After a few design consultations, I am beginning to think more creatively about the potential for this course. Originally I wanted to make a course that was cut and dry with pure facts. I figured that the content was engaging enough on its own because who doesn’t want to talk about sex! However, through collaborating with my peers and faculty, I’ve realized ways to make the content even more engaging. At work, I’ve been learning about the importance of including a narrative in the structure of your course when possible. According to  John Hattie and Greg Yates (2014) the cognitive act of sense-making is enhanced when concepts are layered and put into context. This happens because we do not learn linearly. Which means learners, especially online learners, have a better chance of making sense of disparate pieces of information when they are combined together in a big picture. It is cool for me to get to practice what I am learning in my courses; our reading on gaming design has similar sentiments about the importance of narratives. Dickey (2006) talks about how narratives can incorporate literary techniques to increase motivation. Establishing emotional proximity is one such technique. Meaning that I can activate empathy and identification with the topic of my course through using a narrative to capture the learner. This is huge because my topic is a very personal one that people will make sense of in their own unique way. 

With all of this in mind, I decided to create a narrative for my eLearning module. I figured that my learner could follow the ‘typical’ story of someone in my target audience. The character of the narrative will be a young person who is striking out on their own for the first time and considering having gay sex. This structure will allow me to add particulars about the character that the learner can relate with through emotional proximity. For example, I will likely include a conservative upbringing for this character since the learners in my region who will need this content can relate. I wanted to storyboard this journey, so I used the initial journey map that I created as a launching pad. Using this, I created a sketch of the path that the course will follow and where the content will be added into the narrative of this character’s story. 

This exercise in design thinking was actually really eye-opening for me. I’m familiar with the process of storyboarding through other instructional design courses that I’ve taken. I want to sharpen my technical storyboarding skills, but for now I just sketched out the course; I could use this as a foundation for a rapid prototype of the course. Creating this sketch helped me realize just how important it is to build learner personas and know the audience that you are building for. There were a few points in the narrative that made me think of how relevant the characters details would be to the learner. I needed to consider a lot: would the character want to expose himself and be out; would he even want to try penetrative sex, if so, what role would he try; does he prefer a more anonymous encounter or not. This list goes on. I realize that if the character(s) in the narrative make choices that are unfamiliar to the learner then, the learner may disengage from the content. It’s made me consider either using the variables feature in story line for user navigation OR providing separate characters or characterizations dispersed throughout the content. I want to optimize the course for engagement with the learner. I will continue to consider these things as I design. Please see attached sketch below:

 

References:

Hattie, J., & Yates, G. (2014). Visible learning and the science of how we learn. New York: Routledge.

Game design narrative for learning: Appropriating adventure ggame design narrative devices and techniques for the design of interactive learning environments. (2006, June). Educational Technology Research and Development, 54(3), 245-263. DOI:10.1007/s11423-006-8806-y