Branching Scenario Podcast with Mark Parry

Mark Parry recently interviewed me for his podcast, Perspectives in Parryville. We talked about branching scenarios and Choose Your Own Adventure stories. Mark is an instructional designer based in Australia. His audience is primarily teachers, so this interview connects ideas from workplace training and education. This includes some discussion of the way feedback is used in branching scenarios, since feedback is an important topic for teachers as well.

Listen to the podcast

If the podcast isn’t embedded below, try listening to Episode 39 directly on Soundcloud or on Spotify.

What we discussed

From the show notes:

Today my guest is Christy Tucker, a Learning Experience Designer. In this episode, we explore the world of storytelling, technology, and the use of scenarios in teaching, learning and other educational situations. Christy reflects on her experiences as a high school music and band teacher, and her pathway to working as an instructional designer for adult learners. We chat about stories with multiple pathways, that is, non-linear narratives, and the many decisions a reader makes as they work their way through, for example, a “Choose your own adventure” book, shaping a unique story along the way. We explore how this approach is similar to the use of non-linear branching scenarios sometimes used in online workplace training.

Christy shares some ideas on why she uses this engaging approach, how she plans the scenario content and then gets organised to manage often complex collections of content. We also explore the multiple decisions that learners need to make in order to travel through such a scenario, leading to many potential learner pathways. To manage the complexity of this, we explore Twine, an open-source tool for telling interactive, nonlinear stories.

Christy also shares insights into the different approaches she uses when designing and developing learner feedback, such as intrinsic feedback as compared to instructional feedback, with both approaches having value within a training experience. We find out about the value and practical use of learner profiles and folio-based assessments that help students structure and organise their evidence. Finally, Christy offers a range of insights on a few fundamentals in this space, especially around well-written learning outcomes and the use of good writing.

More podcasts

Looking for more? Check out some of my other podcast interviews on branching scenarios.

• Tools for Drafting and Building Branching Scenarios with Betty Dannewitz
• Emotionally Engaging Content with JW Marshall
• Scenario-Based Learning Experiences with Jac Hutchinson
• Designing Engaging Digital Learning with Keith Quinn
• Storytelling for L&D with Sandhya Lakhanpal
• L&D and D&D: Learning and Role Playing Games on TLDC with Matthew Pierce, Jonathan Rock, & Luis Malbas