Stories, at their best, do more than get impressions.
They spark interest and pique curiosity.
They surface misconceptions and challenge your audience's thinking.
They bring people together and connect them to new ideas.
For purpose-driven writers and content creators, principles of learning design can teach us a lot about how to engage our audiences. Like great teachers, we want to help people become more informed consumers, more engaged citizens.
These four learning design principles that can help storytellers engage their audiences as learners — not merely as consumers.
1. Activate / Learning: Practices that activate audience learning through short polls or surveys; grab their attention through atomic visuals or and provocative questions; and challenge their thinking through quizzes or interactive matching games.
Knowledge / Building: Content that is clearly organized, written for simplicity, structured around axioms, and audience-centered.
Community / Collaboration: digital learning communities that are inclusive, welcoming, and civil. Structured, effectively facilitated social gatherings and activities that promote discussion.
Application / Reflection: Approaches that promote deeper reflection through crowdsourcing, game-based interactive features or simulations, drive civic action, and build competencies through learning modules.
Read more: Journalism Through Learning Design