I’ve argued before that we should be thinking about exaggeration in our learning design. And I’ve noticed that it’s a dramatic trick in popular media. But you can easily think of ways it can go wrong. So what would be appropriate exaggeration?
When I look at movies and other story-telling media (comics), the exaggeration usually is one level. You know, it’s like real life but some aspect is taken beyond what’s typical. So, more extreme events happen: the whacky neighbor is maniacal, or the money problems are potentially fatal, or the unlikely events on a trip are just more extreme. And this works; real life is mundane, but you go too far and it treads past the line of believability. So there’s a fine line there.
Now, when we’re actually performing, whether with customers or developing a solution, it matters. It’s our job after all, and people are counting on us. There’s plenty of stress, because there are probably not enough time, and too much work, and…
However, in the learning situation, you’re just mimicking the real world. It’s hard to mimic the stress that comes from real life. So, I’m arguing, we should be bringing in the extra pressure through the story. Exaggerate! You’re not just helping a customer, you’re helping the foreign ambassador’s daughter, and international relations are at stake! Or the person you’re sweet on (or the father of said person) is watching! This is the chance to have fun and be creative!
Now, you can’t exaggerate everything. You could add extraneous cognitive load in terms of processing if you make it too complex in the details. And you definitely don’t want to change the inherent decisions in the task and decrease the relevance of the learning. To me, it’s about increasing the meaning of the decisions, without affecting their nature. Which may require a bit of interpretation, but I think it’s manageable.
At core, I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say exaggeration is one of your tools to enhance engagement and effectiveness. The closer we bring the learning situation to the performance situation, the higher the transfer. And if we increase the meaningfulness of the learning context to match the performance context, even if the details are more dissimilar, I think it’s an effective tradeoff. What do you think?
Hi Clark,
You note that “when we’re actually performing…there’s plenty of stress” but that learning situations may lack the stress that’s present in reality. Wouldn’t we bring the stress we experience in real life into the learning situation? I still have to complete this training plus all the other things I have to do, so wouldn’t that stress infiltrate the virtual world of the training situation too? Also, I usually have to pass the training course, and that means there is the possibility of not passing–that’s got to add some stress. We know that a certain amount of emotional arousal helps us create memories that are easier to recall, so I would regard it as useful if learners take some real-world stress with them into our training scenarios, but not so much as to be debilitating. I like your idea of exaggerating the importance of solving the challenges in our training through some storytelling or narrative devices.
You mentioned that exaggeration is commonly used in popular media such as movies and comics. That made me think about a great two-page spread in the classic book How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. On one page (page 122 in my paperback edition), a silent (wordless) story of two business men meeting in an office plays out in a series of medium shots. In contrast, on the facing page (page 123), the same story is told with panels drawn from more exaggerated angles. The closing panel includes an extreme close-up, too. Essentially, the “Marvel Way” is to exaggerate not just the events of the story, not just the physical characteristics and “powers” of the exaggerated (“Super!”) heroes, but also their visual presentation. So perhaps, exaggeration is a tool we can apply to more than one element of our learning interventions.
A related idea is “externalization.” This is also something comics sometimes do: the character’s internal emotional state is externalized in the way the artist draws the environment around the character. If the character is sad, it may be raining. If the character feels angry, the panels may feature blocks of black or red. The environment supports the storytelling by breaking free of literal realism and entering the realm of metaphor and analogy. Exaggeration is often an element here too. “Externalization” is a large part of why the film Punch-Drunk Love works so well for me, so the technique is not limited to comics. Could we make use of it as tool to add an affective element to our training, again with the goal of creating a heightened emotional engagement so as to improve recall for the material we’re teaching?
Just thinking out loud here, but I’m curious to hear your thoughts.
Ray, deep thoughts. On ‘stress’. Typically, in the real world, the stress is about accomplishing the task itself. And here I believe exaggeration about the importance of the task helps reflect that in the learning experience. The learning stress is, indeed, additional stress, but not specifically task-related (well, domain task…). Ideally, we remove the learning stress, making it safe, etc. We should explicitly address learning anxiety. At least, that’s my take.
As to exaggeration in comics; I like both your ideas, the visual angles and the environment. You wouldn’t want to do too much, I reckon, as it might end up detracting, but subtle touches could enhance the aesthetic depth. Which is a wonderful idea, as long as any additional costs don’t adversely impact the budgets.
Thanks for the deep reflection, and the feedback!