Training Tips – Increase e-learning retention with storytelling

Storytelling is a really powerful tool that can be used to teach adult learners and help them retain information. Here are a few reasons why storytelling can be so beneficial:

1. Stories help the learner see the relevance of the topic. Adult learners need to know the reason for learning something and are most interested in learning subjects that have immediate relevance to their work or personal lives (see andragogy by Malcolm Knowles). By telling a story you can demonstrate how your subject matter relates to their job and why they need to pay attention.
2. Stories allow you to emotionally connect with your learners. Emotional responses help persuade learners to engage in the training and perform desired behaviors.
3. Stories make facts easier to remember. There is a lot of research to support this (see David Ausubel and Donald Norman) but most of us have experienced this phenomenon for ourselves. This is why mnemonic devices like “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally” work so well. It’s a short story, but a much better story then “Parentheses, Exponents, Multiply or Divide, Add and Subtract”.
4. Stories make learning more fun. Carefully crafted stories can teach and entertain leaners, thus making learning a fun experience and increasing attention spans.
5. Brains listening to stories are more active. When you tell someone facts, you activate the language processing section of their brain. When you tell someone a story, you active any part of their brain that they need to experience the story, including emotion, motor, sensory and frontal cortex. In some cases the brains of the storyteller and the listeners actually begin to synchronize.

So how can you increase e-learning retention?

First you need to come up with a story. If you don’t have one that applies to your subject matter, it might be helpful to interview an expert. If you are doing an IT orientation, for example, ask the IT manager to tell you about a time something negative happened because someone didn’t follow protocol. Ask detailed questions to get all the elements of the story to support your training.

Present your facts in a sequence that makes them meaningful using a story arch.

1. Setting – Where/When the story is happening.
2. Characters – Who is involved?
3. Event or Problem – The event or problem illustrates the point of your story.
4. Development – Actions made by the characters and the consequences of those actions.
5. Climax – The lesson learned or problem solved.
6. Conclusion – Reflects on key points of the story and offers closure.

Next, pick a medium for telling your story.

1. Audio narrative – Tell your story verbally either live during the lesson or with a recording. Consider adding visual aids so students have something to support the story on their screens.
2. Comic Strip – Tell your story visually through character dialog with a comic strip. Try Storyboard That, Toondoo or Comic Master.
3. Interactive Timeline – Tell a story chronologically from a single perspective. Here’s a great example made with Timeline JS.
4. Live Chat with a very short story – A very short story can work as a great discussion starter. Start by prompting your students with the story and ask them to share their own similar stories or have them elaborate on the story. Here’s a story that might help to highlight the importance of professionalism at work.