The number of new and innovative approaches to e-learning seems underwhelming, but up-and-coming e-learning firm substanz:® thinks its use of hyperstories may change your mind. Here’s how the Boeing Leadership Center is using interactive digital movies (hyperstories) for its soft-skills training.

While wandering around a recent expo hall, I was overwhelmed with the number of companies present but underwhelmed by the lack of new and innovative approaches to using e-learning. There was a lot of talk about how to network, manage, and evaluate e-learning tools, but very little discussion of actual e-learning--the content and the form that it takes for delivery. Fortunately, among the plethora of suppliers, I did manage to stumble across one company that seemed to have a fresh perspective and solution. In the back of the expo hall, with no more than a simple banner, a few brochures, and a couple of laptops, I found the Los Angeles-based company called substanz:®.

When I asked the folks at the substanz:® booth to show me what they did, they eagerly obliged—and not with the patent talk or a fancy slide show. Instead, they opened a laptop to a demo of a hyperstory that substanz:® had built for Boeing. For the next hour, I was drawn into a world of interactive media, stories, drama, and ideas. Although the company’s enthusiasm grabbed my attention, it was its sophisticated use of technology and high production quality that held my interest.

The hype

Basically, a hyperstory is a form of interactive movie. It’s similar in concept to a hyperlink, except rather than linking to another page, learners link to another perspective of the story being told. substanz:® describes it as “an interactive, multi-perspective story that uses the engaging quality of a movie to create an evolving learning experience.” That definition is accurate, but it doesn’t convey the power within this blend of art and technology.

Hyperstories are actually short movies with actors, dialogue, and a plot. Stories are told in classic movie-style drama and substanz:®, whose founders has a background in new media and digital arts, have gone to great lengths to create high-end productions. The sets, scripts, and acting are impressive.

The power of hyperstories becomes evident when, at certain intervals, learners can choose to change perspective and watch the same events unfold from another character’s point of view. The concrete events remain the same but the interpretation and feelings are different. What seemed an appropriate comment or behavior through one set of eyes now takes on new meaning from this other viewpoint.

It’s fair to say that I was intrigued with the concept of hyperstories. But I wanted to dig a little deeper, so I asked substanz:® to tell me more about its Boeing project.

The story

The Boeing Leadership Center needed a program that would teach new first-level managers all about EEO, compensation, ethics, union relations, medical issues, and safety, health, and environmental affairs (SHEA). Management at Boeing wanted something that would keep managers engaged in the content and with each other. In addition, Boeing had specific goals that it needed to achieve:

With those goals set, Boeing needed to find a partner to realize its vision. Enter substanz:®.

At an international digital content festival in Cannes, an instructional designer from Boeing saw an interactive movie called Uncompressed that had been created by Margi Spzerling of substanz:®. After watching Uncompressed, the delegate thought that a hyperstory might be able to address Boeing’s management training challenge. He met with Spzerling and substanz:®’s co-founder Craig Ashby, both graduates from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.

After four months and several brainstorming sessions, Boeing had its hyperstory: Transition to Management 1. Each new manager received the hyperstory in CD-ROM format. (Boeing chose this format over online streaming media because of the risk of having the story experience interrupted by network and bandwidth congestion.)

Transition to Management 1 is based around a fictitious magazine titled One. The three main characters are Chloe, a newly promoted manager; Stuart, a team member; and Monty, a manager of another department. Particular scenarios, nuances, and ambiguous ideas have been weaved carefully into the story to reflect some of the challenges new managers face at Boeing.

The hyperstory opens with Chloe holding her first staff meeting as a new manager in which she must deliver a speech to former co-workers. Everything appears to go smoothly, and Chloe seems energized, communicates well, and feels that she has inspired the team. Back at her office, though, things get complicated when Chloe’s former team member and friend Stuart says that he feels his contributions to the magazine go unrecognized and aggressively asks for a raise. Chloe is surprised by Stuart’s comments and their relationship starts to sour. Likewise, Chloe’s relationship and rapport with other staff starts to become uneven. It’s difficult not to sympathize with Chloe. She appears to be managing things, listening to the concerns of others, and communicating well with co-workers. Or is she?

After watching the story, learners at Boeing participate in facilitated discussions about their impressions, judgments, and reactions. Because the focus is on the hyperstory characters rather than culture or process specific to Boeing, it’s easier to have an open and productive dialogue. Never the less, learners soon discover that they’ve been seeing everything from Chloe’s perspective. Learners are now told that it’s possible to click on other characters in the story and see things from a different viewpoint.

Forexample, when a learner clicks on Stuart’s image in the staff meeting, the world seems slightly different. Chloe is saying the same words as before but in a more disjointed and nervous fashion. It’s evident she’s not involving the team in her conversation. Stuart raises his hand several times--perhaps to ask a question or clarify something--but his request goes unnoticed. Viewers watch as Stuart becomes frustrated and characters exchange concerned glances with each other. In addition, there are a few uncomfortable pauses in Chloe’s speech, adding to the notion that she’s unsure of herself and her new role. These nuances seen from Stuart’s perspective are subtle in delivery, which adds to their believability and power.

When Stuart walks into Chloe’s office, he no longer seems the aggressive, demanding person that learners saw from Chloe’s perspective. Instead, he appears to be a calm character making a reasonable request to his manager. In a very effective way, learners are reminded that it’s their perceptions, biases, and expectations that define reality and color communication.

As training evolves, viewers see additional perspectives. Because learners at Boeing aren’t asked to solve a specific problem but to consider and explore these issues, facilitated discussions take on a new dimension as learners consider each character’s interpretation of events and associated behaviors. Similar to real-life situations, there’s no black-and-white answer but an array of subtleties, complexities, and gray areas. The hyperstory becomes the vehicle for learning through awareness, discussion, and reflection rather than by presentation of bullet points and basic facts. In this format, learning is multi-layered, non-linear, and intuitive.

The reality

The Transition to Management 1 program, which was introduced earlier this year at Boeing, has proven successful, and Boeing plans to use it for at least three years. Feedback shows that learners embraced this new high-tech, storytelling approach to learning. In addition, learners said that they appreciated the non-competitive experience in which there were no right or wrong answers. They also felt that they had developed an increased awareness of their own styles and habits and an understanding for how these issues colored their interactions with others. Although the training initiative was a blended approach, the actual hyperstory seemed to be the key to success. It was an effective catalyst for introspection and discussion.

Indeed, there are many reasons why this approach to learning was effective. First, learners were engaged. Many organizations look for fast delivery, learning management, or online testing and evaluation to solve their learning woes. However, the real issue is how to successfully engage the learner in a way that makes them want to learn. Because hyperstories are created in a familiar medium—a movie—they immediately attract learners’ attention. People can’t just watch part of the story; they need to see the whole thing. Contrast that to standard training in which learners have to digest basic bullet points.

The hyperstory was a story. People remember stories because they’re own narratives of events. Though events have meaning on their, they gain meaning when strung together. This process is similar to looking at pixels for a graphic image--up close they appear to be meaningless squares of color, but they become a recognizable pattern from a distance. Likewise, a story is a pattern of events that provides vision, values, and meaning in a way that sticks with people, which explains why great speakers use them to press a point.

The hyperstory is non-linear and designed for learner interaction. Learners can change the direction, outcome, or perspective of the story. This idea is at odds with the way most learning programs are designed. Typically, enterprise learning comes in the form of a single stream of information. This model of learning can sacrifice discovery and curiosity for the sake of the convenience.

Many have argued that creating the conditions for learning and affecting behavior is more art than science, more sensory than cerebral. Unfortunately, too many companies have tried to push the e-learning envelope by means of technology alone. They’ve embraced linear learning and used technology simply to deliver information faster and further. The focus is too often on the infrastructure rather than form and content. But in Boeing’s use of hyperstories, it was the content and context that brought information to life. Perhaps the next growth in e-learning may not stem from technology--we have more than enough of that--but from the creative disciplines.

Published: February 10, 2003