to your target audience and has an appropriate level of challenge. If it is obvious what choice should be made then both your challenge and your choices will need reworking. It will be more memorable if your challenge connects and evokes an emotional response from your audience.

5 Choices that are grey and likely include common mistakes

Next is presenting the choices – how can your audience solve the challenge? Choices should be grey and not black and white – there should be the opportunity to make mistakes, with the ‘desired choice’ not being immediately obvious. In fact there could be more than one technically ‘right’ choice but the business  prefers one of the ‘right’ choices/behaviours over the other. You could present conflicts between two desired behaviours to find grey areas e.g. not giving out private information but at the same time maintaining customer service. After all life is full of grey and conflicting situations, and we want to simulate real life decisions as much as possible.

Do not design for the lowest common denominator, instead design to engage thinking.

6 Feedback that reflects reality and comes from the right source

Providing feedback is the most important part in a branching scenario yet it is often the part that’s done the worst. It can seem like it’s just tacked on at the end to placate the learner e.g. “Your answer is incorrect because you should have chosen the other option”.

The most powerful feedback is feedback that simulates the consequence of making the choice, rather than telling you about the consequence. Check in with your SME to ensure the feedback is realistic and believable and adapt as necessary.

Also think about the natural source of feedback. Would feedback come as an action, a sound, a work consequence? Does the feedback come from a person, a customer, colleague or manager?

7 Make it relatable and believable

Branching scenarios should involve imagery. Do not scrimp on this – it is relatively cheap to source quality graphics. Include images of a realistic environment (setting). Characters that look real with realistic emotions rather than stock image graphics. Use the characters and pictures to build a story within your branching scenario.

If you have text in your branching scenarios make sure the voice and tone of the text is appropriate for the scenario and your audience. Remember you can also use sounds and video to enhance your branching scenarios – the possibilities are endless.

Building better branching scenarios is not about the tool you are using to build them. Better branching scenarios are better because the design of them is better and the correct content is sourced from the SME.

I’d love to hear your techniques for building better branching scenarios, go ahead and add a comment below or follow me for more elearning tips and thoughts.