19 Ways Instructional Designers Use Branching Scenarios #99
Branching Scenarios in E-Learning RECAP #99: Challenge | Recap Thanks to everyone who shared demos or feedback in this week's challenge Remember: The challenges are always open. You can jump into this or any previous challenge anytime and we'll update the recap post to include your work. Phil Mayor Game-based scenario teaches learners the essential skills of the ninja. Phil won the Gold in this this year’s Articulate Guru contest with this entry. This example features scenarios, practice activities, and gamified elements like progress meters and scoring. Try to set aside some time to go through this amazing project. View demo | Phil Mayor | Website | @philmayor Todd Troost Cool scenario example from an Effective Team Communication course. This branching scenario example features an engaging video introduction and role-play activities. Note: I liked how Todd introduced himself this week and requested feedback on his project. The community offered helpful and constructive feedback which Todd worked into his follow-up example. You all make me so happy to be part of this community. Thank you! Todd Troost Dongxue Sun Cool use of e-learning scenarios and gamified elements in this Project Scope Management interaction. Dongxue Sun Alexander Salas Hospitality training using gamification and branching scenarios. View demo | Learn more | Alexander Salas | Website | @stylelearn Virak Yang Practice your leadership styles in this scenario-based quiz. This example features personalized options such as adding learner name and tailoring content based on learner responses. Very nice example, Virak! Virak Yang | Website Alexander Salas Alexander once again breaks out the countdown timers in his gamified scenario. His scenario example features countdown timers, scoring, and creative quizzes. You’ll need to answer each question correctly to have a fighting chance at winning! View demo | Learn more | Alexander Salas | Website | @stylelearn Gerard Friel Creative use of Michael Allen's CCAF scenario model. This branching scenario features gamificaton elements like personalization, feedback, and Lego avatars. View demo | Learn more | Gerard Friel | Website | @gerardfriel Karen Perdomo Gorgeous comic book design in this branching scenario designed to help learners practice responding to drinking and driving. Karen Perdomo Parichaya Kanungo Help Rohn with career choices in this scenario-based activity. Parichaya Kanungo Rachel Craig As a salesperson, it’s your job to recommend the right shoes for your customers. This scenario-based example helps retail shoe personnel make the best recommendations based on customer needs. Rachel Craig Ashi Tandon Here's a fun idea for letting learners choose their rideshare options. It's a simple demo with many practical applications for using icons to help learners make choices. Ashi Tandon | Website | @ashi_tandon Ben Filla Ben Filla | Website Fletcher Hammond Fletcher Hammond Jackie Van Nice View demo | Learn more | Jackie Van Nice | @jackietrains New to the E-Learning Challenges? The weekly challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We’ll link back to your posts so the great work you’re sharing gets even more exposure. If you share your demos on Twitter, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can track your e-learning coolness. Show and Share Your Branching Scenarios The branching scenario challenge is still open! Please click here to jump over to the challenge and share your examples and I'll update this post with your examples.Push vs Pull E-Learning
About the Project I previously posted this entry for the Asking vs. Telling: Creating Interactive E-Learning #455 challenge and am now reposting it for this challenge as well, as it perfectly fits the theme. In this example, we’ll explore onboarding at a fictional company, where new employees need to understand the company’s core values. We’ll illustrate how this can be done using Push and Pull methods in an e-learning environment. Push: A simple slide lists the core values. It's clear but lacks engagement, presenting information passively. Pull: A branching video quiz that immerses employees in real-life situations. They make decisions based on the company’s core values, making the experience interactive and helping with retention. By comparing Push (static slide) to Pull (branching scenarios), I demonstrate how interactivity enhances the learning experience, ensuring employees. Try the Demo Click here to try the demo About Me Jayashree Ravi Passionate instructional designer crafting engaging, interactive learning experiences. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn!How to Easily Create Branching Scenarios in Rise 360
Scenarios are one of my favorite ways to immerse learners and give them a safe space to practice applying a new process, or to explore the nuances of performing their jobs. You’ll see two types of scenarios: linear or branched. I use linear scenarios when I need to help learners explore a series of sequential steps or practice applying a simple process. But when I really want my learners to practice decision-making and fine-tune their performance, I lean on branching scenarios. Creating scenarios, particularly branching scenarios, used to require a lot of time. But now, whether I need a linear or a branched scenario, creating one is quicker and easier than ever with the new scenario block in Rise 360. Using the scenario block, I was able to create the following interactive branching scenario in just a few minutes’ time! In this scenario, I give restaurant servers an engrossing way to practice upselling their customers to more expensive menu items. Check it out! View my scenario block in action Want to see how easy it is to create a branched scenario like mine with the scenario block? Keep reading. I’ll give you a quick walk-through of the process I followed. Spoiler alert: it’s super-simple—and fun! Overview of the Process Creating a branched scenario boils down to just four steps: Add a scenario block to your lesson. Add a scene or scenes to your scenario block (I’ll explain more about those below). Customize your scenes with Content Library 360 characters and background images. Add content text and branching. Let’s do a quick walk-through of each step. Add a Scenario Block to Your Lesson Scenario block is an interactive block type, so you’ll find it under the interactive blocks menu. Here’s how to navigate to it. Select All Blocks from the blocks shortcut bar. Or, click the insert block icon (+) that appears when you mouse-over a boundary between blocks. Scroll down and choose the interactive category in the block library, and select Scenario. This animated .GIF should point you in the right direction: Add a Scene or Scenes to Your Scenario Block Scenarios are made up of scenes that are, in turn, made up of content. If you’re planning to build a linear scenario, you might find you only need one scene for your project. But if you want to build a branching scenario, you’ll want to add more scenes to your project so you can change characters and backgrounds and branch to other content based on the learner’s choices. For example, in my project, I used three scenes to align with the three skills I needed my learners to practice. To add a scene, just mouse-over your scenario block and click the Edit button that appears. Here’s an animated .GIF to demonstrate how to add a scene to your scenario block: Customize Your Scene(s) Now you’re ready to customize your scenes with Content Library 360 characters and a background image. To customize your scene, click either Edit Background or Edit Character. I found the perfect backdrop for my scene right in Content Library 360, but you can upload an image of your own if you’d like. I also found the perfect character for my scene, Ammon, right in Content Library 360. Here are two more animated .GIFs of these steps. Add Content, Text, and Branching With your scenario block inserted and your scenes customized with the perfect characters and background, you’re ready to add content, pop in text, and add some branching. 1. Start by clicking the Add Content button. From there, you can choose between dialogues and informative text content. Whichever option you choose, you can still offer learners multiple paths to take through the scenario. In my example I used a mix of both types; dialogues to simulate a conversation and informative text content to reinforce feedback. To add dialogue to a scene, just choose dialogue from the content type drop-down menu in the upper right of the title bar. Here’s a .GIF showing you where to find that drop-down menu: 2. Now you can type or copy in text content for your dialogues or informative text. You can also type or copy in text for answer options and feedback. 3. With all of your content in place, you’re ready to add branching by using the Go to menu to specify where you’d like the learner to go next. By default, learners are taken to the next piece of content in the scene. To change that, just link to a different piece of content or to another scene. This gives you loads of flexibility, so you can do things like loop learners through a scene until they select the correct answer option, as I did. Or, you could gradually lead them down a path until they reach the end of the scenario. The choice is yours and the creative options are endless. Pro Tip: I like to preview my scenario from the beginning just to make sure everything is flowing the way I want it to. Here’s how you can do that, right in the scenario block: And when my scenario block is perfect, I like to save it as a block template so I can quickly reuse it in my current course or in future courses. I feel like I’m doing my future self a big favor and saving even more design time! I’m convinced that creating branched scenarios just doesn’t get much faster or easier than with scenario block. Ready to learn more about scenario block? Don’t miss Tom Kuhlmann’s awesome, step-by-step video tutorial on working with scenario blocks in Rise 360. Want to see more scenario blocks in action? Check out my full course example, 3 Techniques for Successful Upselling. And if you haven’t already, jump on over to Rise 360 and take a few minutes to play around and explore all the exciting new possibilities with scenario block. Then swing back by and let me know: what will you create with the new scenario block? Share your ideas in the comments, below. Want to try something you learned here, but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial, and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning.Help Learners Practice Their Skills with Scenarios in Rise 360
Scenarios are a great way to bring your training to life. They add authenticity and personality to your courses through the use of characters and dialogue. Topics that are often challenging to train on, such as soft skills, are the perfect type of material for scenarios. Creating scenarios is faster and easier than ever with the scenario block in Rise 360. To add a scenario block to your course, pop into any existing lesson and expand the All Blocks library. You’ll find the scenario block under the interactive blocks. Here’s an animated .GIF to show you what I mean: Click to add a scenario block to your lesson and then click the Edit button on the scenario block to start customizing it with a character, background image, and dialogue and feedback text. Once you get the gist of customizing scenario blocks, you’ll probably start thinking of brand new ways to add branching and linear scenarios to your courses. To kick-start your creativity, here are a few ideas for the types of content you can bring to life with scenarios. Soft Skills Training topics like communication skills, problem-solving abilities, and other soft skills are notoriously difficult because they're nuanced and contextual. Scenarios, particularly branching scenarios, are a great fit for training these types of topics because you can present realistic situations that are more nuanced and give people a chance to experience the consequences of their choices. Practice your interviewing skills in this scenario. Customer Service Training Providing customers with a consistent, high-quality experience is vital to your business. That means your customer service reps need a space to practice their customer interactions and learn from their mistakes. The scenario block in Rise 360 is a great way to simulate a customer conversation since you can use the characters’ facial expressions and feedback to let learners know how they’re doing in the scenario—and whether their customer service skills are up to par. Practice four essential customer service skills in this scenario. Sales Conversations Sales conversations can be difficult, but practicing them has never been easier thanks to the scenario block in Rise 360. Use the characters to bring sales conversations to life and practice selling techniques without any pressure or risk, as you can see in the example below. Have a sales conversation in this scenario. I think these ideas and examples show how easy it is to bring training materials to life with the scenario block. What do you think? How are you using scenario blocks to upskill your learners? Share your experiences with us in a comment. Want to try something you learned here, but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial, and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning. If you have any questions, please share them in the comments.5 Different Ways to Create Scenarios in Rise 360
If you’ve ever used the scenario block in Rise 360, you know how quick and easy it is to build an engaging interaction fast. But did you know there’s more than one way to create a scenario in Rise 360? With so many block options, it’s simple to customize your course design to fit your learners’ needs. Using the same scenario script, I created 5 versions of the same scenario using different lesson and block types. Let’s look at each of them and talk about when it makes sense to choose one option over the other. 1. Scenario Block Like I mentioned earlier, the Scenario Block in Rise 360 makes it super fast and easy to make your course more interactive. This is the most commonly used block for branching scenarios because everything is already built for you. You can quickly customize the block with Content Library 360 images and characters and then add your own dialogue, responses, and feedback. Use case: It’s best to use this block when you want to build a scenario fast! 2. Button Stack Block For this example, and examples 3 and 4, I inserted the same Image & Text Block to introduce the customer and the scenario, but chose different blocks to display answer options. In this case, I used the Button Stack Block. Button stacks can be used to send emails, access external information easily, or jump to other spots in a course. In this example, I used the button stack as answer options for the scenario. The learner selects a response and is directed to another lesson based on their answer. Use case: This block is useful if your custom feedback includes a lot of text or if you want to provide more contextual information based on a learner’s response—like a lesson with additional images, text, and block types that goes into more depth about that topic. 3. Flashcard Grid Block The Flashcard Grid Block is another option for your story-based interactions. With just one click you can define terms, reveal text, and much more. For this scenario example, I used the cards to display both answer options. The learner can click either option and get specific feedback based on their selection. So if a learner chooses the correct answer but wants to explore why the other answer is incorrect, they can! Use case: When you want to give the learner the option to easily view the consequences of more than one action, whether correct or incorrect—for example, if there are multiple correct answers but one of them is better than the other. 4. Knowledge Check Block Since knowledge checks are ungraded and don’t report a score, they’re a good way to provide a safe space for learners to reflect and practice applying what they’re learning in a low-pressure environment. And the great thing about knowledge checks is that you can build them right within a lesson! That’s exactly what I did in this example. Use case: Use this block when you want to quickly test learners’ knowledge within a lesson and the feedback only includes text. 5. Quiz Lesson Sometimes you need to do more than just check in with learners—for example, evaluate how much they’ve learned. That’s where quiz lessons come in! Quizzes are scored and report that information to your Learning Management System (LMS). For this example, I used a multiple choice question. Use case: If you need to track learners’ scores in your LMS, this is the option you’ll want to choose. Wrap-Up These are just a few creative ways to build scenarios in Rise 360 and when you might want to use them in your projects. Of course, you’re not limited to just these options. With so many lesson and block types, the possibilities are limitless. What creative ways have you used to present scenarios in your Rise 360 courses? Please share them in the comments below! If you liked the scenario examples above, you can see them in action here. Want to learn how to create realistic scenarios learners can relate to? Check out these helpful articles: 7 Tips for Writing Effective E-Learning Scenarios Help Learners Practice Their Skills with Scenarios in Rise 360 How to Choose the Point of View (POV) for Your E-Learning Scenario Want to start creating your own scenarios in Rise 360, but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial, and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning. If you have any questions, please share them in the comments.How I Designed This Immersive Scenario on Prioritizing Tasks
Recently my fellow instructional designers Sarah Hodge and Madison McCartney and I teamed up to prove that there’s always more than one way to present course content. Each of us created a mini-course on prioritizing tasks, using the Eisenhower Decision Matrix as our starting point. In this article, I’m going to walk you through how I got from this: … to this: View interactive version | Download template Without further ado, let’s get into it! Setting the Scene Since I created this project as an example, there’s no real target audience, much less learning objectives. But to make it feel realistic I set some basic parameters to guide my design thinking. Here’s what I came up with: Audience: Novice e-learning project managers Learning objective: Be able to identify tasks, classify them as important and/or urgent, and prioritize them accordingly Coming Up with the Concept Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of great e-learning examples in the E-Learning Heroes community, but a few really stand out to me. One in particular is this time management game by Phil Eagles. I love the way he took a series of simple multiple choice questions and made them into a scenario that feels real and meaningful. And since time management is so closely related to task prioritization, it’s the first thing I thought of when I started brainstorming ideas for my project. I wanted to create something similar—but put my own spin on it. Because I wanted to create a totally custom and immersive scenario, Storyline 360 was the perfect choice for this project. I decided to simulate a desk and let learners identify tasks and prioritize items for themselves. The idea behind this was to emulate real life—where learners have to identify tasks and decide which ones to do first—while also following one of the key principles of adult learning by giving them control over their learning experience. Refining the Scenario Once I had a general idea of what I wanted to do, it was time to iron out the scenario details. I wanted to give learners enough opportunities to practice prioritizing tasks without it feeling repetitive. I included a few different types of tasks—since that’s what it’s like in real life. In the end, I settled on a total of six tasks, including a few emails, a couple of text messages, and a Post-it. As I started to build out my scenario, I ran into some challenges. One of the main issues was that my slide was getting overcrowded. To overcome this challenge and help learners focus on one thing at a time, I divided the process of task prioritization into two parts: Step 1: identify and analyze the tasks to determine how urgent/important they are Step 2: prioritize the tasks based on their level of urgency/importance For step one, I used a series of toggles so the learner can decide if each task is urgent and/or important. Based on their answer, I provide custom feedback. This is how that turned out: For step two, I made a simple drag-and-drop interaction so the learner can decide where each task belongs on their to-do list based on its level of urgency and importance. Here’s what that ended up looking like: Because this project was intended for adults who may have previous experience with the Eisenhower Decision Matrix, I made the explanation walk-through optional, as shown in the screenshot below: Is this how I initially envisioned my project? Absolutely not. To be honest, I don’t think I really had a clear mental picture of what it would look like. Some people can map out their entire project before they even open up the authoring app, while others do better jumping straight into building and get inspired along the way. Both methods are totally fine as long as you always keep your learners’ needs at the center of your design. Designing the Graphics As someone with no formal graphic design training, I can be challenged to come up with ideas for the look and feel of my courses. To find inspiration, I usually start by checking out the examples and templates on E-Learning Heroes as well as the Content Library 360 templates. Even if I don’t find exactly what I need, I usually come across something I can use as a starting point. Personally, I find that starting with a template is less intimidating than starting from a blank slide. And even if the final result ends up looking completely different than the original template, having something to start with helps me channel my ideas and inch closer to a place I feel good about. So, once I knew that I wanted to create an immersive scenario, I headed straight to E-Learning Heroes to look for templates I could use as a springboard for my design. A quick search for “desk” led me to this template, which I thought was perfect: Download Template After opening the template, I made some adjustments and played around with different color options. Here’s what my first version looked like: There’s nothing wrong with the way this looks, but—as I mentioned earlier in this article—it was at this point I realized there wasn’t enough room on the slide to allow learners to both identify and prioritize tasks in one spot. Splitting the activity up into two parts gave me more screen real estate to work with. Around this time, I also decided I wasn’t sure about the mint green wall and wanted to give white a try . . . . . . but I wasn’t totally sold on that either. I also felt lukewarm about the way the desk looked and decided to incorporate some texture. This is what the next version looked like: Wondering how I created the wood texture? I did a Google search for “flat design wood,” inserted one of the images I found onto my slide master, and then used the curve tool and shapes in Storyline 360 to achieve a similar effect. This is what it looks like behind the scenes: I was pretty happy with the way this looked, but when I started adding other objects to the screen, I realized they didn’t stand out enough against the dark blue background. That’s when I settled on the design you see in the final version: I went through a similar process for the other slides in my project, so I thought I’d share the different versions with you as well. . . . and here’s the final version. You’ll notice that in the final version I pulled in the computer screen from the previous slide to tie it together a bit more. I also changed the size of the boxes to make it all fit on the screen. As I was working on my core content slides, I also started to pull together my title slide. Since my other two slides used a flat design style, I wanted to stick with something similar. I found this simple slide template in Content Library 360 and used it as a starting point: I didn’t want to include characters, so I deleted those and changed the color of the background to match the dark blue I was using at the time. After taking out the characters and changing the color, I felt like the slide was too minimal. It was missing something, so I sat and thought about how I could incorporate more visual interest. That’s when I had an idea: what if the title slide was a view of the desk from above? And since we’re talking about prioritizing tasks—and many people write their to-do lists in a notebook—I thought that might make sense and look nice. So I went back to E-Learning Heroes for some inspiration and ended up finding this spiral notebook template: Download I imported it into Storyline 360 and made a few adjustments to make it all come together. Here’s what it ended up looking like: As you can see, graphic design isn’t always a straightforward process. It doesn’t necessarily go from zero to perfect in one fell swoop. In many cases it’s an iterative process involving incremental changes until you’re happy with what you’ve got. So the next time you’re feeling stuck and unsure about your design, try doing what I did and search E-Learning Heroes or Content Library 360 for a template you can use as a starting point. Then, make small changes here and there. Eventually you’ll get to a place where you feel good about your design. More Resources Hopefully you’ve found this inside look at my design process interesting and insightful! Remember, it’s okay if your first draft isn’t perfect. Design (whether it’s instructional or graphic) is a process, and it often takes trial and error to get it to where it needs to be. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that! If you enjoyed this article and are looking for more insight into what goes on in the minds of instructional designers as they’re creating courses, be sure to check out these articles: How I Designed This Personalized Decision Matrix How I Designed This Interactive Dial Matrix A Behind-the-Scenes Look at How I Designed This Gamified Quiz Want to try building your own immersive scenario in Storyline 360, but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial, and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning. If you have any questions, please share them in the comments.
