The Writers Gateway

 
I have started reading this interesting book called Directing the Story by Francis Glebas. I am sure you have seen or heard of the movies Lion King and Pocahontas. Francis Glebas has worked on these really popular movies.

I am enjoying this book – Directing the Story in which Francis Glebas gives some practical tips on film making.

While I was reading this book, it struck me that whatever Glebas is talking about applies to e-learning too. I have always compared instructional designing to film making. I have also likened the role of an Instructional Designer to a movie maker.

Francis Glebas’ book now reinforces this thought again and again for me.

 He begins the book by saying that people watch movies to get rid of boredom, to get entertained and to experience something that they might not experience in real life. But knowing this fact, does not help one become a better filmaker. You need specific tools and techniques to entertain the audience.

I seriously feel this applies to instructional designing too.

Why will someone go for e-learning? A pdf document or a wiki page can teach a lot too. People might want to take up e-learning courses simply because it is self paced and also because they think it might be less boring than a text book . When you think of e-learning, you expect some amount of learner engagement and some kind of fun. What’s the point navigating through chunks of text, images and animations onscreen if it does not appeal to you?

You know your learners want an engaging learning experience. But how does this knowledge help? You need to find out creative ways and methods to engage your learners.

This being said, let me jot down some striking thoughts in first 2 chapters in this book.

Please note the lines in italics have been picked up directly from the book Directing the Story

Thought 1

The most important thing about making a movie is that it must be about something big, important and significant. Otherwise why should we care?

Francis Glebas then goes on to say that the audience must find it worth watching the movie. The audience must get emotionally involved with what is being shown on big screen.

Well, does this not apply to e-learning too?

If  somebody has a strong urge to gain knowledge, he/she will gain that knowledge using a wiki page, pdf document or even powerpoint presentation. It need not be e-learning that serves his/her purpose.

So before you start creating an e-learning course, you need to test the pulse of the learner. What does the learner actually want to learn? How interested is he/she to gain that knowledge? How useful will this knowledge be? Why e-learning at all? These are some pivotal questions.

If you find out these, then you will be able to create something that is really big and significant for the learner. You can also work towards creating a rich, engaging learning experience for the learner.

Thought 2

The audience is your customer – Give them what they want…….. You have to give them what they want, but not in the way they expect it. There has to be surprises along the way.

I seriously think the element of surprise will work wonders with e-learning. I am not sure how far you can implement this successfully. But this idea is enticing in itself.

This reminds me of BBC Computor Tutor. I think the element of surprise has been really used well in this course. You know you are going to learn to use the keyboard and mouse. How you learn is where the surprise element lies.

In this particular course, you keep expecting what is going to come next because you have no clue. As you go about discovering things, you learn to use the mouse and keyboard.

Thought 3

The audience must be part of what is happening on the screen. If its a joke and the audience is not in on the joke, they might get angry.

The audience has to be in that place and must be able to completely relate themselves to what is happening on screen.

When it comes to e-learning also, the learners must be in sync with what is being shown onscreen. If the learner feels left out, then there is no learning happening.

Thought 4

The director not only directs the actors and the crew but also the emotions of the audience. The director directs the attention of the audience to the events of the story.

Well, an instructional designer has to not only direct what has to go into the e-learning course but also needs to direct the attention of the learners to the subject matter being taught.

Thought 5

Boredom and confusion are enemies to good design and distracts your audience’s attention.

Francis Glebas says in a movie you can fight confusion by showing one thing at a time as you tell a story. You can fight boredom in a movie by weaving interesting narrative questions that create dramatic  characters in escalating conflict.

Coming to e-learning, if your learners get confused or bored of whatever is being taught or what is being shown on screen, then the purpose does not get served.

In e-learning, you cannot have a dramatic story and characters all the time. But then every e-learning does have a storyline. So you can make sure that the story is flowing properly by asking “so what” after every slide. Also I guess even in e-learning it is important to convey one thing at a time. Every slide of an e-learning course must clearly convey the information to be given to the learner.

Thought 6

The director’s  job is to figure out how to visually structure the story.

When you design an e-learning course, you must also be able to visually structure the subject matter. Your storyboard must clearly visualize the e-learning course in a series of pictures just as Francis Glebas says that while directing a movie, you visualize a story into a series of pictures.

Thought 7

You must watch a movie twice to analyze it.

I think you also need to go through an e-learning course more than twice to analyse the instructional design aspects. Francis Glebas says the first time you watch a movie, you are too keen in following the story and so you miss out on many things. Even with an e-learning course, the first time you are just interested in trying to understand what the course is all about. Its only the second or third time you pay attention to the design aspects.

With this I end my post here.

Please feel free to share your views in the comments section.