Story Boarding

What is Storyboarding?

At the most fundamental level, storyboarding, for the purpose of creating learning experiences, is the process of:

  • Identifying a goal or goals (learning objectives) and measurable outcomes.
  • Establishing a method of analyzing learner's needs and ability.
  • Creating and organizing content to accomplish each objective.
  • Measuring results formatively and summatively (assessment).
  • Assessing course outcomes.

While the five elements above represent the basic components of planning an effective learning experience, there are some unique characteristics of online courses that must be considered. For example, the technologies used to to support the teaching and learning process afford instructors the ability to create robust learning communities where students have the ability to learn from the content presented, auxiliary information suggested by class participants, as well as the unique experiences and knowledge of class participants. However, this transfer of knowledge will likely not occur on its own. The instructor/developer must provide opportunities and prompts to elicit and encourage conversation.

Another element that instructors/developers must be cognizant of is that everyone is different and we all have preferred learning styles and in some cases physical abilities. There are many other components of diversity that should be acknowledged, such as absent narrative, prerequisite knowledge, socioeconomic perspectives, etc., but for the purposes of this workshop we will focus on learning styles and physical abilities.

As instructors and our instructional designers work together through the storyboard process, they will build courses or course materials that are accessible, multi-modal/sensory and promote learning communities.