Over the summer, I worked with Amanda Griffiths (Student Wellbeing Manager) at the University of Sussex to develop “My Wellbeing” – a bitesize online induction course aimed at all students within the university.

This used a scenario-based learning approach to educate students on prevention and intervention within the context of health, safety and student wellbeing and to raise awareness of available help and support. This article will explore the approaches used to design, conceptualise and produce the resource. 

What is scenario based learning?

Scenario-based learning makes use of narratives to contextualise situations which adapt in response to decisions made by the student in relation to problem-based questions. The goal of this strategy is to enable students to develop problem solving and decision making skills within an authentic context and test choices and consequences within a safe, simulated environment.

For example, in medical training; the participant is presented with a scenario where they play the role of a doctor, consulting a patient who has described a set of symptoms they have been experiencing. Based on this information, the participant (doctor) is required to make a decision to help the patient from a defined set of choices; each choice leads to a different consequence which could for example, help or hinder the patient’s condition. After making a bad decision, the participant is then either presented with a further scenario to try and steer the narrative back onto the correct course or prompted with feedback to guide them to making better decisions when re-attempting the scenario.

Storyboarding scenarios

Planning and storyboarding is key to designing an online educational resource, especially when working with a subject matter expert, academic or collaborator who is providing content or inputting their own ideas. It is the most efficient way to share your vision and manage a project as it allows space for ideas to easily develop and change – this can be much harder and more time consuming to do once your project has moved into development.

A logical place to start planning is by thinking about the scope, audience and objectives of the course by defining a set of intended learning outcomes. Ask yourself “what do I want students to learn?”, consider your students background, level of knowledge or ability and how much time you want them to spend on the tutorial. If the learning outcomes are too complex or ambitious to achieve within the timeframe then consider simplifying or reducing the number of outcomes to something more appropriate. For the My Wellbeing course, a scenario was designed for each learning outcome to ensure that the key messages would be thoroughly explored and clearly communicated.

Developing narrative

The 5 W’s (What, who, where, when, why) are basic questions which are often used for requirements gathering and problem solving. These questions can be used as building blocks for setting the scene of a narrative and considering requirements for developing problem-based scenarios. For example:

• What do we want the student to learn? to understand the need to register with a GP.
• Why is it important? to ensure that whilst living at university; students are able to arrange an appointment with a GP as quickly as possible if they become unwell or need medical advice.
• Who is this aimed at / likely to be involved in the scenario? a new student living away from home for the first time who is not registered with a doctor in the local area.
• Where is the problem likely to occur? on-campus at a hall of residence.
• When does is it likely to happen? students should ideally register before they arrive or as soon as they arrive – the scenario could take place during freshers week

By answering these questions I now have enough information to set the scene for the narrative; I know the purpose or moral of the story, the characters, where it takes place and at what time.

A principle adopted throughout the tutorial was that participants would take on the role of a friend offering advice to characters they encountered which meant that we could introduce a range of diverse characters to provide an inclusive experience with the message that the scenarios can affect anyone, even those who are not directly involved.

Components of scenario design: challenge, choices, consequences

As explained by Tom Kuhlmann in the article “Build Branched E-Learning Scenarios in Three Simple Steps”, he uses a basic 3c model to develop scenarios. This consists of a challenge, a range of choices and relative consequences of those choices. The challenge presented to the participant is the problem and the choices are the decision paths which they can select from, the consequence adapts based on the selected choice and alters the course of the narrative.

An extension to this could be that the participant is offered a chance to correct the narrative and set a new challenge which follows on from a consequence. Alternatively, if there is no purpose or logical point to continue the scenario then you could offer the participant a conclusion to explain a concept, provide feedback or summarise their decision.

This model was adapted for the My Wellbeing tutorial and offers 3 choices per challenge, the choices would include a proactive, reactive and passive response. The most positive outcome would stem from the proactive choice as this is the form of action and thinking we wanted to encourage throughout the tutorial.

From the basis of our narrative, we can now begin to structure a scenario using these building blocks.

The finished article may look something like this, just add in some character dialogue and images to bring the story to life.

Development: next steps

Complementing your narrative with multimedia can add a touch of realism and provide an immersive experience for your students. Consider whether you could enhance your story with images, video or audio licensed under Creative Commons or create your own. You may wish to look at our Tips for mobile filmmakers or Understanding Creative Commons blog posts for advice. Image repositories such as Pixabay, FreeImages.com and PhotosForClass are a great resource for free and licensed images which you can use in your projects.

There are a number of tools available for the creation of non-linear, branching-scenario style presentations in web-pages. If you are a Moodle user then you could use the lesson activity which is designed for building interactive self-study resources and is well adapted for creating branched scenarios. This provides all of the advantages of a virtual learning environment, including in depth collection of learning analytics. However it can be more difficult to use and get to grips with than some of the other options which provide more visual, user-friendly interfaces.

If you want a more professional touch and more flexibility over your design then you could use a rapid e-learning software package such as Xerte (open source) or Articulate Storyline (proprietary) to create a resource which can integrate into your virtual learning environment as a SCORM package. A much simpler, but limited option would be to use Google Slides, cloud-based presentation software which can be used to create non-linear presentations by creating internal links between slides.

Members of staff at University of Sussex can find out more about design their own online learning resources by contacting their school learning technologist.