Today’s problem is not the lack of content, it’s the lack of context.
The need to refocus learning objectives on the needs of learners becomes obvious. For example, story based learning objectives focus on acquiring knowledge in small steps. Instead of writing content from the context of the designer, write it as a set-up so learners can instantly see the usefulness in real life context.
In designing content, always start by asking learners what is important to them and why. Why use story questions? Because you are asking learners to bring forth their own stories. The key idea is that with the presence of so much content, the learners must be helped with your questions so they can focus on what they consider useful. When we skip this process, we don’t help the learners. Here are some story-based questions aimed to help learners find out the usefulness in a content:
- What problems will you solve if you find the answer?
- What is important to you?
- What are you trying to solve?
- What do you know NOW about this topic?
How do we make practical learning objectives to help learners discover the usefulness of content and finding context instantly?
Here is an example:
LEARNING OBJECTIVE: How should we answer the telephone? (static)
STORY BASED LEARNING OBJECTIVE:
I am not sure whether I have rung the right company.
How should you answer your company telephone to avoid Customer confusion?
What is the difference between the Learning Objective and the story based learning objective? Static learning objectives are statements of facts or academic learning goals. This is an example of what we dump in learning lessons.
We expect the learners to appreciate and learn academic goals. It is difficult to learn by the sheer nature that it is hard to find meaning from a static fact.
Story-based Learning Objectives on the other hand are context driven. They quickly bring the content into a contextual form. They help the learners visualise the value of the context in real-life context.
“In Story Based Learning Objectives we use story questions, as shown above, to point learners to a vivid picture or the content in the context of a real-life event or story”.
In preparing the Story-Based Learning Objectives above by focusing usefulness and context, do we engage the learner? Do we reduce his/her stress? Do we speed up his/her understanding of the content? And do we make it easier for the learner to apply the ideas presented within the content?
The architecture used in Modlettes make it very easy to apply Story-Based Learning using either video or the slide share processes.