Playwriting Help Shape Online Trainings?

Can Storyboards and The Structure of

An often repeated tale:In a small isolated village, anthropologists brought in a TV, and when it was turned on, everyone in the village was mesmerized. They watched it all the time. The local storyteller became concerned because no one came to hear his stories. Then, after a short time, as suddenly as they had started, they stopped. People ignored the TV and went back to the storyteller. An anthropologist asked one elder why he stopped watching the TV. The elder replied, “I’ve seen it.”

The anthropologist persisted, “But the TV has a lot more stories.” “Oh yes,” said the elder, “the television knows many stories, but the storyteller knows me.”

  

Telling the Right Story

A well written, well directed play or film has the potential to change the hearts and minds of everyone in the audience.

A well written, well organized training has the potential to do the same for everyone who takes part.

Before the writing begins, ask yourself what the training is about. In theatre terms, find the “spine.”

The SpineThe spine of a play or film is its core idea. For example, the spine of The Wizard of Oz might be “there’s no place like home.”

If someone asks you what this movie is about, you could talk about a girl who gets caught in a tornado and lands in a strange land – witches, munchkins, scarecrows and the rest. But you could also answer that it is about the idea that there is no place like home!

Brainstorming the Spine

Other spines for The Wizard of Oz?

What are possible spines of the Harry Potter stories?A different spine can make the same content feel different – have a different focus.

Find the Spine of Your Training

What is it that you want the user to come away believing and doing?

Example Spine: Inclusion is best practice in Early Childhood Education.

Other examples of spines for other topics?

Once you identify the spine, it becomes a filter for all the content. Anything that does not attach to the spine may not belong in this training.

Know Your AudienceAfter you have identified the spine, the next step is to know your audience.

Who are they and what do they already know and believe?

Knowing Your Audience Will

Influence GenreIn plays and films, understanding your most likely audience guides the genre, style and content you’ll use to explore the spine.

Let’s say you are making a film to explore the spine: “You can always find the strength you need.”

Name a movie that has that spine for:• Teens• Seniors• Single women

More Audience Information

More specific information will inform the level of vocabulary, cultural references, music, even length of the experience you will create.

Including these elements allows the audience to identify with the story and see themselves in it.

Writing PersonasFor online trainings, writing personas of your most likely users is a tool for understanding how to present the content. It is like writing a character description for a movie.

• Educational background • SES • Family structure• Age• Gender• EthnicityThis should also let you know how much time and attention the user will have for the program (e.g., they have two young children at home, work full time, recently divorced).

As part of the persona, it’s also important to understand what brings a person to your training. To find your audience’s motivation, ask:

1) Why do they care about the topic or the content?

2) What do they want to learn?

Remember to look for answers that come from the heart rather than the head.

Example: The user wants to end a day of teaching feeling successful and not stressed out.

Other examples of why people come to your trainings?

Find the Audience’s Motivation

Bonnie is Euro/American, 29 years old, married to a man who works as an appraiser for the city where they live. They have a 5 year-old son. Bonnie has been a special education teacher for 3 years in a public elementary school, in a mid-sized town. She grew up within 100 miles from where she now lives and works, and went to an in-state university. She has known from the time she was in high school that she wanted to

be a special education teacher. A classmate when she was in 10th grade was a student with cognitive and physical challenges, and Bonnie really enjoyed helping her with her assignments. This planted the seed, and Bonnie has been very happy in special ed. She finds it fulfilling. In the time Bonnie has been in special ed, she has probably taught several students with brain injury, but until now has not had the opportunity to learn the skills and strategies that are specifically designed for the unique issues of students with TBI. Bonnie is very motivated to learn these new skills and would like to be able to pass the information along to other teachers. But her days are very busy at school, her evenings filled with family, and her school district does not have the funding to pay for any additional training, Bonnie wants to find the time and resources to make this happen. On-line courses and minimal travel will really help her reach her goal.

Using PersonasPersonas can be used as filters for decisions about what to include and how to present the information. Generally 2-3 personas are most useful and, as a group, should represent a range of characteristics of the most likely users. If the personas are representative and driving the content choices, the users should recognize themselves in the content and feel acknowledged.

You can tell the most interesting story ever heard, but if your audience doesn’t relate to it, it won’t move them.

(See other sample personas in the handout “InTheClassroomPersonaeV3”.)

Play Structure

Now, let’s look at the traditional structure of a play and see how it might relate to developing an online training.

(The following descriptions adapted from the website ScriptFrenzy.org)

Exposition

Exposition – This provides the back-story and context of the play. It introduces the characters and creates a connection between them and the audience. Basically, why they should care.

How can this relate to online training?

Inciting Incident

Inciting Incident – This is the thing that starts the play on the road to the plot. This is the challenge that the characters are forced to face that interrupts their normal routine. How can this relate to online training?

Rising Action

Rising Action – The characters look for ways to face the challenge. Conflicts are shown and allegiances weighed.

How can this relate to online training?

Crisis

Crisis – Also called the turning point. The moment where things will never be the same. Tides turn, fortunes are won, loves are lost.

How can this relate to online training?

Falling Action

Falling Action – The conflicts and challenges are confronted. Things begin to look like they might be resolved, but no one really knows.

How can this relate to online training?

Climax

Climax – This moment is the acceptance or rejection by the main character of everything that has come before.

How can this relate to online training?

Resolution

Resolution – How things work out in the end. Is there a wedding or a funeral?

How can this relate to online training?

Using Flashbacks

Many plays or films start with the inciting incident or the crisis to grab the audience’s attention. Then the story flashes back to show the audience how the characters got there.

Can that concept be used in online trainings?

Shaping Your Story with Storyboards

Storyboards are graphic organizers in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic, or interactive media sequence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storyboard

The storyboarding process, in the form it is known today, was developed at the Walt Disney Studios during the early 1930s.

Film storyboards are created to visualize the film scenes before shooting them. It pencils out the flow of the action and let’s the director plan how the story will unfold.

In film, the storyboard is very similar in form to a comic strip.

Storyboards

Using PowerPoint™ as Storyboard

For online learning, PowerPoint is an effective way to storyboard a lesson. It allows you to put in all the elements of the training and then experiments with the order of things until you hit on a flow that works.

If PowerPoint is going to be the ultimate product, then you’re that much further ahead. If you eventually hand the materials off to a programmer, the PowerPoint can show the flow and the content.

Scope CreepUsing the spine and the users’ personas as a filter, remove anything from the lesson that does not attach to these purposes.

It is very tempting to want to add sidebars and related details to the lesson. But this kind of “teaching inside teaching” can hijack the spine. Consider taking these additional details and putting them into another lesson.

Storyboarding can help you stay focused!

Building Your Next Training

Think of a play or a film you’ve seen that changed the way you see the world. What was it that got inside your head and your heart?

• It’s not just the content of a training, but the shape and form that can inspire the people.

• Tell them a story that let’s them know you see them, respect them, and that they are important to the process.

Playwriting Help Shape Online Trainings?

Can Storyboards and The Structure of

Questions/Comments?