Looking for Creative ideas for software simulation courses...

We had to do a series of mind-numbing courses that were not only far too long but just too much to learn in one session so we made it a blended learning situation and had them pull out their User Guide and follow along. We made the learner do most of the clicking and showed the page of the User Guide on each screen so if they got confused they could look at it.. We also had sections where they HAD to use the User Guide and fill in the info using it. 

To make it less boring we used 3 of the Storyline characters to help out, provide feedback, etc.. At the beginning we had the learner click on each one to see how they were feeling about the training. We had one that was gung-ho to start the training - you know the person that would remind the teacher you had homework to turn in. She would say things like "I am so ready for this training. I've already got my user guide printed. Let's get started." One character was a little worried about the new software she would say things like "I am so glad we have the user guide to follow, that makes me more comfortable." and we had one that was a bit over confident - like "Why do I have to take this training when I have done this job for 10 years." This one was helpful because he would pop up and say something like, "Wow, I didn't know that!"  We had them nudge people if the forgot where they were supposed to click or whatever they were supposed to do. One of the characters would pop-up and say something like..."the user guide says we're supposed to choose option B." Or "Try clicking here."   We named them and even threw in a little humor with them. We sold these characters based on the fact that if we didn't lighten up this course people were going to fall asleep or poke their eyes out.

Hope this is useful to someone.