This article is a how-to on creating audio scenarios for learning. Scenarios are just one of our NINE media tools for creating engaging audio learning content.
Let's start with this sample scenario script from a course we produced on REALTOR Safety: Listen to scenario
Narrator: Amelia Barnes is a competent and successful realtor in her late twenties. Today she’s hosting an open house in a quiet and remote suburban neighborhood, and as she drives through the forested roads she’s feeling a bit uneasy, so she calls her husband.
Amelia “Hi honey, I’m almost at the house now, I texted you the address. Remember to keep your phone with you just in case and don’t forget our new emergency plan… [indistinct talking]… yes, and our code-word, “the red binder”. I don’t know, I’m just feeling a bit nervous today… silly. I’m sure it’ll just be same old looky-loos and curious neighbors. ”
Narrator: After stopping a few times to put up her open house signs, she arrives at the house and parks her car off to the side. She can’t help admire the beauty of this home and its well manicured gardens, ponds and the gazebo underneath an enormous oak tree. [taking a deep breath and thinking] “A bit isolated for me, but I love how quiet and peaceful it is here”
Narrator: She stops for a moment to listen to the birds and insects, and feels calmer as she unlocks the door. She adjusts a vase of flowers in the lobby and begins to make final preparations. She takes the time to do a complete walk-through inside and outside as a safety check, to turn on the lights and to familiarize herself with the layout and access of the house, but she still feels a bit uneasy…
Amelia (to herself) “Just another showing. Stay alert, Amelia.”
Narrator: The first visitors arrive and the day goes well from there. A surprising number of good potential buyers arrive to view the property. Amelia follows her plans to screen each visitor, to have only one group in the house at a time, and have each visitor complete in the sign-up sheet. She also makes sure that she always lets visitors walk ahead of her.
Towards the end of the day, she walks the last visitors, an excited young couple, out to their car as they ask questions and discuss the house's features.
Amelia “Ok Bye now – speak with your broker and I’ll follow up with you tomorrow” [car leaving]. (to herself) “Ok, I guess that’s it then… that went better than I expected. Time to pack it in and I’m outta here”
Narrator: Back inside, she begins her final walkthrough to make sure everything is in place before she locks up. As she heads downstairs, Amelia notices an unidentified man standing in the kitchen. He somehow slipped in unnoticed. The sun is starting to set and the kitchen lights are turned off, so she can’t see him very well.
Amelia: (to herself) “I’m sure I turned on all the lights in the house..”.
Narrator: He starts walking toward her, heading towards the stairs.
Amelia: (fighting unease and trying too hard to speak in a confident and assertive voice) “Oh, hi there. Hello… I didn’t see you come in. Can I get you to come over and fill in the sign in sheet please? It’s at the front door.”
Narrator: He stops at the bottom of the stairs, blocking her path to the front door.
MAN: “I want you to show me around upstairs…”
Narrator: Amelia's heart races as she realizes the danger she's in, trapped alone with a potentially threatening individual..
The rest of the scenario plays out...
Could you feel the cold sense of dread that Amelia was feeling at that moment?
With audio, there are no distracting visuals - in fact, each listener creates their own imagery using their imagination, so the visual is perfectly adapted and unique for each individual. THAT IS POWERFUL!
Evidence shows that scenarios are one of the most powerful ways to engage and connect. Scenarios keeps learners engaged by making them think and feel more deeply. We do this by immersing them in real-life situations where they have to make decisions and solve problems, which helps them remember and understand the material better.
Neuroscience evidence show that, when learning through scenarios, the brain engages as if it is truly experiencing the situation, activating multiple regions responsible for sensory perception, emotions, and decision-making. This immersive process triggers the brain's mirror neurons, which helps us feel as though we are actively participating in the scenario.
These concepts are widely supported by neuroscientific evidence, such as:
Mirror Neurons: Research by Rizzolatti et al. shows that mirror neurons activate when we observe actions, leading to similar brain activity as if we were performing the actions ourselves.
Experiential Learning: David Kolb's work on experiential learning emphasizes how active engagement in scenarios helps learners connect theory to practice.
Storytelling and Emotional Engagement: Studies, including those by Paul Zak, demonstrate that stories can trigger the release of oxytocin, which enhances trust, empathy, and memory retention.
Because scenarios connects with our emotions and gets our brains actively involved, the learning sticks with us longer and is easier to apply in real-life situations.
Why audio scenarios are superior
If you've browsed our website, you'll know that ProDio specializes in StoryStyle™ audio-only learning, with no video content (we do have handouts and templates to help learners retain learning content). The reason why we chose audio-only can be summed up in one word "IMAGINATION". There are other reasons like flexibility, convenience and lower production and updating costs as well - but the true magic is what imagination does your brain while learning.
Because almost everything is visual - TV, movies, YouTube, phones, apps, computers and tables - adults have forgotten how to just listen and let our imagination create the scene. If you like reading or listening to audio books, and some descriptive podcasts, you'll understand what I mean. Imagination is so much more powerful
(Take a listen to our WHY story on YouTube called "What we learned from the Martians")
The problem with video scenarios: On a more practical level, if you haven't already tried to create a scenario on video, imagine the difficulty and expense required to hire actors, camera crew, sound, make-up, find suitable shooting location/s, film for one or more days, editing and post-production. After all that, if you're video isn't excellent, or if someone or something doesn't look quite right, it's going to distract (at best) and annoy or frustrate your learners and they won't focus on, or remember the actual learning content. All they will remember was the male CEO whose hair didn't look right, or the boardroom that looked like someone's dining room.
The benefit of audio scenarios: With audio scenarios, the process is much simpler. Voice actors can work from their home studios (my wife and ProDio partner Christine is a pro voice actor). AI voices are slowly getting the place where they can act out character scenes convincingly. The scenarios can be edited and produced by one sound designer at a computer.
One last selling point - audio is also very intimate, a one-on-one experience where the learner is alone with the voices in the scenario. With headphones or earphones this means that they hear, imagine and experience every sound, every word spoken and every breath taken by the characters.
Steps to creating a realistic and engaging audio scenario for Learning
As promised, I'm sharing our StoryStyle™ process for writing engaging scenarios that are aligned with learning outcomes. This is how we take a mundane straightforward script and transform it into a scenario-based immerse learning experience using the instructional design model ADDIE (Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement and Evaluate) as our guide.
SCENARIOS
Step 1: Analyze and assess existing course content, scripts and materials.
Step 2: Working with the expert instructor, identify desired learning outcomes and understand how learners will apply the learning outcomes in real-world situations.
Step 3: Imagine, plan, design and script realistic scenarios where the learning outcomes can be applied.
Step 4: Create realistic primary characters that resemble the learner group in terms of work role, demographic, work experience. Remember to represent minorities and take a multi-cultural approach to appeal to a broader audience.
Step 5: Create realistic secondary characters who are involved in the scenario with the primary character. These can be bosses, colleagues, clients, villains, friends, stakeholders or other characters. Avoid stereotypes and use as wide a variety of characters as possible.
Step 6: Add as much realistic detail as possible. Imagine and script realistic dialogue between the primary and secondary characters.
Step 7: Record all the characters using professional voice actors or AI voices. A strong word of caution: If AI voices are not convincing, don't use them. Spend the extra money to hire professionals, especially for main characters. Voices that don't sound real are as distracting as bad video actors and will destroy the believability of the scenario. Don't skimp on this! We've tried AI voices in the past and discarded them many times because they weren't convincing enough.
Step 8: Edit the audio recordings so that the audio is crisp, clean and recording bloopers are removed - this is best done by a professional sound editor who knows what to leave in, and what to take out (for example, sometimes breaths, ums or movement sounds are good, sometimes not).
Step 9: Sound design the scenario to include music and sound effects that create an immersive and convincing environment for your scenario. For an example, listen to the final produced opening of the scenario with Amelia on YouTube: REALTOR open house scenario
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