Writer and mythologist Joseph Campbell wrote about the monomyth in his seminal work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, citing that many of our stories passed down throughout time follow a common narrative structure. Since its publication in 1949, Campbell’s seventeen stages within the monomyth have been identified in myriad works ranging in diversity from Homer’s Odyssey to Star Wars.
Methods are imperfect. But what is? There is no single, definitive answer to the questions asked when crafting a story or learning experience. There is no right, there is no wrong. The methods we share here offer tools for thinking about the people you encounter and the paths you hope to craft for them.
Whether or not we acknowledge it, each of us is on a highly specialized learning journey every day. To think about your path in the physical sense, think about the routes you take to get to the places you go every day. Have you ever talked to someone who was going the same place but took a different path?
Through building connections and facilitating conversations, people are at the core of the Monomyth Online Framework. Without people there is no one to forge a path, and nothing to methodologically design. Think of the people in your courses as characters in a story you are writing. Who are you trying to empower? What skills will you give them to help them along the way? What will you learn from them?
Establishing Epic Heroes is a Storytelling Card Game for Online Learning Practitioners to play and consider their work and experiences through the lens of the Hero’s Journey. Holding a handful of cards, players are challenged to develop narratives describing their online learning experiences to share...
In this reflection, instructional designer Angela shares her experience developing two educational leadership courses with faculty from the Leadership Center at The University of Arizona built in the spirit of the Monomyth Online framework.
This first iteration of the game was created for a conference presentation at OLC Innovate 2018, I Need A Hero—Incorporating Monomyth And Narrative In Online Course Design. I was tasked with recreating the Where In the World Is Carmen San Diego? card game to show the...
Learning Experience Design is the intersection of user experience design, service design, and learning theory. In the quest to understand how students learn, and to design courses that help them maximize that learning, techniques such as persona creation, journey mapping, and user experience research are...
Cathy reflects on the design and development of her first course using the Monomyth Online framework, ESOC 300 - Digital Storytelling and Culture.
Angela reflects on a beloved game from her past, and shares the process of building an original game to teach the concept of paths within the Monomyth Online framework. She also shares the game pieces so that you can make a copy of The Online Learning Trail Game for yourself.
As part of a presentation at OLC Innovate 2018 in Nashville, TN, Jess Knott, Breana Yaklin, Nick Lepeschkin-Noel, and Caroline White created a game to teach people about the different people associated with the Monomyth Online Framework.
This presentation explored the role of Joseph Campbell’s “hero’s journey” in establishing students as the “epic heroes” of online courses. Participants played three original games inspired by old favorites Dungeons and Dragons, The Oregon Trail and Carmen Sandiego, and reflected on narrative in the design...
In addition to an exploration of the use of digital storytelling for assessment practices, this session covered practical methods for applying a narrative framework to establish online learners as “epic heroes” on a journey through their online course. This presentation was given by Angela Gunder...
Situating online course design within a narrative framework serves as a powerful tool for creating an environment that supports experiential, student-centered learning. This presentation, given by Cathy Russell, Angela Gunder, and Jessica Knott, highlights how a structure that establishes a course as a “hero’s journey”...
Building learning experiences that support autonomy proves challenging. Learn how narrative coupled with emerging technology redefines students as epic heroes driving knowledge creation. This presentation was given by Cathy Russell and Angela Gunder at OLC Innovate 2016 in New Orleans, LA. The three videos below...
