My guest for today is Anna Sabramowicz, an instructional designer who specializes in designing interactive stories. In this narrative conversation we talk about:

• How Anna stumbled upon the art of storytelling after many years as a more “traditional” instructional design career, because of a contest that took her outside her comfort zone.
• How storytelling connects to other critical parts of instructional design, such as assessment and scaffolding, and why storytelling “sells” learners on completing a lesson or course.
• What options instructors have for telling stories at different levels – from K-12 to adult learners. Or, how to build characters that learners can relate to, so they can make decisions for this flawed individual
• Why storytelling works everywhere, for any subject at any time against a backdrop of cave paintings, documentaries and Game of Thrones.
• How to get started with storytelling as a part of your practice as an instructor (at any level) or as a designer. And why being perfect is never really the objective and the biggest mistake that most people make in storytelling.
• If you’re not an instructional designer who specializes in narratives, what other options are available to you for creating killer courses and classes?
• Why choosing the “wrong” answer while learning through stories is actually a great thing and wonderful opportunity for the learner. Especially when you are challenging them on something the learner already believes to be true, or “correct”
• How storytelling works within the ephemeral nature of today’s rapidly changing world, and why different mediums are critical to different people and different points in time.