Cast your mind back to your childhood. Do you remember the very first textbook you were given in primary school? Of course not! Well, not unless you have an eidetic memory. But we bet you’ll remember the book about a certain tiger turning up for a meal (and drinking all the water in the tap). Or maybe the one about the kid who writes to the zoo for a pet. Or perhaps the insect that eats everything in sight?
Why is that? Surely these books aren’t full of key advice for the future. Maybe it’s just the bright colours and animals? Well, that’s probably what drew you to them at the time. But you remember them mainly because they all had a gripping story, even if it was a basic one.
We still learn through storytelling. Always have. Years of history told through word of mouth, generations telling the tale, adding their spin, developed into something more and finally bought by Hollywood to turn into their latest blockbuster (or flop).
Why should your eLearning be any different? Let’s face it, when we’re trying to learn a new skill, snoozing to a PowerPoint presentation isn’t very effective. We dread those training days, right? They just don’t grip us.
No, we prefer content with stories, characters, themes, and a plot. This stuff helps key learning ‘stick’ in our heads. We’ve found that courses with storytelling outperform presentations every time. In fact, the only way to get presentations to really stand out is for the presenter to charm us with their charisma and tell a story themselves to weave in and out of the content, but sadly, this is often not the case.
How Storytelling Can Power Up Your eLearning
The power of storytelling in learning can’t be overstated. It can take you back to an age where learning didn’t feel like learning, where you were simply enjoying yourself, following a story. That doesn’t mean the learning should be secondary in courses. In fact, it must be front and centre, as it helps to make complex information relatable and simple. But weaving in fun, characters, plot and memorable moments throughout will help aid retention of that learning and engage with learners.
As Joe Lazaiskas, author of the best-selling book ‘The Storytelling Edge’ puts it:
"Good stories surprise us. They make us think and feel. They stick in our minds and help us remember ideas and concepts, in a way that a PowerPoint never can."
But what other benefits are there to using storytelling in eLearning? Here are a few reasons:
- More engaging – Using stories in eLearning helps keep learners engaged. They activate our natural curiosity about what will come next, and that keeps learners invested.
- Better information retention – As we’ve mentioned, storytelling engages learners. But the act of being engaged helps you remember what you’ve been learning. You remember the information because it made you feel something. It resonates with you.
- Stronger emotional connections – Stories in learning keep people invested emotionally. You’ll connect and empathise with the characters because often, you’re facing the same problem. Using a pastiche of a common character, or pop culture references work too, because the audience immediately recognises the, and become instantly engaged. Often, we already know their back story, so you’re considering how a character would react in the situation they’ve found themselves in.
- Increased Motivation – When you’re engaged in the story, you’re motivated and driven to complete it, rather than dropping out, bored, which can happen if there’s no storytelling or you aren’t hooked.
- Practical context – When you see a character in a story, it’s often easy to see yourself in their shoes. If the character is in a real-life situation or the story focuses on real-world problems, you can immediately take what you’ve learned and put it into action.
Tips to Help You Adopt Storytelling in Your eLearning
You’re probably thinking that using storytelling sounds good. But it’s not simply a case of making it up and inserting it into already developed content. You’re likely to have creatives on your team who can help with ideas. But how else can businesses adopt storytelling in their workplace learning? Here are some top tips to help you get started:
- Think about your audience – Learning should be accessible for all people, but certain subjects aren’t suitable for everyone’s needs. If the tone is too high-brow, you’re likely to alienate much of your audience. However, if it’s too simplistic, you’re potentially going to make more skilled learners zone out. Work out who your audience is before even thinking of starting your learning.
- Start at the beginning and carry the story through – All good stories have a start, middle and end, and so should learning. Introduce characters and follow their journey, painting a picture of problems they may be having, so you can use the learning to resolve them at the conclusion.
- Don’t get carried away with plot, theme, and character development – Use storytelling moderately. If you’re creating eLearning content, for example, all that stuff should be in the background. Learning should be your primary concern. Visual storytelling can work just as well or better than explicitly telling learners what’s going on and distracting them from the subject at hand.
- Characters should be memorable. Look, we can all recognise a stock image when we see one. We tend to zone out when we do; they blend into the background. How do you tell a story with unrelatable, boring characters who aren’t like your employees? Choose colourful, larger-than-life characters created to suit your brand. And if your brand doesn’t have a suitable character, brainstorm to create an appropriate one, giving it a personality.
- Following on from the previous point, use the bizarreness effect – Writing something bland that only covers off the learning objectives won’t draw people in. However, if you do something more creative and a little bizarre, you can get better results. Something simple like a character from history using modern tech. Don’t overdo it, though, because learners will ONLY remember the ‘weirdness’ and not the learning.
- Use plain, simple language - If you want people to take the learning in, tailor the content for your audience. If it’s a more formal environment, then use appropriate formal language. But we find that a friendly, conversational style where complicated terms are explained easily is best. It might be a well-known acronym in YOUR business, but not everyone has the same background and experience as you. Humans like to read as we speak.
- Make music from your words – Five-word sentences are fine. Even three words. One. But to really create a musical rhythm with your words, you need to vary the length. Aim for fifteen-word sentences as a maximum, unless, like this, you want to engage your learner further, for longer. A combination of short, medium and long sentences creates copy that learners love to read.
Summary
According to a Stanford University study, people are 22 times more likely to remember a story-based fact. Facts alone don’t always stick, but they become much more memorable when they’re wrapped in a story.
Storytelling isn’t just for entertainment. It’s a powerful tool for learning. It taps into the same part of us that remembers childhood stories, not dry textbooks. In eLearning, embedding characters, emotions, and narrative hooks helps learners engage, retain information and see practical applications for their learning.
Courses that use storytelling keep people motivated, emotionally connected, and invested in the outcome. But success depends on using stories wisely: You must tailor them to your audience, weave them naturally through the content, and ensure they enhance, rather than overshadow, the learning.
With the right balance, storytelling can transform otherwise forgettable training into experiences that really stick with learners.
Want to know more?
If you want to know more about our online learning and how we use the power of storytelling, why not check out our unique, engaging eLearning content? It covers everything from leadership skills and time management to health and safety and compliance! If you want to see the huge variety of our online training content, please get in touch with us, or Try iAM Learning for yourself - get started today!
