Scenarios: how to write them

Ross Woods Nov. 09, rev. '15, '20, '21

A scenario is a story of a realistic situation that poses a problem. There are two main kinds:

• A decision-making scenario is a story of an incident for which students must identify relevant factors, evaluate them, and then decide on a course of action.
• A debriefing scenario is a story of an incident for which students evaluate a decision made by the lead character.

Scenarios are usually written but can be presented by video clips. Others may be sound recordings of phone calls, phone call scripts, or role-play scripts. The key character in the story must be the person who makes the decision.

They give the same amount of information that a decision-maker in the real situation would have. In simpler cases, the information is complete. In more difficult cases, the information is deliberately incomplete because real decision-makers must sometimes make decisions without full information.

Most scenarios are fairly short, seldom more than about a page. If they are longer, they might be called a case study, and so complex that they are more likely to be fact rather than fiction.

Fictitious scenarios are better for training purposes. You can control what goes into them and don’t have to worry about people identifying themselves. If you do base them on things that really happened, at least make sure you mix in enough fiction in so that people won’t complain.

Benefits

Analyzing wide range of different scenarios provides simulated experience. The benefits are:

• Students learn what to do in a real situation, not just study theory.
• Each student gets to create their unique own set of "how-to" principles and decision-making strategies.
• Students get to respond to many more cases than they would in practice.
• Nobody gets hurt while students are learning.
• Students get to see the exceptions to the rules, and see why they are special cases.
• If students learn how to respond to rare cases, which might be more complex or have factors that seldom occur.

So far, we’ve used scenarios for assessments, discussion groups, and assignments. We are looking at using them as a basis for forums on our learning management system. (It might even be be helpful to make it a competition. Put students under time-pressure to make responses, rate their responses, and count them out if they made mistakes.)

Characteristics of effective cases

Rebeiz* lists the characteristics of effective cases, summarized as follows:

1. They call for “higher order cognitive learning goals in the Bloom’s taxonomy, such as generating new ideas, justifying a decision, dissecting information, synthesizing findings, deconstructing ideas, interrogating assumptions, finding solutions and implementing plans. The narrative also encompasses affective learning goals, such as receiving and attending, responding, organizing and internalizing values.”
2. They are original, stimulating, and based on current challenges.
3. They allow for counterintuitive solutions.
4. They are well-written and easy to understand.
5. They force students to make decisions.
6. They require students to make generalizations of their practical learning.
7. They are appropriate to the size of the class and students’ maturity.
8. They have enough detail for students to differentiate between relevant and irrelevant information.
9. They integrate various disciplines when useful.
10. Instructors have notes, not available to students, in order to stimulate effective discussion.
11. They include any necessary additional background materials (e.g. theoretical principles).

*Rebeiz, Karim S. 2011. “An Insider Perspective on Implementing the Harvard Case Study Method in Business Teaching” US-China Education Review A 5, pp. 591-601. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED527670.pdf, p. 595.

How do you use them in teaching?

In teaching, a good sequence is often as follows:

1. Start with the story that poses the problem.
2. Give students some guidance that will help them to solve the problem. For example:
• Lead them through a defined set of phases, with lists of problem-solving questions at each phase.
• Give examples, as long as you give them enough different kinds so they don’t simply copy your examples.
• Get the student to explore implications and consequences.
3. Give them feedback on their analyses and solutions at each stage.
4. Get them to reflect on their solutions.

Start your students with scenarios that have easier problems and not so many complicating factors. Then build up gradually by combining problems and adding complicating factors. At the last stage, your students should cope with multiple, difficult problems and multiple, difficult complicating factors.

Students should analyze enough scenarios to reflect the breadth of experience they’d get in reality, but get it in less time than in the workplace. Students draw their own conclusions about what they should always do, what never to do, the exceptions to the rules, and what makes some solutions better than others. Solutions can take various forms:

• There might be only one right answer in some situations.
• There might be more than one right answer in some other situations.
• Some right answers might be better than others.
• Some answers are definitely wrong, for example, if they miss a very significant factor or do something dangerous or illegal.

You can also use branching scenarios. These are like flowcharts or "choose your own adventure" books. Earlier decisions eliminate later options and focus on more suitable paths of action. In other words, earlier decisions determine options later on.

Some factors affecting decisions

Significant factors normally vary from case to case. Some general questions that students might ask:

1. Could the problem be expressed differently?
2. Information:
1. Is it complete? Is any necessary information missing or inconsistent?
2. Is it unbiased, or written from a particular perspective?
3. Which information is helpful to a solution?
3. Would a timeline of events be helpful?

Scenarios are particularly good for crisis management training, where you need to expose students to a range of realistic crises but cannot engineer real crises. Examples of factors in crisis management include:

1. How quickly do you need to make a decision? If you can make a decision more slowly you might be able to make a better decision. In other cases, a quick but imperfect decision is better than a perfect decision that is too late to be useful.
2. Can the person be removed from the situation?
3. Can the location be isolated?
4. What about other kinds of health and saftey risks, such as psychological effects on very fragile people?
5. What are the abilities and temperaments of the people involved?

Some factors might students need to consider in ministry studies:

1. Personal, emotional, and relational factors
2. Group dynamics
3. Biblical and theological
4. Ethical
5. Practical and pragmatic
6. Family considerations
7. Stage in the career of the individual
8. Legal requirements
9. Organizations policies and procedures
10. Size, structure and stage of development of the organization

Some examples from management studies:

1. Does your board or director prefer a particular style of response?
2. What are:
   1. the group dynamics?
   2. the legal implications?
   3. the financial implications?
   4. the insurance implications?
   5. the possible effects on on staff and clients?
3. Could there be negative effects on the reputation of your organization?
4. Who is already traumatized or likely to panic if asked for help?
5. Will you set a precedent that will have its own set of implications?
6. How would good communication practices affect the way you handle it?

Using scenarios in assessment

Scenarios can be better than real-life experiences for assessments. It's often difficult to provide students with real experiences of workplace situations that occur rarely or at random times. It's also difficult to provide students with a perfect storm, that is, the most difficult cases. But assessors can give as many difficult scenarios as they want.

In assessment, scenarios need to be realistic simulations, and this is easiest for many office-based decisions. They need to represent the kinds of problems found in the workplace and provide the same kinds of information as found in the workplace (e.g. financial reports, client feedback, line manager reports, technical information). If a scenario is not an accurate simulation because it lacks essential aspects of realism (e.g., equipment, interpersonal pressures), it is only a test of knowledge and is not a test of skill.

Plan your range of scenarios

Start your students with easier scenarios that have few complicating factors. Then build up gradually by combining problems and adding complicating factors. By the end, they should be able to respond to simple problems easily without much time and thought, and cope with multiple, difficult problems and multiple, difficult complicating factors.

You’ll need enough to cover all problems more than once for your students to become confident and make more timely decisions.

1. Start by writing a list of all the problems that you want to train your students to handle. Don’t try to do it all yourself; ask various people or hold a discussion group. Beware that some people will try to tell you: "The only way to learn these things by experience." You need to train people before they have to make decisions in crisis situations.
2. Start by planning the scenario for the final assessment. This will clarify what you are aiming at.
3. Put all these problems and factors into a list of approximate order from easiest to handle to most difficult. (See below for details.)
4. Decide which of the problems and complicating factors you want to handle in your first scenario.
5. Design a clear, simple way for presenting your scenarios and asking students to respond so that students know what is expected of them.

Simple and complex scenarios

Make a list of any factors that affect the severity of the situation or make it more complicated, including any other kinds of risks or dangers. For example:

• Incident happens in a public place. (How do you handle passers by?)
• Person is a minor.
• Worker is fatigued.
• Worker is very bored and easily distracted.
• Worker in the scenario can’t assign some tasks to an inexperienced assistant.
• The assistant panics.
• Worker’s mobile phone doesn’t work.
• Worker or person could break the law and get arrested.
• Worker or person could be sued.
• Very hot weather
• Very cold weather
• Etc.

If you need more ways to plan simple and complex scenarios, here they are:

How to write a scenario

Write a context

Where is it? Describe the place and the organization. What is happening?

Who is involved? They can be clients, staff, bystanders, or anybody else relevant. Give them names and make them sound like real people. Describe them, mentioning anything else relevant: the training and experience of staff, people's temperaments, personalities, limitations, and weaknesses.

Tell the story

Then tell the story of the incident, putting events in the order that they happened. Make it sound unique and realistic. Have fun and be descriptive.

Close with a challenge

At the end, at the peak of the crisis, leave your readers hanging with a decision to make.

Test it

Give your scenario to some people and see what they think of it. They will probably get the point that they have to make a decision, and might ponder it. But is the scenario clear? Did you leave out anything you should have put in? Is it realistic? Then revise it.

Hints:

• I found it helpful to have a cast of characters with a brief background story or character profile of each one. Having a cast and a set of problems was an easy way of jump-starting the writing process.
• If students must choose between a limited range of options, give them equal weighting of pros and contras, so that the decision is not easy.