Training through scenario-based learning is a valuable instructional strategy to boost motivation and engagement. It is especially suited when the purpose of the training is to:
- Offer relevant on-the-job learning
- Facilitate changes in behaviour
- Provide opportunities for staff to improve decision making and critical thinking skills
Three common types of training that suit scenario-based learning include compliance training, procedural training and interpersonal skills training.
Let’s take a look at each of these in more detail.
Compliance training
Compliance training is often mandated by law or policy. It employees be aware of what may put them or the organisation at risk. As important as compliance training is, employees can become disinterested when the training is delivered with little interaction. The content itself, which might include topics such as risk assessment, fire safety or anti-money laundering, can be dry (and boring!) too. Bringing compliance training to life through scenario-based learning makes the experience for the employee much more relevant and engaging. It can also result in greater retention rates of the new content. Rather than just being able to memorise and list their knowledge of compliance standards, policies or procedures, scenario-based learning places employees in a situation where they can utilise and implement their competency of the standards.
For example, consider a legal firm is requiring all staff to complete anti-money laundering compliance training. To turn this into an interactive learning scenario, staff could work their way through a story where a client is suspected of laundering money from criminal activity. Staff need to question and gather information from the client in-line with the company policies and legislation to decide whether what they are doing is legal or whether they are attempting to launder money.
Procedural training
Procedural training is relevant when staff are required to follow a particular process or utilise their knowledge to perform a specific skill or task. Scenario-based learning can be a valuable tool to encourage employees to learn and practice the processes and procedures an organisation has put in place. Here’s a few examples of when scenario-based learning can work well for procedural training:
- Sales: Staff at a clothing store need to follow the company’s five-step sales model.
- Healthcare: To reduce the possibility of spreading an infection, the management team of a nursing home want to reinforce the principles of hand hygiene with all healthcare staff.
- Insurance: An insurance company want to provide annual refresher training for call centre staff on the claims process, from receiving the call from the customer to processing the claim on the software system and closing the claim.
Scenario-based learning encourages employees to explore and learn relevant processes. They can do so in an environment that doesn’t pose a risk to the learner, the organisation or to customers.
Interpersonal skills training
This type of training relates to people skills, such as communication, teamwork and leadership, among others. Scenario-based learning enables learners to demonstrate that they can apply their learning to situations where they need to consider other people and relationships. Learners could demonstrate effective dialogue amongst individuals, for example. This might include dialogue between managers and their team, between an interviewee and the interview panel or between staff members. The immersive and relatable nature of scenario-based learning creates an emotional connection between the scenario and the learner. The learner can experience the outcome of a decision they made during a scenario. They can then start to positively change their behaviour to achieve the same outcome in real life.
For example, Sarah has recently been introduced to the STAR method of answering interview questions. This method involves her identifying a specific situation, discussing the details of her particular task, the actions she took and outlining the result of her intervention. If Sarah can practice this new method and receive feedback during a virtual interview panel, she’ll be able to answer questions using the STAR method when faced with a real interview.
Scenario-based learning is a valuable tool in creating memorable and meaningful learning experiences. For compliance training, procedural training or interpersonal skills training, this type of learning would be especially beneficial.
This blog is part of a series that delves into scenario-based learning. Check out our other blog posts Scenario-based learning, Linear scenarios in eLearning, and Branched scenarios in eLearning.
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