SCENARIOS™ Web-Based Faculty Workshops

Remember the last great movie you saw? You were so absorbed by the experience that you forgot that you were in a theatre. And when it was over, you had a new understanding gained through drama. That, in a nutshell, is what Scenarios delivers. Using the Web to deliver story-based learning, we open the door to subtle, contextual learning in an engaging format. Good stories are memorable and communicate culture as well as skill. They communicate tacit knowledge (that which is difficult to describe in other ways). Scenarios are relevant to the learner, not an abstract parable.

But if Scenarios were only a story, then learners would be "story voyeurs." Instead, interactive collaborative activities engage the learner, helping him or her to reflect on the story's relevance and contribute to it. Through asynchronous exchanges, multiple points of view are discovered and new insights are learned. Scenarios activities include discussion forum, point-counterpoint, survey and quiz, all anchored by digital resources that provide needed background material.

Scenarios™ Is:

• Story-Based. Scenarios use the inherent power of stories to deliver real learning in a contextually-rich format.
• Distributed. Scenarios can be accessed anywhere, at any time.
• Collaborative. Scenarios create active sharing of ideas and technology among multiple users.
• Facilitated. Scenarios are guided by a facilitator who raises probing issues, responds to questions, and guides learners through the Scenario, leading them to deeper understandings.
• Integrated. Scenarios feature tools and other resources to overcome the disconnect between work and learning.
• Global and Diverse. While Scenarios feature characters and situations reflecting the learning college culture and values, they offer the opportunity to create custom versions for individual institutions or systems.

To summarize, Scenarios moves learners beyond content mastery and memorization to judgment and deep insight. These electronic case studies help participants tackle difficult issues through collaborative and interactive situations. By providing authentic settings, realistic scenarios, believable characters, and many opportunities for online interaction, Scenarios fosters the generation of more complex levels of knowledge.

Martin A. Siegel
WisdomTools, Inc.
School of Informatics
Indiana University