Our belief: At Vignettes Learning we use stories in eLearning; however, we make them interactive. The emphasis is getting learners involved in the story and not just telling the learners the story.Synthesis: Accessibility to massive content  in this Digital Information Age can be overwhelming and sidetrack even those with the best intentions. It is therefore important that designers focus on the intended context of their lessons rather than allow themselves to be distracted by too much information during elearning development.  Minimizing  content to its essentials  can be an effective way to accelerate eLearning.  It allows  context to float to the surface like oil over water. Image SourceWell developed elearning programs put premium on embedding context rather than just provding content. A critical step to achieving this is distinguishing content that learners need to know or must know. It is lean yet significant. Otherwise, it does not create the intended learning impact. As we apply the approach to creating micro-lessons with the embedded context, learners are drawn to discover it and enables them to glean the critical knowledge and retain it more easily.The quality of content and the process by which we synthesize content are factors that affect learning. Content that simply  overloads our minds and makes learning incomprehensible can even  lead to confusion. In this light, context takes precedence over content. In my blog Context is King, I wrote:"With the massive information and content growth and the speed of information change, the next generation challenge is not content but rather how to make sense, how to discover and how to apply the ideas from the content. In essence, how to find the context becomes more important. This is known as Contextual Learning - a learning that connects content with what the learners already know and benefit from its immediate usefulness. It is not the amount of information that we provide learners that is important. It is what is meaningful and immediately useful to impact their performance."Here are points to ponder for elearning designers:• Content development doesn’t work like a piggy bank. Storing too much information in one single lesson weakens the learning framework. If you keep on dumping content without providing the process on how to weave everything into one symbiotic modality, your lesson becomes good for nothing.• Context focuses on micro-lessons that lead to rapid learning. Uncovering  a single lesson from one page is more practical than unearthing  multiple lessons from  a whole book. • Contextual learning limits the scope of the lesson but it does not mean that the learner  has lesser learning. • Context enables designers to focus only on what is relevant and disregards novelty and unnecessary  information embellishments that do not contribute to the eLearning structure.In his article  4 Weapons of Exceptional  Creative Leaders, Charles Day wrote:"The context gives us the ability to say no with confidence.Great leaders are not necessarily braver leaders. They’re just better informed about the consequences of their choices, which makes it easier for them to make the hard ones. The result is they are able to keep their companies focused.When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 as its CEO, he began saying no to virtually every request by Apple’s developers. He understood that saying yes was a distraction from where he knew he needed to take the company and having context gave him the confidence to stand by his convictions.Many leaders fear saying no and see it as limiting. But more often than not, it’s the right answer when you’re clear about where you’re headed and are in a hurry to get there. Context requires that you build from the future back. Once you know where you’re headed, the decision whether to turn left or right at any given fork becomes increasingly clear. Context is only relevant if it’s based on current information. Because the world is changing in real time, exceptional leaders actively welcome disruptive thinking."What is said about contextual leadership can also be applied in contextual elearning development.   Designers who are keen on contextual learning safeguards their lessons by saying "no" to: • Information overload that defocuses the learner from the heart of the lessons • Bland, boring and conventional designs that fail to challenge the creativity and rationality of the learners • Knowledge spoon-feeding that induces procrastination rather than participationRelated BlogsContext is KingConstraints Compel eLearner to be CreativeReferences4 Weapons ofExceptional  Creative Leaders by Charles DayRay Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Our belief: At Vignettes Learning we use stories in eLearning; however, we make them interactive. The emphasis is getting learners involved in the story and not just telling the learners the story.Synthesis. eLearning content should be a collaboration between the client and the instructional designer and developer. Without the collaborative process, it is more difficult to produce effective and impactful elearning design. This is the reason why training needs analysis is important in elearning development. The first question a developer should ask the client is: what do you want to learn?Recently, Ikea launched an ingenuously designed shelter for refugees. In his article, A New Ingeniously Designed Shelter For Refugees—Made By Ikea, Shane Snow writes:"The Ikea Foundation (which has invested approximately 3.4 million euros in the project so far) and UNHCR will beta test the shelters in Ethiopia next month, then iterate to a final design for mass production. They currently cost $10,000 to make, but they’re hoping to get that price down to less than $1,000 when they’re in mass production. The tents cost half that, but they hope to have the cost even out, given the long life of the shelters."The same article cites that these innovative shelters are twice as large as the old-school refugee tent. They measure 17.5 square meters, take four hours to assemble and designed to last 10 times longer than the conventional ones. Take a look at the Ikea tent here.Putting on my designer’s hat, I became fully aware of the amount of research, situational-needs analysis, behavioral study and technical preparations Ikea designers went through to produce the innovative refugee shelters. The design is objective and end-user specific: for refugees.The process of developing the elearning design is similar to the design approach of the said tent. Just as the blueprint of the tent was based on the needs of the refugees, the development of elearning modalities should consider the assessed requisites of the learners. In this sense, a needs analysis is a vital step. A shotgun approach will not achieve learning goals especially in the development of the elearning design. The next key step would be the presentation and discussion of results with client. Here lies the opportunity for a collaborative approach between designer /developer and the organization’s elearning stakeholders.In my years as an eLearning developer, I am convinced with certainty that the most effective and impactful lessons are those co-designed by the client. Co-design in this respect means that the client spent collaborative sessions with the developer to analyze the needs of the organization.Entities subscribed to elearning, participate in the development of lessons. After all, the principals have better knowledge of its members than the developers. Collaborative elearning development produces contextual lessons that hit the bull’s eye.In my book 3-Minute Learning, I pointed out one of the common pitfalls in eLearning course development: designing and developing e-Learning programs without understanding the principles of elearning behaviors and the nature of internet technologies.Based on the above fact, I cite these guide points for both the developers and elearning principals:Learning needs analysis should be implemented with a critical mind. The principal should disclose relevant data and information that could help designers come up with an objective-specific lesson. Designers should be given the general background of the elearners. Prior knowledge of the contextual situation of the organization would definitely help designers customize an appropriate eLearning design. Principals should inform the designers about the strengths and weaknesses of the organization in relation to the lesson being designed. This way, the designers and developers are able to build the learning parameters. Learning results should be quantifiable and measurable. Keep in mind that the behavior of learners in an elearing environment is different. Virtual classroom solicits a different attitude and disposition from the learners. What works in a conventional learning environment would not necessarily apply in a virtual class. Conduct a Beta test of the virtual lessons and invest time in implementing trial runs to recognize the flaws and defects of the conceptual and technical elements of the design. Allow the principals and the learners to evaluate the elearning design. Record and keep the evaluation results. Knowledge benchmarks are necessary for the next phase of the elearning development. Related blogsAccelerating eLearning by Focusing on ContextSurgical Insertion of Micro-Scenarios that Beautify and Fire Up Your eLearningReferenceA New Ingeniously Designed Shelter For Refugees—Made By Ikea, Shane SnowRay Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Our belief: At Vignettes Learning we use stories in eLearning; however, we make them interactive. The emphasis is getting learners involved in the story and not just telling the learners the story.Synthesis. An iconic TV series is used as a model for creating an open-ended ending for story-based elearning design. Such an approach creates cycles of continuous learning because the lesson becomes collaborative. As the learners attempt to put an ending to an unconcluded story, different insights contribute to the development of the lesson.Image source.American actor James Gandolfini passed away last June 19, 2013. He played the iconic role of Tony Soprano in the HBO TV hit series The Sopranos. As the mob boss of a ruthless and dysfunctional crime family syndicate in New Jersey, Gandolfini was critically acclaimed for his intensity and realistic portrayal of the role.The Sopranos are considered as the greatest television series of all time. It has won a multitude of awards, including back-to-back Peabody Awards for its first two seasons, twenty-one Emmy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards. In 2013, the Writers Guild of America named it the best-written series in television history. (Wikipedia).What impressed me most about the Sopranos was the manner the scriptwriters ended the series. The interpretation and meaning of the Sopranos’"final scene" is still being debated today, six years after the last episode was aired.The final scene showed the Soprano family about to have a family dinner in a diner. The camera pans through different frames suggesting that an assassin could show up and ‘whack’ the crime boss in front of his family. As tension builds up, the camera gives a close-up of Tony Soprano’s face, looking at someone who just entered the diner. Then, blackout. The credits followed without any annotation or epilogue. Watch the Sopranos’ final scene here. The ending has spurred hundreds - if not thousands - of blogs, articles and feature writing, explaining their point of view or interpretation of the ending. The Sopranos’ finale is a clear example of what we story-based elearning designers aim to achieve in their elearning modules. After hooking the learners with a well-written and engaging story, the open-ended ending allow the viewers decide how to end their story.In the same manner, a story-based elearning lesson solicits innumerable lessons, insights, interaction and reaction among the learners. Unlike conventional learning where there have been always a ‘right or wrong’, the story-based elearning lesson probes deeper into the emotional and intellectual faculties of the learners. The learning becomes collaborative because of the interaction and feedback. Here are some guidelines on how to create a story-based elearning lesson with an impactful open ending:The beginning and body of the story should be engaging. It should move the learners to commit to the story. It should be compelling enough to make them deeply concerned about how the story would end. If the developer could not feel the tension and conflict of his or her SBL design, I am 100% certain that the learners would not experience it also. Without character identification, the story-based elearning lesson fails to connect with the learner. Without such connection, the whole learning framework falls apart. Everybody is basically going through the same thing every day: joy, happiness, enthusiasm, sadness, tension, anxiety, disappointment and fatigue, among others. Human emotions are the easiest to recreate and project. Reflect and ask: is this story-based elearning lesson projecting an authentic experience? I close by quoting an excerpt from my book Scenario-Based Learning Using Stories To Engage e-Learners:"Many of us in the business of teaching, learning and training believe it is our role to engage learners. We become frustrated during these occasions when we can’t achieve this. We can only set the stage for learners to become engaged themselves. There’s a difference. Learners are perpetually engaged by their own stories. They complete their own stories, their bucket lists. Trainers and designers merely help by facilitating the process. The power of SBLs is to allow learners to complete their stories and discover the embedded learning ideas, not to force them to participate in stories that don’t resonate. They may go through the motions, but they won’t be engaged."Story-based elearning design creates a never-ending story that draws reactions, perspective and insight long after the last scene ended.Related BlogsCreating Learning Peaks with ScenariosPut the elements of viral videos in eLearning story designReferencesScenario-Based Learning Using Stories To Engage e-Learners by Raymundo Jimenez, PhD. The Sopranos, WikepediaRay Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Our belief: At Vignettes Learning we use stories in eLearning; however, we make them interactive. The emphasis is getting learners involved in the story and not just telling the learners the story.Synthesis.The responsibility of eLearning developers does not stop at implementing lessons. Post-learning assessment and data analysis are major factors to determine the efficiency of the learning modality. eLearning facilitators should ask themselves: Are we interpreting data correctly?Image source.Recently, the British Broadcasting Company website published an article written by Malcom Gladwell entitled "Viewpoint: Could one man have shortened the Vietnam War?" It is both intriguing and enlightening. It showed the vital role of data analysis and consequences for the erroneous process. Gladwell cites historical references pointing to the failure of American intelligence executives to correctly interpret the data of the Vietnam War. It proposes that the Vietnam War could have ended much earlier and saved thousands of lives had there been accurate interpretation of information collected.Konrad Kellen was part of Rand Corporation, a high-level think tank commissioned to interpret Vietnam War data. He was part of the Vietnam Motivation and Morale Project headed by Leon Goure.  Gladwell summarizes the objective of the project:"The idea was to break the will of the North Vietnamese. But the Pentagon didn't know anything about the North Vietnamese. They knew nothing about Vietnamese culture, Vietnamese history, Vietnamese language. It was just this little speck in the world, in their view. How do you know that you're breaking the will of a country if you know nothing about the country? So Goure's job was to figure out what the North Vietnamese were thinking.The idea was to break the will of the North Vietnamese. But the Pentagon didn't know anything about the North Vietnamese. They knew nothing about Vietnamese culture, Vietnamese history, Vietnamese language. It was just this little speck in the world, in their view."As the Vietnam War ensued, Rand Corporation managed to interview captured Viet Cong guerillas and produced 61,000 pages of transcribed manuscript. Goure interpreted these data and concluded that the Viet Cong were utterly demoralized and they were about to give up. Goure recommended more bombings to break North Vietnam. Everyone but Kellen believed Goure.According to Kellen, his interview with a Viet Cong Captain changed his perspective. The captured officer revealed that North Vietnamese believed that they could not win the war. Kellen interpreted this data differently and concluded that "an enemy who is indifferent to the outcome of a battle is the most dangerous enemy of all."The US government ignored the opposing recommendation submitted by Kellen. The Vietnam War continued and the rest is history. Data analysis and interpretation are vital in any industry including the eLearning sector. As eLearning facilitators and developers, we should interpret the data without biases or prejudice. It is in the best interest of our elearners to give up control over our desired results or projected outcomes.Vignettes Learning is running a program called STEX, an online application that gathers learner’s feedback and reaction over simulated training scenarios. We do our best to interpret data in the most objective way in order to get accurate evaluation. Aware of the consequences of manipulating data to achieve preconceived outcomes, I would point out that our guidelines in data interpretation are meticulously followed.In the medical field, wrong diagnosis could lead to dangerous results. This can very well compound the problem and endanger the well-being of the patient. This logic is also applicable in eLearning. Here are some points to ponder in analyzing elearning data:Give attention to details. All data are important, even the seemingly insignificant ones. Approach your data with an open mind and objective disposition. Do not prejudge an assessment based on initial results. Analyze the data with someone who has an opposing perspective. You need to test conclusions and recommendations by putting it in a crucible, so to speak. Detach yourself from the analysis and do not get emotionally attached to the outcomes. State your margin of error in your assessments. No one is infallible. Malcom Gladwell compares data analysis to listening. The ability "to listen" correctly to data is a skill all elearning facilitators and designers should possess. Of this, the author of the article writes:"Listening well is a gift. The ability to hear what someone says and not filter it through your own biases is an instinctive ability similar to having a photographic memory. And I think we have a great ]deal of trouble with people who have this gift. There is something about all of us that likes the fact that what we hear is filtered through someone's biases."Related Blogshttp://vignettestraining.blogspot.com/search/label/critical%20thinkinghttp://vignettestraining.blogspot.com/search/label/e-Learning%20StrategyReferencesViewpoint: Could one man have shortened the Vietnam War by Malcom Gladwell Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Rapid learning is achieved by putting lessons in micro-scenarios. Instead of serving the "whole pie of knowledge" all at once, serving slices to elearners is also effective.Micro-scenarios prevent information overload and give learners more capacity to focus and accumulate information.The eLearning culture has a couple of limitations. In virtual learning, both the trainer and the learners are separated by space and barriers. Technology compensates these limitations. Virtual learning centers do their best to make virtual human presence as real as face-to-face presence.In this regard, the mode of learning in a physical classroom differs from an elearning environment. Big data, huge knowledge sources and voluminous information should not be forced upon the elearners. Instead of pontificating on large data, eLearning methodology selects only a micro-lesson which can be plucked from the whole knowledge source.In his article, Little Data Makes Big Data More Powerful, Mark Bonchek shares a parallel view. He placed a distinction on the specific uses of big and little data and their specific uses in transmitting lessons:Selecting a small data or a micro-lesson is indeed an effective way to bring lessons across in an eLearning environment.I compared these micro-lessons to kernels. In my many years as an eLearning professional, I can say that focusing on kernel knowledge is a lot more effective than serving the entire corn. This is so because the constraint in the elearning environment is different from a classroom setting.In my blog, Instant and Rapid One-Minute Learning for mLearning and eLearning, I stated tips on how to pick up the "kernel":Although our brains are powerful, we can only process a quantified amount of data at a given time. Since not all the data we acquire translates into learning, it is only rational to choose kernels of knowledge and focus on particular lessons. In eLearning, the kernel is more significant than the corn.Do you agree that fleshing out small pieces of learning a little at a time, instead of dumping a huge amount of info all at once works better? Share your thoughts in the comments section!Related blogs:Instant and Rapid One-Minute Learning for mLearning and eLearningReferences:Mark Bonchek: Little Data Makes Big Data More PowerfulRay Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Story-Based eLearning design is effective because it creates an environment where learners are compelled to anticipate. The vagueness of "what's next" keeps the mind engrossed until the story finds a resolution. Very few people can resist the power of a good story. Anticipation is a natural human tendency or practice. Ordinary everyday occurrences are filled with circumstances that compel us to anticipate. Whenever we drive, we anticipate the change of traffic light at the intersection. While watching a baseball or football game, we await the direction of the ball or the pass. We can almost predict what our boss might say if we are late for a meeting. We look forward to how our spouse would react over a new dress or suit. We eagerly anticipate the reaction of our kid over a surprise gift. Anticipation makes life dynamic. It keeps us moving. The Story-based eLearning design stirs the learner's anticipation. It is a catch or secret door through which learners enter. People can barely resist a well-told story and their minds are enticed to follow the plot with embedded lessons.Interestingly,Thomas Levenson wrote an article in the MIT Technology Review about Rebecca Saxe's experiments on Theory of the Mind (ToM). One of the objectives of the experiment was to find out how our brains learn to be social. To do this, Saxe devised a story-based experiment to assess via MRI, how children anticipate scenarios and thoughts.Rebecca Saxe describes how she came up with the idea of making a story-based experiment process: Even other fields of science have acknowledged the potential of the story-based design as a learning modality and a knowledge-gathering tool for neuro-research.In my blog Vague Stories Help Learners to Discover, I quoted an excerpt from John Lehar's In Praise of Vagueness: As eDevelopers and story-based learning designers, we are reminded that the human brain is wired to anticipate. Every human being has the innate capacity to see storylines in everyday occurrences. Our job is to bring out these storylines in real life and put it in the context of eLearning.I’d love to hear your thoughts about this topic. Sound off in the comments section! Related blogs:Vague Stories Help Learners to DiscoverReferences:Thomas Levenson: The Story of a Study of the MindRay Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

In most endeavors - war, sports, marketing, or storytelling - the element of surprise works wonders. By using the strategy of surprise, people are caught in their vulnerable state, a condition that leads to openness and non-judgment. Surprise, therefore, is important in the Story-based eLearning design because it creates an environment of awe and marvel during the learning process. The ingredient of surprise adds more impact to any event or endeavor. In the movie Sixth Sense, the audience was blindsided when Bruce Willis - who everyone thought was a regular character - was later revealed to be a dead person. During the Vietnam War, the Tet Offensive launched by the communists caught the US military off-guard that it nearly depleted the American forces.The power of surprise is just as important in the Story-based eLearning design. Since eLearning follows the dynamic or hypertext method instead of the linear approach, the lessons are unexpected, with open-ended outcomes. In effect, learners’ sense of wonder is heightened, causing them to be more receptive. How is surprise attained?Story-based designs are basically provocative and argumentative. It compels learners to take different views and answers that are not labelled as right or wrong. In effect, there is a flow of new ideas, giving learners the opportunity to 'stack experiences'. Surprise is largely based on the unexpected. In real life, we cannot always predict how events will turn out. We attempt to bring the unexpected into our learning scenarios to make lessons more authentic. Our eLearning designs usually mirror real life with its own surprises.On the contrary, when we spoon-feed learners, we eliminate the surprise factor. When this happens, learners tend to be passive and take less active roles. When eLearning lessons are dynamically designed, the learners are taken to various twists and turns. They flow with the story and discover context as it unfolds. Learners in anticipation and see how the scenario turns out.In his article Surprise Is Still the Most Powerful Marketing Tool, Scott Redick writes:What are the other lessons infusing surprise? When learners are surprised, It is actual evidence that they have more to learn. The fact that they were surprised proves that they still lack knowledge or have not learned enough; thus, there is an exciting room for growth. I’d love to hear your thoughts! Sound off in the comments section, and let’s discuss.  References:Scott Redick: Surprise is Still the Most Powerful Marketing ToolRay Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

I am thrilled to present you five of my best videos, each one providing you with a sneak peak, as well as helpful tips, on how the Story-Based eLearning Design can transform your courses into high-impact learning events. Must Learn - Does Your Learner Need 1,500 Pages?How many percent of 1500 would a learner require in order to start working at their new job? It depends on the content, but never all 1500 pages.Why do we expect our learners to go through all 1500 pages as if we expect them to master the massive information?Must-learns -  important information we want learners to learn quickly because they need learning competencies and skill sets they can build on the job quickly so that they can perform.Mastery or full competency - these are learnings they can only learn over time so they can become masters of it.We don't want to train a master in just one hour or even a 5-hour eLearning course.Focus on separating the must-learn from the working competency to the full competency content so we can focus our energies. Extreme StoriesIn selecting stories, we tend to select those that show extreme emotions.There is a science behind it - our minds no longer respond to typical situations.Sometimes, we get so used to typical situations on routine, we go on autopilot but when something particularly eventful happens, we tend to remember that for a long time.When you tell a dull story, nobody will pay attention to it.When you design stories you need to infuse these with new information so you tend to exaggerate the details.Embedding Content in Stories Sometimes you encounter participants who have no experience or idea about embedding technical aspects of a module into a story.Add more elements into the story so learners will see information that he may not have known ahead of time, or skipped through.If it's the first time for a learner to encounter a policy, a good strategy would be to have one of the characters explain the benefits and the impact of the policy to help learners gain a better understanding.Allow learners to discover the facts and learnings embedded in the story. As they go deeper into the story, the more they will discover.The more you embed, the more you will be providing them with a more enriching experience. I would love to hear from you! Share your thoughts in the comments section.Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

This case study presents a series of strategies and tactics which help you answer these questions: How do I respond to rapid business needs for e-Learning?How do I decide which approach can dramatically increase the speed of development and how do I calculate the returns?How do I work effectively with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to obtain content?What strategy ensures that the software meets rapid development and cost objectives?Here are some excerpts from the article:Rapid e-Learning as a term is an oxymoron. e-Learning is inherently rapid.  Its principles are all about speed and quality. It provides immediate learning. Its tools and software are fast, inexpensive and have more capabilities than we can even imagine. It is personalized and just-in-time learning at its best.  Our e-Learning programs are at least 50% heavier than they should really be (too much content).  These are at least 75% cumbersome (too much control) than what is required by e-learners.We need to present an architectural plan or infrastructure for our e-Learning program so all contributors can follow a process.Remember "Garbage in, garbage out"? Well, it may be more like: "The more garbage is generated, the slower the speed or flow, the higher the costs - and the quality stinks."Software developers and suppliers have their own "beliefs" borne out of their backgrounds, origins, interests and skill sets.Add interactivity only whenever and wherever it matters.This architecture provides clear direction for design, processes, and software and resource requirements - that lead to a clarity of standards and streamlined decision making.Reduce the amount of content to focus on "must learns." This increases the speed of development, cuts the costs and meets e-learners' needs.The ability to randomly select application  points allows e-learners to learn or apply ideas rapidly; it cuts down by 75% the burden of forcing learners to go page by page.Assist SMEs to organize, categorize, write and display the content that meets the standard of your architecture (structure their contribution so it is easy and time efficient for them).You can also maximize the full capability of the software when you know the end results you wish to derive.Not all content should be in an interactive form. Don't rush into converting content into interactive format if  plain text, images and references will work. If only 20% of your content needs to be interactive, then you already drastically reduce your development time. You also help the learners focus on what is truly important and what matters - which is one of e-learners' needs. Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

How do we make sense of the huge barrage of information that we encounter on a daily basis? We need to let go of the need to know everything. We need to train both our learners and leaders to resist the tendency to dump content. We need to help learners focus on usefulness and context of the content and to design and deliver training and eLearning programs to reflect this principle. According to Dr. Daniel Levitin, PhD, author of the bestselling book This is Your Brain On Music, we process 34 gigabytes of information during our leisure time alone and we would have created a world with 300 exabytes of human made information. Every hour, YouTube uploads 6,000 hours of video content. It's just impossible to keep up. Information overload is a growing concern and it has been discovered that the human mind can only take so much information at a given time. It needs time to digest.A Huge Problem for Corporations, Classrooms and eLearning LessonsOrganizations are unaware that they are actually paying a high premium for information inundation. Employees are not as productive when they are pressured to learn new things in with so little time. Hence, information and its application seem to be divorced from each other. "Corporations are failing to help staff cope with the technological barrage, daily meetings and constant connection, leading to rising levels of stress and psychological illness and costing billions in lost productivity," says Sarah O'Carroll in her article "How email deluge makes frustrated workers go postal" published by Herald Sun Melbourne Edition.Have you tried being in front of your computer trying to complete an elearning course? Can you still remember how instantly you became confused, frustrated and overwhelmed because of the information dumped on you? The overload problem manifests in elearning, classroom training and other forms of learning. The tendency to dump content is high. The challenge for eLearning designers and leaders is to engage users without overwhelming them.Solutions for Learners and CompaniesPaul Hemp in his article "Death by Information Overload" published by Harvard Business Review, suggested some solutions to the problem: changing corporate cultures, providing better tools, learning to use tools to filter and focus. Although these are great suggestions, the most important and may be the most critical is a change in our belief system or attitude. Jerry Michalski, an independent consultant on the use of social media nailed it, "You have to be Zen-like... You have to let go of the need to know everything completely."Why do we need to let go of the need to know everything? In training we are focused on production and efficiency of delivering content, not on its usefulness. Its consequence is the slowing down of the usage of content particularly apparent in the overload problems.Context is the True King, Not ContentWith the avalanche of information caused by high speed telecommunications and information technology, the current challenge is not the lack of content, it's the lack of context.  The need to refocus learning objectives on the needs of learners becomes apparent. For example, story-based learning objectives focus on acquiring knowledge in small steps. Instead of writing content from the context of the designer, write it as a set-up so learners can instantly see their usefulness in real life context. In designing content, always start by asking learners what is important to them and why. Why use story questions? Because you are are encouraging learners to bring forth their own stories. The key idea is that with the presence of so many content, the learners must be helped with your questions so they can focus on what they consider useful. When we skip this process, we don't help the learners. Here are some story-based questions aimed to help learners find out the usefulness in a content: What problems will you solve if you find the answer?What is important to you?What are you trying to solve?What do you know NOW about this topic?What do you want to know about this topic?How will you go about learning more about this topic?How do others feel and what do they say about this topic?How does the above change your understanding of what it is that you want?Context Setting Learning ObjectivesHow do we operationalize using learning objectives to helpful learners discover the usefulness of content and finding context instantly? Let's call this Story-Based Learning Objectives.Preview the two examples below.Example 1 - Probing Questions Example 2 - Confidential Documents  What is the difference between the static learning objectives and Story-Based Learning Objectives? Static learning objectives are statements of facts or academic learning goals.  This is an example of what we dump on learning lessons. We expect the learners to appreciate and learn academic goals. Naturally, it is difficult to learn by the sheer nature that it is hard to find meaning from a static fact. Story-Based Learning Objectives on the other hand are context driven. They quickly bring the content into a contextual form. They help the learners visualize the value of the context in real-life context. In preparing the Story-Based Learning Objectives above by focusing usefulness and context, do we engage the learner? Do we shorten his/her stress? Do we hasten his/her understanding of the content? And do we make it easier for the learner to apply the ideas presented within the content? The "Set Up Steps" of Story-Based Learning Design helps you to convert your content into highly contextually focused learning objectives. I'd love to hear from you! Share your thoughts in the comments section. References:Ray Jimenez, PhD. Story Impacts Learning and Performance: Monogatari Press. March 5, 2013John Gantz, Angele Boyd, and Seana Dowling: Cutting the Clutter: Tackling Information Overload at the SourceAnnual Reviews: The Role of the Critical Review Article in Alleviating Information Overload Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning