3 Videos Every E-Learning Designer Should Watch... If They Want To Use Storytelling The Right Way

The 3 videos below resonated with me and, I’m sure each will resonate with you.

Why? Because when you finish watching all 3 videos, and in order, you'll be more confident in your ability to design practical, results-oriented, story-based e-learning... and work you can be proud of.

NOTE: I also transcribed the important points, if you prefer reading :)

Video #1... talks about storytelling, and how it can change your behavior by changing your brain chemistry. Powerful stuff.

Video #2... talks about interactive visual narrative, and how you can apply what you learned from video 1 to boost engagement.

And, video #3... unites the concepts of video 1 and 2, to form hyper engaging e-learning.

Each may seem obvious on its own, but watching all 3 in order will open your eyes to incredible new insights (and possibilities.)

So, without further ado, here’s 3 videos I hand picked for your intellectual entertainment:

1. Paul Zack: Empathy, Neurochemistry, and the Dramatic Arc

“What we’re seeing is that this narrative is changing behavior by changing our brain chemistry.”

“So we began to investigate this story further. We used functional brain imaging to identify the regions of the brain that were most active while watching that video compared to a control video (in which Ben and his father are at the zoo) […] And, guess what happens when you watch 100 seconds of a father and son at the zoo? Nothing happens. And people just blank out. There’s no reason for them to attend to this information because nothing’s happening there’s nothing exciting.”

RYAN'S NOTES: Paul’s research shows storytelling can A) help adults understand what others are doing and, B) help adults feel empathy—which is great for interpersonal skills training. (An immense opportunity for online learning.)

“Stories are powerful because they transport us into other people’s worlds. But in doing that, they change the way our brains work. And potentially change our brain chemistry. And that’s what it means to be a social creature. Is to connect to others, to care about others — even complete strangers. And it’s so interesting that dramatic stories cause us to do this.”

2. Karrie Fransman: Why We Should Be Taking Comics More Seriously

“The British Red Cross gave comics a chance and saw how they were able to create a new story and spread their story to a new audience. And it is my hope that more people will start to take the medium of comics more seriously.”

“There’s something incredibly important about telling stories in pictures—about organizing our messy and complicated lives into panels, and frames, and scenes and displaying them sequentially across the page … to kind of make sense and create our own narratives. Much like the cavemen used to take moments of their time and display them sequentially across the cave wall.”

3. Anna Sabramowicz: Scenario Formula of Comic Book Style E-Learning

“So, what we’ve got here is quite simply a set up with some sort of problem or situation…A bunch of options to address that problem (resolve it somehow). And then, what happens is, once you choose one of those options you get a consequence. You don’t get feedback and that’s the beauty of of this. The reason it’s called a mini scenario is that you don’t actually get feedback right away about whether you’re right or wrong. You get the consequences, the results of your actions.”

Now, would you like to apply these concept to your next e-learning project?

If so, you can learn more HERE.

P.S. I also discovered this quote in Harvard Business Review:

“Connection happens when you see past the details of a task to its human consequences. […] Most storytelling is brief. It involves using concrete examples that reframe a moment by personifying human consequences.” — Great Storytelling Connects Employees to Their Work, Harvard Business Review