Narrative in Instructional Design

Creative Experience

I used Powtoon to create this instructional video that contains tips to help calm people down from an anxiety attack. I really liked this platform as they provided templates to for users to update. Within the platform I was able to edit the slides’ graphics, theme elements and update the language. This made it very customizable which I appreciated. However, I really struggled with perfecting the video timing in this platform. I think some slides are up for too long or when there are multiple objects on a slide, the order in which they appear and how long they are on screen is off timing wise. I will definitely need to work on fine-tuning timing when working with videos.

Behind the Scenes View!

Instructional Design Proposal

Title: Tips to help Calm Anxiety Attacks

Concept Overview: This video provides practical tip to help people combat anxiety attacks. 

Statement of Need: As a result of the pandemic many people are feeling more anxious in general. People are worried about the future and have been cooped up in their houses with little to no outlets to maintain positive mental health. In an effort to address this, I created this video to provide a quick and easy instruction for people who struggle with anxiety and need to learn how to navigate through an anxiety attack. 

Concept Description: The video’s background is a soft baby blue color that fades. Blue is typically associated with calming moods, so this background is appropriate if it helps people feel more relaxed. The video then provides subsections with the helpful tips and then each subsection contains an expansion of the tip. This break down of information helps people understand the action item they need to take and then if they want more practical tips they can read the expanded version of the tip. For people with anxiety this is a helpful way to organize information because in the midst of an anxiety attack, the mind is racing and processing of thoughts can be difficult, but if information is organized in a seamless way it can help calm an anxious person’s mind. 

Target audience: The audience is for anyone suffering from anxiety or anxiety attacks. 

Learning Goals: 

• Viewers will be able to learn everyday steps to calm their anxious nerves and minds
• Viewers will learn grounding techniques
• Viewers will learn some cognitive behavioral health techniques

Learning Theories: 

• Cognitive Load Theory (Sweller, 1998): Since information is presented that highlights the main points and color codes the information people will not be overwhelmed and will know the key message for them to remember. 

References

Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Science, 12, 257–285.