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5 COOL WAYS TO USE CHARACTERS TO ENGAGE AND CONNECT WITH LEARNERS

By Trina Rimmer

Do you use characters in your e-learning projects? If not, you’re missing out on
an easy and effective way to build engagement with learners.

Using characters for e-learning isn’t just about perking up content. Research
points to the fact that our brains are hardwired for making emotional
connections, and that building emotional connections leads to deeper
understanding. And characters are one powerful way to do just that.

Adding characters in your projects also provides more context to learning
content, and lets folks explore ambiguity, choice, and consequences. It expands
the creative possibilities for grabbing (and keeping) learners’ attention.

So if you’re looking for some ways to use characters to engage and connect with
people, I’ve got five cool ideas you can add to your list.


#1: GIVE YOUR COURSE A HOST

Struggling to get buy-in for using characters in your e-learning projects? If
so, you may want to try incorporating a presenter or host. This approach is
often a safe way to start pushing the creative envelope since it harkens back to
an instructor/student model of learning.

A presenter gives your content more presence and voice, while also helping to
personalize the learning experience. Although it’s a tried and true engagement
technique, effectively adding a host does take a little more design work. You’ll
want to make the character’s presence feel integrated and purposeful, rather
than decorative.


#2: CREATE SCENARIO-BASED LEARNING

Scenario-based learning is a favorite engagement strategy for many designers.
That’s because well-designed scenarios let learners explore the ambiguities of
day-to-day interactions and experience the outcomes of their choices in a safe
way.  

Until recently, one of the challenges of using this approach was finding
character images: the poses, perspectives, and expressions needed to create a
really engaging scenario. Stock photo sites are costly, and hunting down all of
the right poses is time-consuming.

But, thankfully, e-learning development solutions like Articulate 360 offer tons
of built-in, drop-and-go character packs designed to give you flexibility with
many different postures, expressions and poses, as well as varied
representations of gender, ethnicity, and background.

The Articulate 360 Content Library offers more than 100,000 combinations of
photographic and illustrated characters, expressions and poses. You can browse
Content Library characters and poses to get a sense of what’s available. Plus,
the library’s growing all the time. That’s a lot of scenario-building goodness
right there!

For one clever take on using characters in scenario-based learning, check out
this great example from Nicole Legault.


#3: LET LEARNERS PICK AN AVATAR

If you’ve ever toyed with the idea of creating a more game-like e-learning
experience, one of the approaches you may have considered is using an avatar.

Using a character as an avatar—i.e. an icon or game piece representing the
learner as they progress—can be a fun way to invite learners to embody different
personas and explore different outcomes of their choices. It puts them right in
the course environment and strengthens their personal connection with the
content.

Want to see how it’s done? Nicole also created this easy-to-follow how-to
article and video that walks through one way to let learners choose an avatar.


#4: BRAND YOUR COURSE WITH A SPOKESPERSON

If you’ve ever designed e-learning as part of a larger program rollout or
initiative, you may have entertained the idea of giving your work a branded look
and feel. Branding your initiative with a spokesperson is the perfect
opportunity to put characters to work for you!

For example, imagine rolling out a course series focused on sales skills. Each
course stars a different character faced with a common sales challenge. Wouldn’t
it be cool to make those characters into spokespeople for the different
behaviors you’re trying to reinforce? Imagine carrying their images to all of
the supporting tools, job aids, workbooks, and websites you’ll create as part of
this initiative.

This allows you to refer back to lessons learned from the course, refresh
learner’s memories, and make a virtual character into something more tangible: a
representation of the values and lessons the learners have picked up.


#5: TAKE A STORYTELLING APPROACH

Think for a moment about one of your all-time favorite books. I’ll bet one of
the first things that came to your mind was a character from that story. That’s
because characters—their background, personalities, challenges, actions, and
consequences—all serve to drive the story’s plot. That’s what keeps us flipping
pages long after we should’ve gone to sleep!

Just like well-developed characters make reading a fun and absorbing experience,
well-developed e-learning characters give learners a way to emotionally engage
with content and to see information in a more meaningful context.

With a large assortment of poses and expressions, you have tremendous
flexibility to depict a character’s changing feelings or reactions to events in
your story. This, in turn, can really help drive home key messages from your
content—and spark a level of emotional connection that keeps learners engaged in
the story.


MORE RESOURCES

Of course there are countless ways to put characters to work in your projects.
Here are a few related articles and examples which might whet your appetite for
more character-driven design.

 * How Are E-Learning Designers Using Characters in Online Training?
 * Quick Tips for Working With Storyline Characters

Are you doing something totally cool and innovative with characters? If so, tell
us about it by leaving a comment below.

Want to try something you learned here, but don't have Articulate software?
Start a free 30-day trial of Articulate 360, and come back to E-Learning Heroes
regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning.

RELATED SERIES

 * Trina's Articles

THE AUTHOR

Trina Rimmer
Director, Customer Advocacy and Product Evangelism

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7 COMMENT

 * Veronica Budnikas
 * Hero

over 6 years ago11/14/16 at 10:37 pm (UTC)
I missed this article Trina, really useful as always. I'm really impressed with
the all the new characters in the new Content Library. I'm making a little
somethin' with Brandon at the moment. The new illustrated characters are pretty
awesome too!
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 * over 6 years ago11/14/16 at 10:37 pm (UTC)

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 * Trina Rimmer
 * Author
 * Veronica Budnikas

over 6 years ago11/16/16 at 12:28 am (UTC)
Thanks for reading, Veronica. And, as always, I'm excited to see what cool
designs you cook up with all of these new characters—and especially the
illustrated ones. They're flexible and great-looking, aren't they?
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 * over 6 years ago11/16/16 at 12:28 am (UTC)

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 * Veronica Budnikas
 * Hero
 * Trina Rimmer

over 6 years ago11/16/16 at 12:32 am (UTC)
Yes, they sure are! And the variety is great! I'll have a demo for this week's
challenge, and let's just say that Brandon gets into a bit of mischief and will
need our help ;)
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 * over 6 years ago11/16/16 at 12:32 am (UTC)

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 * Trina Rimmer
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 * Veronica Budnikas

over 6 years ago11/16/16 at 12:37 am (UTC)
Awesome! That sounds delightful!
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 * over 6 years ago11/16/16 at 12:37 am (UTC)

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 * Veronica Wilson

over 6 years ago11/29/16 at 10:54 pm (UTC)
Thanks, Trina. Great article! Speaking of characters... I love the little
hand-drawn ones you guys are using for Articulate 360. Where/how were those
created? Did you work with a specific designer or agency? Would love to know, as
we're in the process of developing a character universe and are looking for a
similar aesthetic. Thanks!
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 * over 6 years ago11/29/16 at 10:54 pm (UTC)

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 * NANCY STARK

over 5 years ago01/12/18 at 5:15 pm (UTC)
Thanks for fresh ideas! We often use scenarios, but I'm eager to try some of the
other strategies you've provided.
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 * over 5 years ago01/12/18 at 5:15 pm (UTC)

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 * Trina Rimmer
 * Author
 * NANCY STARK

over 5 years ago01/12/18 at 5:51 pm (UTC)
You're so welcome, Nancy! There's nothing I love more than giving people some
new ideas. Hope you'll come back and share what you've tried and how it went.
:-)
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 * over 5 years ago01/12/18 at 5:51 pm (UTC)

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