Storytelling!? In commercial education?
Published on 07 Aug 2022 by Emma Eynon
Honestly ask yourself - in how many training sessions have you had a GOOD experience? And how many were poor, or even worse, hard to remember?
Often the fault is not with the training "content" or curriculum but with the communication and delivery. In fact, we're being "educated" all the time, with instructional information, news, and the big one, marketing!
It's all part of good communication, not just by broadcasting our messages out, but by listening and by understanding the ways people receive our information too.
As a company with qualified training experience and as an affiliate of the ISTC (for best practice in technical communication), we use our combined skills to produce truly immersive and engaging eLearning.
But... storytelling?
Storytelling has been practised throughout the evolution of humankind from our very earliest stages. We have used stories and characters to personify elements of the world, and the heavens, around us to assign a better understanding of our environments.
Come forward to the present day, where every television commercial has a dancing meercat or superheroes to sell something as mundane as insurance. We identify and remember these companies through association and if successful, these characters and stories create a desire for even more of them!
Storytelling is powerful for memory retention and engagement - especially with boring topics or particularly difficult concepts. Alongside this, Technical Communication is the art of explaining and simplifying technical content, often with illustrations and scenarios.
Together they make for a powerful combination. Indeed, many major airlines are now including storytelling with funny or memorable characters in their safety demonstration videos for this very reason.
Storytelling in our eLearning
At Fantom Factory we use the power of storytelling with our skills in technical communication and software innovation to deliver immersive and memorable training for advanced technologies.
From the very beginning, we created our very own story universe - the Alpha Colony on Mars - to present characters and stories in order to set training scenarios and apply training concepts.
You can read more about our Alpha Colony storytelling on our website - What is Alpha Colony?
While you're there, make sure to watch our amazing video - MARS: 2052 and see if you can spot the inspiration from our favourite classic tv show!
Good communication is also about listening
Feedback and analytics are important tools that we use at Fantom Factory to understand HOW our communications are being received.
Feedback
We ask for thumbs up and thumbs down ratings throughout the content to identify areas of enjoyment or difficulty. At the same time, students can also send personalised messages to offer detailed comments or to ask for help on each section.
Exercises and checkpoints are a great way to gauge understanding on both sides and enable us to review our wording, examples, and how we offer hints and help.
Analytics
We use detailed analytics on course progressions to improve on engagement and any potential drop off rate.
Using Journals, we also provide long term aftercare with more opportunity for knowledge consolidation and further practice.
Why it matters
Our company values and ethos mean we care about being approachable and welcoming to invite more two way communication. With good communication we hope to improve understanding with advanced technologies, which will consequently help to save our planet!
Read more about our training approach
If you have any collaborative ideas or questions, or perhaps you'd just like to introduce yourself - then talk to us anytime!