Narrative Learning

Course Description

Storytelling and the use of narrative case studies can be a highly effective way to teach. Often, we learn best by doing, and in the context of online learning, “doing” often means utilizing case study and role-playing methods. This course introduces the major techniques and strategies for integrating narrative learning into an educational curriculum. It presents different types of narrative learning and identifies the best means to utilize each. Finally, it explores the efficacy of narrative learning and how it can be applied to online design and instruction.

This course was developed by the National Institute of Online Learning (NIOL), which was founded in 2012 with the goal to improve the quality and effectiveness of online learning, especially for adult learners, by promoting best practices and innovation in the field.

Learning Outcomes

• Define narrative learning and summarize its core principles
• Identify various types of narrative activities and compare their applications
• Outline the stages of the narrative arc, specifying the purpose of each stage in terms of a story and a narrative activity
• Discuss best practices for narrative learning
• Design a scenario, case study, and simulation
• Interpret the literature surrounding the efficacy of narrative learning
• Critique poorly constructed narrative activities