What challenges are confronted with your characters?

It looks like a big fantasy, right?

But how much was you engaged with this story? Was it realistic? Could you identify yourself with the character and his situation? Do you care about what is happening to him?

Honestly, this story makes me want to yawn. That's right boring. The learning stories and scenarios are more engaging when they show the characters confronted with challenges.

Think of any big movie or novel. The main character always faces obstacles. Frodon Baggins fights with the power of corruption of the ring, makes the perilous travel to Mordor and finally beats Sauron. The way he and other characters overcome these challenges is what makes these stories convincing.

When we use stories to learn, the challenges that your characters are confronted should imitate the types of problems with which learners will be confronted in their true workplace. You don't need a villain in your storyBut you need obstacles to overcome.

Example of identification character challenges

Take the example of creating a connection scenario. You could hit a number of obstacles as ID.

• A customer or a manager who wishes a traditional linear course rather than a connection scenario.
• An SME that insists on a content lesson, is not available, or has trouble providing examples of scenarios
• Clumsy technology or that does not work well for scenarios
• Limited budget
• Short Cormeaux
• Difficulty finding realistic scenarios and plausible distractors

What character is challenging?

You could start by thinking about challenges like the list above. You will probably not include all the potential challenges in a single scenario, because it would be too complex. Therefore, you will have to choose the challenges that make the most sense.

• Frequent obstacles: What obstacles or challenges occur most often? What problems are they most likely to deal with your learners?
• Current errors: What are the current errors that people make? What are the typical misunderstandings?
• Critical challenges: Are there challenges that occur less frequently but create serious consequences if they occur? For example, a danger discharge can be rare, but there may be significant, even deadly, consequences, so as not to follow the appropriate response procedure. If an error or problem could put lives or security in danger, include it in the scenario.

Select your challenges to meet the above requirements. During the analysis phase, I am often Ask SMEs which errors or misunderstandings are common. Ask your SME followers on the consequences of these errors. These challenges become decision points in your course; The consequences become the intrinsic feedback showing learners the effects of their choices.

Cathy Moore has a number of Suggestions to make mistakes more plausible. An example is to have another character to give bad advice, which could reflect a real challenge in the working environment.

Ask other characters to try the player to make a common mistake. For example, if “everyone knows that you should do X” is a common common idea that causes errors, ask a fiction colleague to say “hey, you should do x” as they do in the real world.

– Moore Cathie

4 CS for scenarios

Challenges are one of 4 CS to create scenarios.

Your experience

If you create learning scenarios, what problems do you find by creating challenges and characters' obstacles with which your characters face? Leave a comment (or answer email) and tell me about your experiences.

Originally published on 6/1/2016. Update of 02/24/2020, 20/03/2025.

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