Choose your own Adventure
On how choice boosts curiosity
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I love reading Latin American authors and one of my favorites is Jorge Luis Borges. In 1940, Borges wrote a story called "The Garden of Forking Paths." (It's not your usual bedtime story). Although the story itself is not interactive, the paths and directions of alternative realities it suggests became an early offering to the field of interactive fiction.
Around the same time as Borges, there was an American scientist named Vannevar Bush. He imagined a machine called "Memex" that worked a bit like hypertext (a term coined more than two decades later as a form of non-sequential writing). The purpose of this machine was to link different books and records together in a way that wasn't straight from beginning to end, but that let you jump around in a non-linear way.
We have a habit of thinking in terms of this leads to that. It’s a short cut that saves us effort and energy. But learning is often non-linear. That’s the format we’re exploring today.
📰 What’s the format?
Choose your Own Adventure (or non-linear learning). A format that allows learners to explore content more flexibly.
One night in 1969, tired after a long day of work, Edward Packard was spinning a bedtime story for his daughters about a guy stuck on a desert island. Until he got stuck himself... Not knowing what should happen next in the story, he asked his daughters. The girls provided two different answers, and Packard saw a genre with potential. “They could not just identify with the main character, but they could be the main character,” he said.
This thought gave birth to the Choose Your Own Adventure books. In Packard’s first book, "The Cave of Time," the reader finds themselves lost in a cave and must choose between attempting to go home or staying put for the night, with the decision leading them to different pages in the book…
Between 1979-1999, the series sold over 250 million copies worldwide and was translated into 38 languages.
🎛️ What are the features?
Learning could be highly non-linear. It mostly occurs when our attention is captured by need, trial and error, doing, and an innate desire to master and to know.
Non-linear learning experiences usually offer one of the following:
Selection
Optionality
Multiple outcomes
You can look at the basis of a non-linear learning experience like a quest. Quests allow a larger narrative to be non-linear by requiring a series of smaller quests to be completed individually, in any order.
💡 Why is it effective for learning?
Non-linear learning often adapts to the learner's preferences and needs. It allows learners to skip over material they already know or dive deeper into areas they find particularly interesting. This customization can enhance engagement and motivation.
This approach is common in self-directed learning and inquiry-based learning. Here’s a visual with some pros and cons of linear and non-linear learning:
In his article The Six Levers of Game-Based Learning, Terry Pearce talks about Exploration. “If there’s only one place to go next, things go back to the linear. If you have to work out for yourself what looks most appealing to explore next, and then which parts of what you found are most useful, you’re evaluating. You’re engaged”.
Non-linear learning promote choice. And choice tends to boost curiosity and sustained interest (as this study concludes). This insight has potential implications in enhancing learning, memory, and motivation.
🥁 Recommendations
You don’t need to create a mega-branching scenario to provide a rich and varied learning experience. You can:
Add optional advanced content that can be accessed by interested learners.
Design Parallel Units that can be presented in any order
Spread a Quest narrative across an "open map" the the learners can explore
Organize non-linear content around a common introduction
Learning is a complex process, and it can take many forms. Both linear and non-linear learning have their unique advantages and limitations, so make sure to consider those when designing your learning experiences. For example, non-linear learning lacks a clear order or sequence, which some people find chaotic or unstructured.
To help you decide, here are four questions you can use:
What is the nature of the subject matter?
Linear Learning: Is the content sequential where one concept builds upon another?
Non-Linear Learning: Is the subject more exploratory or open to interpretation?
What are the learning objectives?
Linear Learning: Are you aiming to achieve specific, clearly defined outcomes where each step is crucial?
Non-Linear Learning: Are the goals related to exploration, creativity, or developing a broader understanding?
What is the skill level of your learners?
Linear Learning: Are your learners beginners who might benefit from a structured, step-by-step approach?
Non-Linear Learning: Do you have advanced learners who can direct their own learning path and explore topics more freely?
What is the learning style of your audience?
Linear Learning: Do your learners prefer structured, guided learning experiences?
Non-Linear Learning: Do they thrive in environments where they can explore and learn at their own pace?
🏷 Summary
Non-linear learning adapts to individual preferences and needs, offering learners the freedom to explore content flexibly. It also gives learners an opportunity to choose, which boosts creativity and engagement. When designing a learning experience, ask yourself what’s the nature of the subject matter, what are the learning objectives, and what are the skill level and learning preferences of your learners. This will guide the decision of whether it's worth exploring this Choose Your Own Adventure format.
📚 Further Readings
The Enduring Allure of Choose Your Own Adventure Books (The New Yorker)
Beautiful visualizations of Choose Your Own Adventure story structures (Christian Swinehart).
Tools you can use to create non-linear experiences:
👉 Coming Up Next
‘Gamification’ is a controversial word nowadays. That said, it is worth discussing how games motivate the behaviour of going out of your way to learn something new. Stay tuned for our next edition of the Learning Dispatch. Until then!
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