Digital storytelling for competence development

Abstract

The acquisition of complex knowledge and competences raises difficult challenges for the supporting tools within the corporate environment, which digital storytelling presents a potential solution. Traditionally, a driving goal of digital storytelling is the generation of dramatic stories with human significance, but for learning purposes, the need for drama is complemented by the requirement of achieving particular learning outcomes. This paper presents a narrative engine that supports emergent storytelling to support the development of complex competences in the learning domains of project management and innovation. The approach is based on the adaptation on the Fabula model combined with cases representing situated contexts associated to particular competences. These cases are then triggered to influence the unfolding of the story such that a learner encounters dramatic points in the narrative where the associated competences need to be used. In addition to the description of the approach and corresponding narrative engine, an illustration is presented of how the competence "conflict management" influences a story. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.