The Learner's Journey in Practice

Earlier this year, while Michael Milton was in the early stages of developing Head First Data Analysis (publishing later this month), we brought him to Cambridge to meet with the Head First editorial team for a focused training session. Our primary goal was to help crank out storyboards for chapters of Michael's book, but in the process, we further refined our thinking about the purpose and process for the Learner's Journey [1] to help get us there.

Because we had positive results using this new iteration of the Journey, I decided to summarize how it worked in the following short video, which I originally posted to the private group for Head First authors on Facebook. But in the spirit of Brett's public examination of Head First elements, I thought I'd share this behind-the-scenes view with Head First fans, as well as authors, in the hopes that it might reveal something interesting about what makes Head First teaching different.

Note: For better accessibility and detail (including larger versions of the low-resolution diagrams shown in the video), I've provided my original script below the video.

While you're staring at your blank whiteboard, sheet of paper, or computer screen, you've likely already given considerable thought to the topic of the chapter you're preparing to write.

But, as you know, the purpose of the chapter needs to be functional, so the first step after choosing your topic is to zero in on that functional goal. What will the learner be able to do after completing this chapter that they weren't able to do before? Tying that functional knowledge with the topic at hand is a big part of the point for the Learner's Journey.

The next part of the process is to work out the primary teaching points you need to cover to complete the topic. Plot these points chronologically on a line, ending with the final topic covered to complete the objectives in the chapter. We'll call this line, which covers pure teaching points only, the "story line." The points on this line represent the general concepts the learner is learning in the chapter.

Here's a real example of how this might look, for the Experiments chapter of Head First Data Analysis (click for larger view):

This line has six major points to cover, which is fairly ambitious for a single chapter. Because of the complexity, Michael found it helpful to add subcategories within the larger topic areas (click for larger view):

Depending on the topic at hand, this might be helpful or more detail than is necessary, but in this case, adding the subcategories helped us focus the story before going to boards.

Next, plot your Learner's Journey against the corresponding teaching points. This line, shown in red here, we'll call the "narrative line." This shows the events and milestones that represent the path taken by the learner on the way to learning the general topics. These events include the "Oh crap" valleys and the "I rule" peaks.

Here's the Experiments chapter example, with the narrative line added (click for larger view):

In this iteration, the narrative is lightweight and focuses on major learning events without being specific a particular scenario. Taking this extra step sometimes helps keep the scenario from forcing the direction of the chapter, because you're teaching general milestones, rather than to specific character plot lines, which might not be able to accommodate the core teaching points you've established on the story line.

Next, we add the specifics of the scenario to the narrative line (click for larger view):

Here, the more general narrative event "Some subgroups don't appear to show the association" becomes "Survey results at the Park avenue store don't indicate that coffee drinkers feel they're not getting enough value for their money." This makes sense only in the context of the specific scenario chose for the narrative.

With the Learner's Journey in place, it's time to go to boards. Having the teaching points and narrative in place first make this process go much more smoothly. And when you encounter problems, the specificity of the journey makes it clear when you're missing an important element or when the scenario needs to bend to fit the teaching.

And, of course, after boards, it's on to InDesign, editing, tech review, Production, and a finished book, which at this point should be a piece of cake. Right?

[1] While this post focuses on the construction of what we call the Learner's Journey, the concepts behind the idea really warrant a post of their own. In brief, though this particular approach and visualization was developed in house, the ideas behind it are loosely modeled on Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, combining teaching elements with a compelling scenario to create a rewarding quest for the protagonist (the learner) to accomplish. Before this visual format, we'd taken a cue from screenwriting by using text-only beats to organize a chapter before storyboards, which was effective but didn't capture the connection between scenario and teaching points quite as explicitly.