Based on Bandersnatch: Designing a “Choose Your Own Adventure” eLearning Module

Emmy award winning Black Mirror: Bandersnatch was Netflix’s first interactive movie that allowed the viewer to choose the movie’s storyline.  Like the popular Choose Your Own Adventure books from the 1970’s, Bandersnatch created multiple paths within the storyline based on the choices selected by the viewer. The question became, can we create an eLearning module based on the framework of Bandersnatch?

It was a question posed by a College of Pharmacy faculty member who wanted to reimagine their lecture on therapeutic medication for schizophrenia diagnosis. Bandersnatch’s creative layout and extensive branching scenarios provided the ideal format for a schizophrenia patient case study, and Articulate Storyline was the only authoring tool powerful enough to make this idea come to life.

The simulated case study follows the patient, PJ, through multiple medication timelines.  Similar to Bandersnatch, the student chooses which medication to prescribe PJ, and therefore chooses their own individual learning path.  Much of the module branching originates from the virtual pharmacy in which the student has six medications to prescribe to the patient.  Once a selection is made, the student travels down the education path.

Throughout the education path the student learns about the prescribed medication, answers questions, participates in interactions, and discovers common medication side-effects.  The side-effects ultimately overwhelm PJ, and the learner is forced to return to the virtual pharmacy slide to choose another medication for the patient.  Intricate triggers are integrated within the module forcing the student to learn about, and exhaust, all medication options until the correct medication appears on the pharmacy shelf thereby proving the ending path of the case simulation.

The complicated branching scenario in the eLearning module includes over 80 slides, 40 layers, 35 interactions, 20 variables, over 100 triggers, and a result slide that captures the student’s choices along the way.  Additionally, all the representative artwork integrated within the design was created by individuals living with schizophrenia.

In this session we will review the creative and design process that begun with generic PowerPoint themed slides supplied by the SME and discuss how the content was reimagined and retooled to be an engaging eLearning module student experience.