Course Guide - 5 Steps / 5 Days

Overview

In this Facilitating Learning Online (FLO) micro-course, you'll explore the art and science of story design to discover how and why stories make learning easier. 

This MicroCourse takes place over 5 days with the goal of providing you with a supportive environment to ask questions, take risks, offer advice, and enjoy exploring new ways to teach with stories. When you're done, you'll be able to:

• Describe how stories facilitate learning.
  
• Identify 5 ways to use story in your teaching.
  
• Design one kind of story-based learning activity. 
  

Participation

You should expect to spend at least 5 hours for course activities during the week. Learning to design powerful stories is like riding a bike - you have to do it to get it. Active participation will make this course successful for everyone! 

Step 1 - What is a story? Why use story to teach? How can you design teaching stories?

With all the hype about storytelling these days, it can be tough to know what is - and isn't - a story, and why that matters. Head over to the Tips & Resources page  and watch the Teach with Stories video to learn all you'll need to know to get started. You'll also find links to a few tools, references, as well as ideas there for you. 

Then, go to the Step One: Practice Story Forum and complete the STEP ONE ACTIVITY called "Let's Swap Stories" by  end of day Monday.

Ideation Phase Suggested timeframe for completion: by end of day Tuesday

Step 2 - Generate Ideas About How to Teach With Stories

This step is all about combining what you learned in STEP ONE with what you already know. 

First, visit the Step One: Practice Story Forum and complete the STEP TWO ACTIVITY (A) called "Story Swap Review". Here, you'll be able to try out what you learned in STEP ONE by breaking down real world story structures to see how they work. 

Once you've done that, go to the  Step Two: Storystorm Forum  and complete STEP TWO ACTIVITY (B), called "StoryStorm: Story Ideas for Teaching". This is an opportunity to brainstorm ways you could use story to teach. By sharing your collective expertise, you'll generate a rich pool of ideas you can draw on for STEP THREE.

Try to get this done by by end of day Tuesday.

*Please note that forums are viewable by all course participants and external viewers. 

Creation Phase Suggested timeframe for completion: by end of day Wednesday

Step 3 - Design a Story-Driven Teaching Activity

Here, you'll bring together all the ideas and insights from STEP ONE and STEP TWO to create an outline for a story-driven teaching activity. This can be for anything - from a course you're leading to something you'd like to teach your kids. 

Things to think about are: 

• Not getting too deep into the details. Start by sketching an outline you can use to test out the idea.
• Picking one learning outcome for the activity and designing for it.  
  
• Designing for your audience. Would they benefit more from creating stories themselves, or consuming stories you provide?
• Using the Story Specs™ structure to shape the story in the activity.

Aim to get this done by by end of day Wednesday.

Step 5 - Share Insights and Next steps

Congratulations! You've made it through the hardest part. For this final step, go to the Step Five: Insights Forum and open a new discussion thread. Please use your name in the Subject field e.g "Denise's Insights". Share 3 insights from the course, as follows:

• What you learned.
  
• How you'll revise your learning activity based on the feedback you received.
  
• How you'll use story in your teaching going forward.
  

Try to get this done by end of day Friday.

Take some time over the weekend to see what others have said, and pick one thing to start to use in your work Monday.

Thank you - and happy story designing!

*Please note that forums are viewable by all course participants and external viewers.