Forum Discussion
High-Context Storyline Course Example
I see a couple of comments along the lines of "I looked at the first few minutes." Thank you for looking! If you only have a few minutes to devote to it, though, you might get a better sense of the instructional design approach we're aiming for by skipping directly to Module 2 (use the Menu link in the upper right).
When you start at the beginning, there is the inevitable few minutes of "What you will learn"/"How long it will take"/intro material. So the course doesn't get to the high-context or highly interactive material until you get past those opening few minutes.
In general, this is something we struggle with. There's a certain amount of "telling" that's required in order to give the learner enough information to successfully complete the activities. Yet, we don't want to front-load the course with a lot of "telling"; we want to get the learner "doing" as quickly as possible. It's hard to do, though, or perhaps we just haven't found the right way to do it yet. I'm curious what others do to address this problem.
Cheers!
-Ray
I get what you mean in terms of the 'telling', as it's something that is on my mind when developing a course too. However, one way you have to think about is it is entirely necessary.
Think of it this way, if you went to Ikea and bought some furniture, they have to 'tell' you how to put it together with instructions. If you purchase a new blender for your kitchen, you read the instruction manual on how to operate it. That's all it is, in the end, is just instructions on how the course works. You're not telling them the overall information, just how to navigate it.