Scriptwriting

Once the learning journey has been mapped out in the course design stage we start the scripting process. This is where Blends experience of more than a decade of storytelling and copywriting comes into play. 

The learning journey helps us plot the key beats for the story – what is it the learner needs to be able to do, what key actions must they practice?

Blend construct situations where the learner can logically practice the actions we need them to be able to do to achieve the learning goal. Scenario-based learning is proven to be a very effective method for learning so we look for any opportunities to maximise this. Often there are opportunities to group activities together as well as call back to previous activities, all helping to reinforce the learning.

Once we have all the scenarios, we place them into a narrative framework, like the hero’s journey, taking the learner from a to b, adjusting and fitting in the scenarios for learning along the way. By the time the user has completed the journey they will have learned everything they need to achieve the goal.

We strongly believe at Blend that an effective learning experience is best achieved when the user is fully engaged. One of the best ways to do this is to encourage social interaction, conversation and empathy in the narrative by including characters with personality.

Also encouraging the learner to add some of their own personality through character customisation or branching scenarios adds a sense of personal choice to a journey. This greatly enhances the investment a learner will make in each decision, translating into a much more immersive and effective learning experience.

The script starts out life on a digital whiteboard. Tom and Brendan maintain an agile approach, moving and adjusting the plot points on sticky notes so in just a matter of hours a script can be planned out and visualised before fleshing out the details.

Once the script is completed and signed off by the client the project moves on to the storyboarding stage.