Sam was struggling with learners not retaining information from her retirement benefits module. Addie reviewed the module and suggested turning it into a story to emotionally engage learners. Addie explained how storytelling can inspire behavior change by making content relatable and memorable. Sam adapted the module into a story with a character hero, antagonist of Time, and phases of rising action, conflict, and resolution. Focus group testing showed the storytelling approach improved learning retention. As a result, Sam's client requested she develop additional HR modules and hired her and Addie to form an e-learning team.

1. THE CASE
OF THE
INEFFECTIVE
MODULE
BY HANNA JARSOCRAK
Sam is at her wits end trying to figure out why her
learners aren’t learning the information in her mod-
ule and the future of her business is at stake. Could
Addie possible have the solution to Sam’s problem?
1

2. “I just don’t understand,” Sam said
as she clicked through her module
slides.“Thisisthethirdtimewe’vere-
vised this module and the learners
stillaren’tretainingtheinformation.”
“Well, let me take a look at it
and see if I can offer you any
help,” Addie said as she walked
over to Sam’s computer desk.
Sam walked Addie through a mod-
ule on retirement benfits options
designed to help educate her cli-
ent’s employees. The module had
flash that’s for sure. Sam had pulled
outallthetricksofthetrade,anima-
tions, loads of images with concise
text explaining the options, and
fun badges the learner earned as
they completed each chapter.
“They just don’t seem to care
about the information. They sit
through it because they have to
and then call up human resourc-
es a week later asking a ton of
questions that the tutorial was sup-
posed to answer. It hasn’t reduced
HR’s workload one bit,” Sam said.
“Have you considered turn-
ing it into a story?” Addie said,
“What do you mean? Sam replied.
“Let me pull up a chair and give
you a lesson on Storytelling,” Ad-
die said as she slid her chair up.
The Case of the
Ineffective Module
BY HANNA JARSOCRAK
The Importance of
Storytelling
“Presenting your content in a
straight-forward, fact-giving meth-
od sometimes is ineffective if your
learner’s find the content dry
and don’t understand the rele-
vance. As instructional design-
ers, we have to come up with
ways to capture learner’s atten-
tion and keep it,” Addie began.
“Turning your content into a story is
one way that we can emotionally
connectourlearnerstothecontent.
2

3. By nature, people prefer a so-
cial enviroment and learn eas-
ily in one. By utilizing storytell-
ing techniques, you can tug at
learner’s emotional side, pique
their curiousity, and ultimately in-
spire them to change a behavior.
Stories allow you to make the con-
tent relatable to your audience,
give a context so the content is
easier to understand, and give
anecdoatal information that is
easier for learners to recall. This is
most helpful in making more ab-
stract concepts understandable
to the learner,” Addie explained.
“That makes sense,” Sam said.
“If I used a story to demonstrate
how a character enrolls in a re-
tirement plan and things that they
would consider when choosing
their plan, my learners could re-
late to being in that character’s
situation and see how the con-
tent is applied to a real situation.
It will also liven up the boring con-
tent a bit more by breaking up
the information with narration.”
“Now you’re getting the
hang of it,” Addie said.
“It sounds like such a great
idea, but I don’t even know
where to begin,” Sam groaned.
“No worries,” Addie consoled.
“We’ll get you through it!”
“The key elements of a story are
an engaging and passionate sto-
ryline that draws in the learner, a
hero that the learner can relate
to, an antagonist that provides a
problem the hero must resolve, an
awareness that the hero defeats
the antagonist through knowl-
edge, and a positive transforma-
tion in the hero as a result of gaining
this knowledge,” Addie explained.
“But what about the layout and
flow? How do I tell the story and
convey my content without con-
fusing the learner?” Sam asked.
“A common approach
Building a
Story
3

4. is Gustav Freytag’s 5 Phases of
Storytelling,” Addie replied. “It
starts with the beginning, a call to
an adventure. You set the stage
with a location and time and in-
troduce your characters. From
there you move to the rising ac-
tion where the problem begins to
unfold and tension begins to build
. It builds to the conflict, where the
hero is faced with a critical point
in the challenge that will ultimate-
ly determine whether or not they
can overcome the obstacle. The
story then moves into the falling
action where the hero exhibits a
changed behavior based on the
experience gained in the con-
flict. You end with a conclusion
that focuses on the transforma-
tion in your hero due to learning.”
“So I can create a character who
is faced with the daunting task of
enrolling in a retirement plan. My
antagonist can be Time, the evil
goblin that brings on age and re-
tirement and steals away savings.
My hero will be faced with the
challenge of choosing a retire-
ment plan that withstand the forc-
es of Time and ultimately lead to a
happy retirement. In order to get
there, the hero will have to learn
aboutthedifferentretirementplan
options and determine one that
will work for their situation!” Sam
exclaimed as she quickly scrib-
bled her ideas onto a note pad.
“Seems like you’ve got the jist of
it,” Addie smiled. “I’ll let you get to
it. Let me know how it turns out!”
...and they all designed
happily ever after
The following week, Addie got a
call from Sam.
“Addie, the storytelling technique
worked amazing! We just finished
a focus group and they all loved
the module and retained the in-
formation! Almost everyone said
they had never even considered
how important understanding
your retirement plan could be! It
really worked, Addie!” Sam ex-
claimed.
“I’m so glad to hear that, Sam!”
Addie replied.
4

5. “Not only that, but the Director
of Human Resources was so im-
pressed by the module he wants
us to develope one for the health
benefits and one for the promo-
tion process within the compa-
ny! He says if those are as impres-
sive, their company will turn all
the Human Resources informa-
tion into e-learning modules! He
wants me to form a small team
to begin the process,” Sam said.
“That’s fantastic knews! Anoth-
er steady client for our e-learn-
ing company!” Addie exclaimed.
“I was thinking that it would ex-
tremely helpful to have a sto-
rytelling expert on the team.
What do you say, Addie?
Want to join in?” Sam asked.
“It would be my pleasure!”
Addie beamed with delight.
Acknowledgments
Background information on the
techniques in this story came from
the SH!FT Intro to Storytelling for
Instructional Designers e-book
course. For more information,
please visit:
http://info.shiftelearning.com/sto-
rytelling-for-instructional-designers
All images were courtest of Pix-
abay and were licensed under
CC0: Public Domain.
About the Author
Hanna Jarsocrak is an Instruction
Technology Master’s Degree stu-
dent at Bloomsburg University.
This story was created as part of
a final assignment for a Special
Topics course on Scenario-Based
Simulations, taught by Dr. Mary
Nicholson.
For more information on the au-
thor, please visit:
http://msit.bloomu.edu/hkj17098/
index.html
For more information about the
Bloomsburg University Instructional
Technology Program, please visit:
http://iit.bloomu.edu/5