Creating Relevance Through Narrative

Introductions

Bill CochranMultimedia Design Manager at Wiley Education Services

Luke CableSr. Learning

Designer at Wiley Education Services

Cullen GrinnanPh.D., LPC-S, NCC

Associate Professor, School Counseling

Program

What We’re Going to Talk About Today

• Using narratives to help students understand

complexity and demonstrate relevance

• Practical considerations of integrating narrative into

curriculum

• A framework we use for helping course developers

generate relevant, engaging narratives

• Some examples of scenario-based narratives

What do we mean when we

say narrative?

Narrative Creates

Connection

PREMISE

1

• Storytelling gets us out of conceptual boilerplate

• Students’ social presence in the online community

• Storytelling creates social presence by creating

bridges of understanding

Garrison, D. R. (2007). Online Community of Inquiry Review: Social, Cognitive, and Teaching

Presence Issues. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 11(1), 61-72.

Lowenthal, P. R., & Dunlap, J. C. (2010). From pixel on a screen to real person in your students'

lives: Establishing social presence using digital storytelling. The Internet and Higher Education,

13(1), 70-72.

People are Hardwired to

Respond to Narrative

PREMISE

2

• Humans are storytellers and our natural empathy makes us respond to stories

• Not only do stories make content relevant and accessible,they also provide the emotional spark that trigger whenlearning needs to happen.

• Present conceptual information without a story will not engage the students in evaluating and considering their own schemas.

Schank, R. (1990). Tell Me a Story: Narrative and Intelligence. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.

Storytelling Supports

Cognitive Learning

PREMISE

3Stories transmit a mental

model of how the world

works that students

engage with as they

evaluate their own mental

schemas.

Schank, R. (1990). Tell Me a Story: Narrative

and Intelligence. Evanston, IL: Northwestern

University Press.

Thanks for the theory, guys.

But I need some help: I’m working on an

ethics course that’s part of a master’s in

technology management.

The class is organized around real-tech

cases, but with technology being the fluid

field that it is, our cases are becoming

out of date almost as quickly as we can

update our syllabi.

One of the missions of our program is to

provide practical, relevant learning and

I’m having a hard time finding authentic

practice opportunities.

Our Solution

This sounds great…

but I don’t know if this

is going to work with

my school’s systems.

We have a really bare-

bones LMS and we

don’t have a budget for

any fancy media.

Narrative is Media and

Platform Agnostic

OLLU MEdSC Program:

Ethical Issues in Counseling

First

Session

Does anything that

Evan said warrant

reporting / breaking

confidentiality?

Evan is a 40-year-old man seeking individual counseling. He

states that his husband is "forcing" him to attend counseling

since they have been fighting so much. During the session,

he discloses that he has had multiple affairs …

Is there an

obligation to

report? Is this an

ethical dilemma?

Evan continues to come to counseling. Following the session

where he states that he will take someone out for drinks, he

states that he did take the other person out and that they …

Is there a dilemma

here? If so, what is

it? If not, why not?

There has been a month off for Evan; he has not seen you in

four weeks. … He asks if you will talk to the partner and

explain that Evan had no control over his behavior. … He is

willing to sign whatever …

Second

Session

Third

Session

So maybe technology isn’t

as much of an issue as I

thought.

But I don’t have experience

creating online narrative

content or a background in

creative writing.

These are graduate

students. My concern is that

scenarios or narrative

examples will seem

contrived or childish.

Where do I even start?

A Few

Practical

Steps

Consider The Output

You Want From Your

Students

STEP

1

• Some light application within a scaffolded,

formative assessment opportunity?

• A written analysis for a summative assessment?

Develop Decision Points

Framework

STEP

2

• This is a framework that helps you identify all

the elements you need for a good instructional

scenario or narrative example.

• Let’s talk a look at a concrete example on the

next slide …

Sample Dialogue Decision Making Context

Optimal Behavior

Rationale Critical Mistake Misconception

Student: “Hey, I’m finished with my rotation. I was wondering if you had any thoughts about my performance”

A Student has completed a month long period of work.

Teacher has the opportunity to start feedback interaction…

Teacher proactively uses the Ask Tell Ask Framework before this point.

ATA framework a tool that helps structure feedback in a way that’s heard.

Feedback is an expected and established part of the learning environment.

The Teacher does not proactively provide feedback.

Feedback will happen organically.

Feedback is the responsibility of others.

Teacher: Let’s talk here. There are probably some areas where you could have done better, but I thought you did fine. You definitely need to work on your relationship with the nursing staff.

Teacher is starting a feedback interaction with a student.

There decision about how to contextualize and frame the interaction – do you conduct the conversation in private or in public.

Teacher asks the learner to assess his own performance first in a private, safe environment.

Feedback can’t be accepted outside of a safe environment and a safe space.

Teacher starts conversation in public or by complimenting what the student did well before moving into critical feedback (which is not the Ask Tell Ask model).

The compliment sandwich mode of providing feedback is as effective as the Ask Tell Ask model.

Decision Points Framework

Example

Tie Decision Points

Together with Story

STEP

3

Creative writing becomes the connective tissue between decision points.

When you’re writing:● Let the learner imagine themselves in the scenario● Start with action● Have a decision within the first thirty seconds● Don’t punish the learner for decisions they didn’t make.● Minimize the cognitive load with the fewest characters

possible

Before we get to some examples…

Any questions?

Scenario

Gallery

School of Medicine:

Medical Residency Education

OLLU MEdSC Program:

Career Awareness

Statistics:

Course-Level Scenario

Branch Track:

Branching Formative Assessment

Questions and Discussion