Cohort #1
April 22 - June 4 

The Instructional Story Design Experience

For instructional designers committed to humanizing training.
A 6-week cohort designed to give ID's practice with each step of Instructional Story Design. Join a group of global designers  and bring your training to life, one step at a time. 

It's blended learning at it's finest. 
For candidates of the Instructional Story Design Certification, this course fulfills the requirement for Phase 1. 
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Teams of 4 or more contact us for group discounts. 

What's included?

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State-of-the-art eLearning
Live touchpoints
Abundant resources

Elearning that will blow your mind!

Awesome video

Professional animated videos simulate conversations, provide concrete connections to skill-building and...a lot of laughs along the way. 

One-of a kind activities

You'll be interviewing stakeholders, gathering information from SMEs, designing and developing a story for training based on your analysis. It's as close to real life as eLearning can be!

Practical application

At each step of the process, you'll complete short assignments that lead up to the capstone project of a finished story for training and a story-based course. 

Robust support to help you reach those goals!

Practice and feedback

Each chapter of the course contains a short assignment. You'll practice every step of the process and receive feedback from a Story Design coach on key assignments, including the capstone: a story-based course. 

Templates, rubrics, worksheets

Check your progress throughout the training with detailed guides and rubrics for each assignment. Download all of the templates to use in your next Instructional Story Designed training experience! Keep you insights organized in the digital Notebook. 

Barrier breakers

A complete set of strategies to help you overcome 15 common barriers to implementing Instructional Story Design, such as winning stakeholders over to storytelling and right-sizing conflict.

Connections that keep you growing!

In-course discussions

Connect with peers, share your insights and learn from others within the online course at regular intervals. We call it Reflect & Share moments!

Live touchpoints with Rance

Three live virtual group meetings with author, Rance Greene spaced throughout the course to kick off the group session, check in on progress and celebrate your work.  


Support

Ping us anytime in the Discuss tab of the course to ask questions and share insights. We're hear to help keep your capstone project on track!

Earn ATD Certification Points

School of Story Design has been pre-approved by the ATD Certification Institute to offer educational programs that can be used towards initial eligibility and recertification of the Certified Professional in Talent Development (CPTD) and Associate Professional in Talent Development (APTD) credentials. This program qualifies for a maximum of 12 points.
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Live sessions

Join your peers and Rance three times throughout the group course for lively conversation and...of course...lots of stories!
  1. Launch Party
  2. Mid-course check-in
  3. Closing Celebration
To accommodate different time zones, two meeting times are offered for each of the above events. 
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"The Experience is...

...actionable!" | ...hands-on!" | ...fun!" | ...supportive." | ...expertly designed!" | ...empowering!"
"...insanely practical, but also fun and easy to produce. Rance's Story Design workshop was enlightening, to say the least!"
RYAN MARTIN
"Where I once saw bullet points, I now see dialogue... Highly recommend Rance’s expertise to take your training to the next level of awesomeness!"
VERONICA BUDNIKAS
"I have been telling stories in training for years, but this course helped me to go from telling stories to designing stories that help learners apply the content information."
KRISTIN BOGREN
"Rance provided a structured and clear way to make a story happen. And he took us step by step to building a great story. "
EARN MENG
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The perfect companion

Rance Greene's book, Instructional Story Design, published in 2020, is still a best-seller, empowering instructional designers with a relevant, method for discovering, designing and delivering stories that train. It's the ideal companion to this course. Chock full of stories, case studies and practical guidance that will help take your training to the story level.

Meet the creators of this course

Deanna Fischer
Learning experience designer & story enthusiast
“Storytelling and training are like peanut butter and jelly – they belong together! As the designer for the Instructional Story Design course, my goal was to make sure our audience experiences this firsthand through engaging interactions and content that puts them in the driver’s seat of their own story.”
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"Working with Deanna to create this learning experience was a joy! In the course, I encourage IDs to both design and to consult. Deanna is a model of both...plus she's an amazing project manager...she kept me focused, organized and brought Instructional Story Design to life brilliantly. I'm so glad she's a School of Story Design learning experience designer!"
Rance Greene

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Rance Greene
Author of Instructional Story Design, Owner of the School of Story Design
"Instructional Story Design has made a major impact on training programs across the globe. I'm thrilled that the School of Story Design is hosting this self-paced course, chock full of resources that will get IDs up on their storytelling feet quickly and confidently!"

Frequently asked questions

Does the Experience count toward Instructional Story Design Certification? 

Yes, this is Step 1 of Instructional Story Design certification. In Step 2, you'll discover, design and deliver a story-based course for an actual project at work or for your portfolio, with one-on-one mentorship with Rance Greene. 

Can I purchase The Experience & Certification all at once? 

Yes, you can bundle these two purchases into one and take $100 off. Email info@needastory.com to let us know your interest in both. Provide your company name, email address for the invoice and which cohort you'd like to register for. We'll apply the discount and send you an invoice. We can't wait to welcome you to the certification program!

Can I purchase Certification later? 

Yes, you can purchase certification as much as a year later after you've gone through The Experience. 

Is The Experience for new or seasoned instructional designers?

The Experience is designed to take seasoned instructional designers to the next level in their expertise. If you are new to instructional design, you will not be left behind. Instructional Story Design is a great entry point into our field. Whether you are an expert or brand new, you will find great value in humanizing the learning experience through stories. 

Can I take my whole team to go through The Experience?

Yes, teams of 4 or more qualify for group discounts. Contact us and let us know how many people you'd like to register and we'll invoice for the discounted price. 

Can I bring The Experience to our team?

Yes! Teams can bring an Instructional Story Design workshop into their organization. Contact us. We'd love to help you out!
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