MUMBAI, India, July 15 /PRNewswire/ --

- Former Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) Director Receives Commendation for Outstanding Paper on Rediscovering the joy of Learning Through Stories.

Jon Revelos, former Director - Story-based Learning at TIS has been honored with an Emerald Literati Award for Excellence 2008, for his outstanding paper titled 'Igniting instruction through a narrative spark.' The Emerald Literati is a UK-based publisher of management journals and databases.

The paper takes up the debate of the analytical versus the anecdotal schools of thought. It argues that the belief of conventional instructional design (ID) that breaking down and organizing information piece by piece helps build the learner's knowledge does not, in fact, support the learner in connecting the disparate pieces of information, and therefore learn and remember them.

Jon, who has been instrumental in making story-based learning the forte of instructional designers at TIS, has discussed in his paper the thoughtful identification of what can be considered the most effective mechanism for the delivery of instructional content - storytelling.

According to TIS' Gajanan Kasbekar - Vice President, Corporate Solutions, North America, "TIS has developed the Story-based Learning Objects (StoBLs) methodology in and have found it to be an innovative and effective instructional approach to deliver learning. A StoBL leverages a variety of media elements and combines them into a potent instructional form. The added element of interactivity increases the effectiveness of this training technique; as everyone-including adults-loves the immersive aspect of stories."

"Stories facilitate the appreciation of inaccessible concepts by lowering adult resistance to new ideas. They move content into a context that is relevant and recognizable to the learner, which helps them understand why the information is important and answer the ever-present 'what's in it for me?' question. Our ability to accommodate or reject new data is intimately tied to similarities and differences to our personal experiences, which are, themselves, stories," says Jon.

Notes for editors

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About Tata Interactive Systems (TIS)

Tata Interactive Systems (TIS), a global leader in e-learning, is a part of the $45bn Tata Group. Truly international, TIS has a presence across the US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, India, and mainland Europe. TIS offers corporations, universities, schools, publishers and government institutions a diversified and innovative bouquet of learning and training solutions including Simulation-based Learning Objects (SimBLs(R)), Story-based Learning Objects (StoBLs), courseware and curriculum design, special-needs education, assessments, electronic performance support systems (EPSS), mobile learning, game-based learning along with other corporate training and consultancy services. Our multi-disciplinary expertise and 17 years' experience across domains helps us design e-learning programs that are unique to clients' requirements and specifically crafted to boost knowledge retention and application.

TIS is the only e-learning organization in the world to be assessed at Level 5 in both the SEI-CMM and P-CMM frameworks. TIS's quest for excellence is reflected in numerous prestigious industry awards, including a Performance Centered Design Award, an ASTD Award, IT Training Awards, Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Awards, APEX Awards of Excellence, BETT Awards, and Business World-NID Design Excellence awards.

For more information log on to http://www.tatainteractive.com

About the Emerald Literati Award for Excellence

Every year Emerald invites each journal's Editor Team to nominate what they believe has been the title's Outstanding Paper from the previous 12 months. Jon's paper entitles 'Igniting instruction through a narrative spark', published in Training & Management Development methods has been included among these and I am please to inform you that your article has been chosen as a Highly Commended Paper at the Literati network Awards for Excellence 2008.

For more information log on to http://www.emeraldinsight.com

Tata Interactive Systems, 4th Floor, Leela Business Park, Andheri East, Mumbai 400 059, INDIA, Tel: +91-22-6643-8000; Fax: +91-22-6643-8800; Web: http://www.tatainteractive.com Further information from: Gajanan Kasbekar Tata Interactive Systems gajanank@tatainteractive.com

Tata Interactive Systems, 4th Floor, Leela Business Park, Andheri East, Mumbai 400 059, INDIA, Tel: +91-22-6643-8000; Fax: +91-22-6643-8800; Further information from: Gajanan Kasbekar, Tata Interactive Systems, gajanank@tatainteractive.com