In your online course design, narrative structure can be a powerful way to create a more connected and meaningful learning experience for your students. Rather than experiencing modules as isolated units, your students move through your course as a whole, making sense of how ideas build and relate over time. Use the examples below to begin weaving narrative structure into your course.
A course narrative helps you bring course objectives to life by providing a unifying theme, real-world context, or unfolding story that ties learning together throughout the term. This approach aligns with how your students naturally learn. They build mental models, or schema, to organize knowledge (Hattie & Yates, 2014), and they make meaning by forming connections across ideas rather than following a strictly linear path (Szurmak & Thuna, 2013). Narrative supports this process by adding structure, context, and emotional resonance. As Szurmak and Thuna note,
“Using stories…may layer and activate patterns and set up an affectively charged structure to which students will instinctively respond and with which they will interact”
p. 549
By intentionally incorporating narrative into your course design, you can help your students better understand, engage with, and retain what they learn.
Types of narrative structure
An online course doesn’t have to be as complex as a novel or a movie to include narrative elements. Even a well-organized sequence of modules can create a meaningful “story” that guides students through the learning process. Here are some examples of narrative structures you can use to organize your course:
Use of chronological structure
by organizing your course around time. For example, you might position students as time travelers moving backward or forward through key events, such as starting in the present and tracing historical developments step by step.
Use of a sequential structure
Example text goes here
Use a funneling structure
by moving from broad concepts to more complex or detailed applications. For example, you might guide students through building something from the ground up, such as designing a system, developing a program, or constructing a solution piece by piece.
Use a geographical or spatial structure
by organizing learning around place or movement. For example, you could have students “travel” through different regions, markets, or environments, examining how context shapes decisions and outcomes.
Use an ideological structure
by framing the course around different schools of thought or perspectives. For example, you might organize modules around key thinkers, theories, or competing approaches, asking students to compare and apply each one.
Use a problem-and-solution structure
by centering each module on a challenge to solve. For example, you can begin with a real-world problem or scenario and then introduce the concepts, tools, or methods students need to resolve it.
Any of these course structures offer the potential for embedding your disciplinary details into a narrative context. Not only can they invite your student to use their imagination and ignite affective areas of the brain, but also, as Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa (2010) explains it, it’s simply how the brain learns best.
Bring the narrative to life
Once you choose a narrative structure, you can bring it to life by intentionally incorporating elements of storytelling into your course design. Think about how you might create a sense of setting, build a progression of ideas, and position your students as active participants in the learning experience. These choices help students stay engaged while also encouraging deeper thinking as they move through the course.
Example
In a science course, you might frame each module as part of an ongoing quest for knowledge, where students uncover key discoveries over time. In a history course, you could design a chronological journey that invites students to examine events from the perspectives of the people who experienced them. By embedding these narrative elements into your modules, you help students connect ideas, stay motivated, and make meaning throughout the course.
A modular structure contains a framework for arranging your course content logically and consistently. These structures not only diminish the chance that students will get lost in the course, but also provide a ready-made schema for big-picture understanding. When narrative is layered into a course structure, learning becomes embedded in a more natural context that engages students affectively as well as cognitively. This type of engagement helps them retain details and make meaning of information and also increases the impact of and learning potential in your course.
References
- Clark, M. C. (2010). Narrative learning: Its contours and its possibilities. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 2010(126), 3–11.
- Hattie, J., & Yates, G. (2014). Visible learning and the science of how we learn. New York: Routledge.
- Szurmak, J., & Thuna, M. (2013). Tell me a story: The use of narrative as a tool for instruction. Conference of the Association of College and Research Libraries, April 10–13, 2013, Indianapolis, IN. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/acrl/acrl/conferences/2013/papers.
- Tokuhama-Espinosa, T. (2010). The new science of teaching and learning: Using the best of mind, brain, and education science in the classroom. New York: Teachers College Press.
