Level 3 - Lesson 4: Creating the Best Path

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Level 3 - Lesson 3: Learner Decisions

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Level 3 - Lesson 5: Scoring

Lesson information:

As you watch the video below, look out for these learning points:

The Best Path is the most ideal form of the conversation
Build in tension and stakes for your learners to feel like their choices matter
4 decision nodes equates to around 2 minutes of the conversational experience

A Best Path is the most ideal form of a conversation, where the learner exercises all skills perfectly.

→ It should include Learning Objectives, Key Learning Points, and S kills, and serves as a starting point for building the rest of the structure.

Follow a structure like the five-act story arc to create tension and stakes, so your learner feels like their choices matter!
Aim for about 14 decisions in the Best Path.

Remember that four decisions roughly translate to two minutes of gameplay.
The sweet spot for experiences is around 20 minutes.

Start with setting the context, GRAB ATTENTION! 😉 build suspense, introduce a turning point or reveal, re-contextualize the learner's accomplishments, and create a realistic ending or transition into the next conversation.

In the example Best Path:

→ the learner engages in conversation with a character named Esther.

The conversation starts with minimal back-and-forth and gradually progresses to relating to Esther on an emotional level, using probing questions to uncover underlying issues.
Even if the learner is practicing skills perfectly, it will still likely take time to build rapport and trust with the character.
Adding plot twists and uncovering additional layers of information can help reward learners for exercising their skills.

‣

Video Transcript

Let's talk a little bit about writing your best path. So first up, let's talk about what a best path is.
A best path is the most ideal form of a conversation. So if a learner went through and exercised every skill absolutely perfectly, this is how the conversation would go.
Your best path should include all of your learning objectives, key learning points and skills for this flow. This is also the place we start because it's helpful to have it as kind of a starting point for building the rest of your structure.
This is a little familiar. Just a reminder for your best path, especially, you're gonna wanna try to follow either the five act story arc or whatever structure you feel would best support the plot of your flow.
Just remember that even in the best path when everything is going absolutely perfectly, you still need to build that tension and have some kind of stakes or change that happens over the course of the conversation, because otherwise your learner isn't going to feel like their choices actually matter.
Some nitty gritty details by the numbers. We aim for best paths in most of our flows to have about 14 decisions.
We've definitely done more, we've also done less, but that's kind of a sweet spot. Obviously that can vary depending on how many flows you have in your project, what your project actually is.
Another useful rule of thumb is that four decisions for the learner translates to about roughly two minutes of game play.
We also found that the sweet spot for experiences is usually around 20 minutes. Again, we've gone a little under, a little over, but that tends to be an ideal point at which the learner can still pay attention and feel engaged.
If they're in a VR, headset, it minimizes neck pain. So just a reminder again as you're going through and structuring your best path, you're always going to want to start with setting context.
Your learner needs to understand what their goal in the conversation is and what's going on. You want to grab their attention right away.
Slowly you build up some suspense about what's happening. You wanna have some kind of turning point or reveal, and then you want to re-contextualize what the learner has, you know, uncovered or accomplished, and then have the learner be able to set up some kind of realistic ending or transition into your next conversation.
I’ll give you a little example, best path here. To be clear, this is not <laugh> an ideal representation of learning content, but it will give you kind of an idea of what a plot progression structure should look like.
We have our little intro here. This could be shown to the learner in just a popup. And then I've outlined some very simple skills that we're gonna try to represent in this best path.
Going through your learner in the white text here is talking to Esther in the yellow text. So we are tracking, we're representing each of the skills.
As the conversation starts, it's kind of minimal towards the beginning, just a little bit of back and forth. Then as things progress, you start to relate to Esther on an emotional level.
You're empathizing with her stress level how much pressure she's under. Then you can use probing questions to kind of start to get at some of the underlying issues.
So Esther maybe lets you know that the budget's tight. And then she's hinting at something here, a little bit of a rumor, but she's maybe pushing back a bit.
Even though the learner is doing everything right up to this point, it's still gonna take them time to build enough re rapport with a character that they will trust them or deescalate.
It's important to remember that even if a learner is practicing skills perfectly, it's still will likely be a slow progression to get where they need to go in the conversation.
Now, in this next part here, Esther, is finally, you know, comfortable enough to reveal the rumor that she's heard. She's worried about layoffs.
So that kind of adds an extra layer beneath this overarching, oh my gosh, I have so many projects. It's not just the project she's worried about.
She's also worried that she's gonna get fired if she doesn't do the enough projects. So that's kind of your underlying layer.
Having sort of plot twist reveals like that, uncovering that second level of information, that's a really great way to make sure that your learner feels like they're getting rewarded for exercising their skills.

✅

Mark Actions as ‘Completed’ in the Actions Checklist

Download any supporting Resources & Documents:

📘

Mark this Lesson as ‘Completed’ in the Progress Tracker

Level 3 - Lesson 4: Creating the Best Path

Completed

…and then go to the next Lesson! 💪

Level 3 - Lesson 5: Scoring

Completed

Lesson information:

As you watch the video below, look out for these learning points:

The Best Path is the most ideal form of the conversation
Build in tension and stakes for your learners to feel like their choices matter
4 decision nodes equates to around 2 minutes of the conversational experience

A Best Path is the most ideal form of a conversation, where the learner exercises all skills perfectly.

→ It should include Learning Objectives, Key Learning Points, and S kills, and serves as a starting point for building the rest of the structure.

Follow a structure like the five-act story arc to create tension and stakes, so your learner feels like their choices matter!
Aim for about 14 decisions in the Best Path.

Remember that four decisions roughly translate to two minutes of gameplay.
The sweet spot for experiences is around 20 minutes.

Start with setting the context, GRAB ATTENTION! 😉 build suspense, introduce a turning point or reveal, re-contextualize the learner's accomplishments, and create a realistic ending or transition into the next conversation.

In the example Best Path:

→ the learner engages in conversation with a character named Esther.

The conversation starts with minimal back-and-forth and gradually progresses to relating to Esther on an emotional level, using probing questions to uncover underlying issues.
Even if the learner is practicing skills perfectly, it will still likely take time to build rapport and trust with the character.
Adding plot twists and uncovering additional layers of information can help reward learners for exercising their skills.

‣

Video Transcript

Let's talk a little bit about writing your best path. So first up, let's talk about what a best path is.
A best path is the most ideal form of a conversation. So if a learner went through and exercised every skill absolutely perfectly, this is how the conversation would go.
Your best path should include all of your learning objectives, key learning points and skills for this flow. This is also the place we start because it's helpful to have it as kind of a starting point for building the rest of your structure.
This is a little familiar. Just a reminder for your best path, especially, you're gonna wanna try to follow either the five act story arc or whatever structure you feel would best support the plot of your flow.
Just remember that even in the best path when everything is going absolutely perfectly, you still need to build that tension and have some kind of stakes or change that happens over the course of the conversation, because otherwise your learner isn't going to feel like their choices actually matter.
Some nitty gritty details by the numbers. We aim for best paths in most of our flows to have about 14 decisions.
We've definitely done more, we've also done less, but that's kind of a sweet spot. Obviously that can vary depending on how many flows you have in your project, what your project actually is.
Another useful rule of thumb is that four decisions for the learner translates to about roughly two minutes of game play.
We also found that the sweet spot for experiences is usually around 20 minutes. Again, we've gone a little under, a little over, but that tends to be an ideal point at which the learner can still pay attention and feel engaged.
If they're in a VR, headset, it minimizes neck pain. So just a reminder again as you're going through and structuring your best path, you're always going to want to start with setting context.
Your learner needs to understand what their goal in the conversation is and what's going on. You want to grab their attention right away.
Slowly you build up some suspense about what's happening. You wanna have some kind of turning point or reveal, and then you want to re-contextualize what the learner has, you know, uncovered or accomplished, and then have the learner be able to set up some kind of realistic ending or transition into your next conversation.
I’ll give you a little example, best path here. To be clear, this is not <laugh> an ideal representation of learning content, but it will give you kind of an idea of what a plot progression structure should look like.
We have our little intro here. This could be shown to the learner in just a popup. And then I've outlined some very simple skills that we're gonna try to represent in this best path.
Going through your learner in the white text here is talking to Esther in the yellow text. So we are tracking, we're representing each of the skills.
As the conversation starts, it's kind of minimal towards the beginning, just a little bit of back and forth. Then as things progress, you start to relate to Esther on an emotional level.
You're empathizing with her stress level how much pressure she's under. Then you can use probing questions to kind of start to get at some of the underlying issues.
So Esther maybe lets you know that the budget's tight. And then she's hinting at something here, a little bit of a rumor, but she's maybe pushing back a bit.
Even though the learner is doing everything right up to this point, it's still gonna take them time to build enough re rapport with a character that they will trust them or deescalate.
It's important to remember that even if a learner is practicing skills perfectly, it's still will likely be a slow progression to get where they need to go in the conversation.
Now, in this next part here, Esther, is finally, you know, comfortable enough to reveal the rumor that she's heard. She's worried about layoffs.
So that kind of adds an extra layer beneath this overarching, oh my gosh, I have so many projects. It's not just the project she's worried about.
She's also worried that she's gonna get fired if she doesn't do the enough projects. So that's kind of your underlying layer.
Having sort of plot twist reveals like that, uncovering that second level of information, that's a really great way to make sure that your learner feels like they're getting rewarded for exercising their skills.

✅

Mark Actions as ‘Completed’ in the Actions Checklist

Download any supporting Resources & Documents:

📘

Mark this Lesson as ‘Completed’ in the Progress Tracker

Level 3 - Lesson 4: Creating the Best Path

Completed

…and then go to the next Lesson! 💪

Level 3 - Lesson 5: Scoring

Completed