From Succession to Squid Game, from Game of Thrones to Fallout, we live in a culture saturated with stories. In this interactive session, you'll learn to use two powerful storytelling frameworks to drive both learner engagement and improved outcomes.

From Succession to Squid Game, from Game of Thrones to Fallout, we live in a culture saturated with stories. As educators, technologists, and researchers, we're frequently told that using stories will keep our audiences engaged when we need to convey information in a presentation or instructional-based format. How do we do that, though? We're not all natural-born storytellers, but there are effective, powerful frameworks that can help us tell compelling stories regardless of the subject. These frameworks can drive higher learner engagement and improved information retention outcomes. Stories are one of many ways in which information can be conveyed in a meaningful way to learners. Stories and storytelling are common across cultures, and form a powerful way of sharing ideas within both a specific cultural context and across time and geography. By using stories and a broad range of people included in those stories, we can celebrate the diversity of our respective fields and show that common narrative threads bind us all together through shared, lived experiences. The session will begin with an overview of the power of narrative in learning and communicating new ideas, research, and information. The audience will be surveyed for their experiences with narrative across a broad range of media. The presentation as a whole will provide techniques for educators, researchers, and technologists, as all groups must utilize effective storytelling techniques to demonstrate the value of their initiatives within their own higher education communities. The key components of storytelling - conflict, character, segmenting, and reflection - come next. Using the work of Richard Mayer as background, participants will understand how these four components form the cornerstone of effective storytelling. Two unique storytelling frameworks form the core of the presentation: Campbell's Hero's Journey and the Pixar Storytelling Framework. Examples will be given of each in a diverse set of subject domains so that participants will be able to understand the broad applicability of these frameworks. Finally, participants will take what they have learned about the Pixar storytelling framework and apply it to a segment of content from their own area of expertise. During this segment of the session, participants will be able to work independently or with partners. After a brief working period, participants will be asked to share their work with the session audience for feedback. Each participant will leave with the experience of applied knowledge and be better able to tell stories in their own higher education environments. By the end of this session, participants will be able to: * Contrast learner engagement using storytelling versus dumping information. * Describe two frameworks that can be utilized to tell stories. * Apply the Pixar storytelling framework to a subject in their area of expertise.