Forum Discussion
Using E Learning Characters
Hi Everyone,
I am using Storyline to design a corporate company wide course to help train employees on a new system launch and I'm unsure whether it's appropriate to use a 'character' to engage the learners.
I've received mixed feedback on using characters with some people thinking it's fun and engaging, and others thinking it's unprofessional.
I'd love to hear any thoughts you all might have, or any feedback you have received (positive or negative) on using these characters in a corporate environment.
Thanks for your help!
Saoirse
There is no one way to develop a course that will please everyone.
- As a developer, I like using characters to add visual interest/human interest. Especially for text-heavy content. I'm less likely to use a character for a topic that inherently has lots of visuals (e.g., software training).
- As a user, I don't consider them unprofessional. But I recognize that they can seem a bit hokey.
The research seems mixed on whether they actually help people learn. I'd guess that depends a lot on how they're used—and even on whether the user likes them or not.
BTW, I recently saw a presentation about an onboarding course that used multiple characters to introduce new hires to different parts of the company. Each character was given a name and personality. They developers said that some folks actually asked to meet those characters, because they thought they were real employees. So they were very engaging!
Another consideration may be to ask the learner to choose his/her own character (used as an avatar) to be part of the course. That approach puts the learner directly into the story and could help some learners overcome resistance to both the content and the change.
