Problems upon problems

So I'm designing an online course for some clients of mine, and I have a problem. The course is boring! I am boring myself while writing this course, God only knows how boring the poor students might find it. This won't do. I have to re-think my design plan.

There is a lot of buzz about using narrative principles to structure courses, so I surf around the web and my design library at home. Here is what I figured out.

We very commonly design courses within an overall "problem-solution" pattern. We describe some problem in the world that our students will face, and present the knowledge to be gained by the course as the solution.

I think a simple problem-solution frame is too simplistic to hook and engage the narrative imagination of students (or anyone else for that matter). There is no suspense. The solution is too pat. Too near at hand.

You start to draw on the appeal of narrative by making a very simple shift in your design plan. You heap problems on top of problems at the top-level of the design plan (sub-problems don't count, they have to be top-level).

For example, I was just designing a course for an online MBA program. The topic was organizational lifecycle analysis. My initial problem-solution frame went as follows:

No single management approach is good for all situations. The top management priorities for one firm might be very low on the list for another firm. Furthermore, within any organization, there is a multitude of different units, teams, projects, intiatives and so on, all of which may require different things from managers. The question, "How will you know what to do in each situation?" Organizational lifecycle analysis can help, in these various and sundry ways...

Basic problem-solution, not very dramatic. But wait!

Once you complicate, frustrate, or oppose this solution, making it impossible to attain the result right away, then your course plan starts to exhibit some drama!

...However, just knowing about lifecycle analysis is not enough. There are all kinds of barriers, structural and cultural, that can prevent you from bringing lifecycle problems to the attention of the management team, and further barriers that can prevent you from implementing solutions to lifecycle problems...

Gasp! The goal is in jeopardy! We have entered the drama zone.

For this reason, we will also study tools for overcoming these barriers, to solve lifecycle problems and improve communication on the management team, so that in the future you will be able to anticipate such problems and prepare for them, driving organizational change instead of letting it drive you.

I think that compounding problems on top of problems like this, of holding out a goal but then raising doubts about our ability to reach it, these create more complex problems that are more engaging, more story-like. They are complex enough to hold learner interest. Simple problem-solution design frames, I think, are too simplistic. The sales job they do is too blatant and too on-the-nose. More complex, story-like design frames with some risk and some challenge are much better choices - especially for online education, when the risk of having students drop out is so high.