Bringing the art of storytelling into digital learning
In case we haven’t met before, let me start this post by sharing a little bit about myself, in three random facts:
- One of my earliest childhood memories is listening to a large collection of folk tales on my dad’s old vinyl record player, over and over again.
- Every time I move to a new place, signing up for a local library membership is at the top of my to-do list to feel settled.
- Whether or not I like a song often depends on its lyrics rather than melody (a hot take, I know!).
So, as you can probably tell, the throughline here is that I have always been fascinated by stories: how we tell them and the impact they have.
It’s not a surprise then that when I started working in education, first as a University Lecturer and later as a Learning Designer, I brought my love of stories with me. The more I stood in front of my students trying to link an abstract concept to a pop culture reference, opened my conference presentations with personal anecdotes, or spoke to organisations about their team members barely getting through “stale” e-learning modules, the clearer I saw storytelling as an essential learning multi-tool to explain, engage, and empower.
Science backs me up on this too, with studies finding countless benefits of story-driven learning and narrative-based communication across diverse groups of people, disciplines, and delivery formats, like:
- capturing and holding audience’s attention through both cognitive engagement and emotional resonance (McGee, 2014)
- boosting knowledge retention and transfer (Ginting et al., 2024)
- encouraging positive behavioural change (Cooper et al., 2019)
- improving individual’s ability to develop a sense of belonging and build relationships (Reissner, 2004)
- increasing work effectiveness and innovation (da Silva & Rodrigues, 2025)
A good story cuts through the noise, makes instructions easier to remember, grounds ideas in specific examples, and fosters an authentic and meaningful connection with learners. So, if you are not using storytelling in your workplace training, especially in e-learning modules, often completed asynchronously and independently, you’re missing out. Don’t worry though, as we’ve rounded up three key narrative elements to consider when creating your next training program.
| Setting While there is no need for elaborate worldbuilding, defining a clear setting or theme for your training program is a good first step, as it will serve as a backdrop for your content and inform its delivery style. For instance, if we are designing a Workplace Health & Safety e-learning module, we could root it in reality or treat it as a mystery narrative. The former will be characterised by a more traditional style of content presentation (e.g., informational videos, step-by-step work instructions), with special emphasis on contextual details (e.g., the way people talk about safety in your organisation) and emotive, personable tone of voice (e.g., to express care for the employees’ well-being and to link safety to organisational values). The latter, on the other hand, would lend itself better to active problem solving, where learners’ task is to find the culprit of a safety incident. In this case, the content will be mapped to possible learner actions within this scenario and revealed in response to their choices, creating a more personalised and interactive experience. |
| Characters Instead of relying on a neutral, lecture-based delivery or a disembodied narrator for your online content, consider introducing a lead character or an entire cast of characters into your training. Common character archetypes include a stand-in for the learner (e.g., a new team member going through their onboarding), an expert, or a representative from a particular department in the organisation. Character-led narratives help learners relate to the situations presented during training, encourage perspective-taking, and inject personality and humour into learning materials. |
| Plot Now that we’ve got both our setting and characters, it’s time to give them something to do, that is, figure out the narrative structure. The tried-and-true “challenge-solution-outcome” formula is a good starting point. It provides a familiar pattern with clear signposts but has enough flexibility to fit a variety of contexts. Organising your content into “plot lines” rather than grouping in into topics makes for a more dynamic and immersive learning experience, goes hand in hand with gamification and interactivity, and opens up possibilities for more complex, branching, and non-linear case studies and scenarios. |
So, if you’d like to craft stories that stick and resonate with your learners and maintain their attention and engagement during online self-paced training programs, give these three narrative strategies a go. For the best learning outcomes, don’t skip the Training Needs Analysis step in the design process, as it uncovers valuable insights about your unique audience and business case and helps make informed choices about the most fitting narrative approach. Also, remember to consider all aspects that add up to a compelling, memorable story and support your narrative with strong visuals for a holistic learning experience.
References
Cooper, K., Hatfield, E., & Yeomans, J. (2019). Animated stories of medical error as a means of teaching undergraduates patient safety: An evaluation study. Perspectives on Medical Education, 8, 118–122. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40037-019-0498-1
da Silva, J. D., & Rodrigues, R. S. (2025). Inspiring innovation: The power of storytelling in the workplace. Innovation, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/14479338.2025.2499262
Ginting, D., Woods, R. M., Barella, Y., Limanta, L. S., Madkur, A., & How, H. E. (2024). The effects of digital storytelling on the retention and transferability of student knowledge. SAGE Open, 14(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440241271267
McGee, P. (2014). The instructional value of digital storytelling: Higher education, professional, and adult learning settings. Routledge.
Reissner, S. C. (2004). Learning by story-telling? Narratives in the study of work-based learning. Journal of Adult and Continuing Education, 10(2), 99-113. https://doi.org/10.7227/JACE.10.2.2
