Workshop Tip #14:  

How to Add Suspense to eLearning Stories

See more tips below 

A great story is not only told and heard but should be felt by your learners - enough to elicit a response, a recall of a similar experience, a discovery or a solution to an unresolved event. Most of all it results in more meaningful and gainful learning that impact their performance and behavior.

Are your elearning stories merely told or experienced?

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Consider these important tips:

1. Build a strong story. Since there is a lack of a powerful story, there is  

    no source to communicate suspense to the learners. A story must be  

    emotionally charged to grab the learner's attention.

    In the example "Argument" featured above, the person is trying to decide  

    which way to go. Is it the stairs, the garage parking or other ways. To  

    create the suspense in a scene, the story must be based on real-life.

2. Create images that reinforces the sense of suspense. In the example  

    above, the scene shows a garage - dark , eerie, fuzzy - suggesting unknown  

    risks. This heightens the learner's wary feeling.

3. The scene should draw automatic reactions from learners. The  

    environment spontaneously makes the learners recall an experience or  

    impression of a dark alley or place.

4. Utilize the experiences of your learners. Characters are potent messengers  

    of content and story. Let the learners clearly see the expressions of the  

    character. In "Argument", notice the person shows a worried look.

5. Increase suspense by controlling the elements and the levels of intensity.  

    All the elements are adjusted to ensure that the learners gain and understand  

    certain levels of emotions and obtain and discover the content and lesson  

    you want them to learn.  

The "Argument" is an example of learning the idea of making decisions. This is a  

college course on "Building Arguments" references.