While attending the Center for Service Learning Summit last week where the theme was, “Storytelling & Service Learning: A Traditional Native Educational Model,” I started thinking more about ways that storytelling could be used as a tool to increase student engagement in online classes.
I wanted to share this podcast I found on the use of storytelling as an instructional tool for online classes:
Download “Storytelling” Learning Times Green Room
They do a good job explaining how storytelling can be used by an instructor to introduce topics and share their personal passion with students. They also make the case for using narratives and case studies to help connect students with the material, making it more “real” to them. One potential use for stories that they didn’t bring up was having students as the ones sharing stories instead of always having the stories coming from the instructor’s end. This could be an excellent way for students to connect class content to their own lives and learn from the perspectives of one another.
I think that stories in the form of audio podcasts or short videos could really add a lot to certain classes if used in the right way. I’d love to hear any ideas that anybody else has.