The eLearning industry is constantly searching for new strategies and interactive tools to maintain the learner’s attention and interest. As a result simulations and scenarios have emerged ... Who has not heard about scenario-based eLearning?
Spice up your eLearning and bring your courses to life with scenarios. Here we tell you the what, the why, the how of eLearning scenarios.
What is a scenario?
A scenario-based course uses real-life situations to transmit content. This increases the level of interactivity of the eLearning course, as it replaces a simple exposition of the theory for a practical application.
A strategy focused on the use of scenarios is very effective, especially in developing "soft skills" and "software training". Due to its interactive nature, it requires that the student becomes an active participant in the learning process.
In simple words, scenarios are an ideal resource to engage the learners and give meaning to what they are learning.
Scenario-based learning is mainly used in eLearning courses to challenge the learners, to put them in real-life situations, introduce them to common issues, and give them the opportunity to apply what they have learned.
7 reasons why use scenarios:
- Contextualization: eLearning scenarios place the student in a context, which facilitates the retention and assimilation of the content. Examples provide an overview of the situations they may face and prepare them to manage them appropriately. The learner assumes a role, becoming empowered and owner of her/his decisions.
- They give meaning to learning experiences: They show concrete and real actions along with their consequences (both positive and negative), therefore this will have a lasting impact on learners. Students learn more effectively when they actually can understand the relevance of the content they are learning. Exposing them to credible and real-wrold problems increases their level of retention.
- Motivate, Motivate and Motivate: Students are motivated to learn as they are exposed to actual cases in which they can apply the information they are acquiring. Also, due to the fact that there are no winners and the focus is basically the learning experience, learners feel more motivated.
- Time to reflect: eLearning scenarios provide the learner time to reflect. As Clive Shepherd says “we achieve more when we reflect, observe, explore, experiment and generalize”.
- Add interactivity: They definitely increase the interactivity of your eLearning courses by creating an experiential space. It’s a fact that people learn through experience, therefore, including eLearning scenarios helps learners relate content to real-life experiences.
- Create a more dynamic environment: They help integrate subject theory and concepts with professional practice.
- Improve decision making: Using scenarios becomes valuable because they improve the learners ability to make their own decisions in their daily work activities and situations. Through scenarios, learners are able to make better decisions about opportunities and threats in the uncertain future they actually encounter.
Some tips to keep in mind when creating eLearning scenarios:
- Keep them realistic!
- Ask yourself: Is this something I would engage with?
- Be sure to plan your script in advance.
- Be relevant: create scenarios that really matter to your audience.
- Keep it simple, short and sharp! Remember: eLearning scenarios don’t need to be complicated.
- Use a simple and powerful authoring tool to create and build interactive eLearning scenarios in just minutes. For example, using SHIFT´s eLearning software to build scenes and characters for your elearning courses is as fast and simple like you've never imagined.
If your goals is making an impact on the learner, change their attitudes and actually achieve a better performance, eLearning scenarios are an excellente alternative to include in your eLearning courses. There are plenty of other ways to bring interaction into your eLearning courses. With a little effort and creativity, you can definitely make the learning experience a far more enjoyable one for learners.
