Novella Frequently
Asked Questions .

• Novella personalises courses in two ways:
  • The Novella user can choose which factsheets they want to create a course on, either from the catalogue provided with the tool or via uploading their own factsheet. The ability to upload their own fact sheet allows users to build a course on anything e.g. create courses on information unique to their business such as policies and processes.
  • By providing Novella with information about the intended learners and their business (including uploading a logo), Novella will create a story-based course. The story will take the information provided and put the learning into the context of the learner’s working environment, making the learning relevant and in context to their role. We believe this makes the learning more digestible, memorable and, therefore, likely to be applied.

• To personalise the learning, Novella requires a Company logo, basic publicly available information about the user’s Company (usually taken from the Company website / LinkedIn Profile) and the job roles of the learners. None of this information should contain personal data or business confidential information, even though the data shared is protected (see below).
• Users can choose to upload policies or processes to create bespoke courses on Novella too, using these documents as the foundation of the learning and create something truly bespoke to your organisation.

• We adhere to the applicable requirements of the Data Protection Legislation (UK GDPR) as laid out in our Terms and Conditions and our Privacy Notice, both of which can be found on our website.
• Whilst Novella calls on various generative AI tools to help create the learning, our Enterprise Licenses mean only we see the information sent to them and it is held within our controlled environment and not shared wider for the ongoing development of AI.

Novalla produces SCORM compliant courses that can be uploaded to your LMS.

• Because Novella tailors the course content to the context of the user’s company and makes the learning relevant to their learners, the courses it creates are applicable to any and every industry. We believe all training should be relevant to the learner and the place they work, that’s why we created Novella.

• Whilst Novella can create non-story-based courses (we call them fact-based courses) we have designed it to put the learning in a relevant story for all learners. Novella uses storytelling to make the content engaging, accessible easy to digest and memorable, even the boring compliance stuff. We believe all learning should be relevant and storytelling allows us to put the content into the context of the learner so that they can relate the learning to their jobs.
• For over 27,000 years, since the first cave paintings were discovered, telling stories has been one of our most powerful means to influence, teach, communicate and inspire. Stories have been used to hand down learning and knowledge for thousands of years. A good story engages our curiosity, emotions and imagination.
• A study by Dr Jerome Bruner found that messages delivered as stories can be up to 22 times more memorable than just the facts. In another study by Banister and Ryan (2001), children remembered abstract science ideas more effectively when they were taught in a story format. Remembering isolated and disconnected facts and concepts is more difficult than recalling this type of content in a story because the information is presented in a coherent and connected way.
• According to New York University study in 2023 “Stories can be used to explain and illustrate abstract ideas or concepts in a way that makes them accessible and attainable.”

Novella can create courses on any topic, from courses that fulfil new employee’s compliance requirements to leadership courses that help established managers lead their teams more effectively, and everything in between (processes, sales, customer service, personal development etc. etc.). We believe eLearning (including the courses Novella creates) can be really powerful to help convey facts and information, increasing people’s knowledge and understanding. Where this learning has to be applied, we believe eLearning can be blended wonderfully with other training methods.

We have designed Novella to be easy and intuitive to use. If support is needed, then training videos and guides are readily available. Our team can also be contacted at support@novellalearning.com during business hours (9-5 Monday – Friday GMT).

The courses Novella designs use different learning theories including: defining effective learning outcomes inline with level 1 of Blooms Cognitive Taxonomy (to make sure the learning is achievable) and Kirkpatrick’s level 2 evaluation (to test the retention of knowledge gained [creating multiple-choice questions with one correct answer and three distractors]). Novella also generates courses using a range of different media (text, pictures, videos, questions) to ensure the learning applies to all learning styles and preferences. The option to develop the courses in a story format to make the learning relevant and contextual, again further enhances the impact of the learning. We have found this approach has previously resulted in 98.6% of learners stating they would recommend the course to their colleagues. Finally, Novella has a number of built-in checks to ensure the facts of the course remain accurate to the fact sheet used. As the courses are managed on an LMS, any assessment of the effectiveness of courses generated are measured in the same way any other course is measured on the LMS.

Anyone can request a demo of Novella and receive access to the platform and if interested, be provided the opportunity to create one free course.

We believe that learning should be in the context of the learner, and this is where Novella excels. Other than ticking a compliance requirement we believe generic out of context courses have very little positive impact and largely put learners off learning online. We want the learners to both learn and be able to apply that learning. It is our view that if they can relate the learning to their jobs and see its relevance to them in their roles then they will more likely remember it and put the learning into practice (potentially reducing the risk not just the liability).

Whilst Novella generates a fully constructed course the output is fully editable. This means users are able to amend what has been created and add additional text, pictures, links and documents as required.

The Novella factsheets (used as the basis for any course) are constantly being reviewed and added to.

By telling Novella where a business operates the courses it creates will take this into account and reflect different cultures in the stories. However, Novella currently creates courses in English (US), although the option to choose a language in our development pipeline.

Novella access can be created in minutes and is ready to use as soon as you log in.

We find Novella works best on a desktop / laptop type devise; however, it is optimised to re-size and work on any device that can access the internet, including a currently supported smartphone. Novella also works with all supported browsers.

Novella generates courses using a range of different media (text, pictures, videos, questions) to ensure the learning applies to all learning styles and preferences. The option to develop the courses in a story format to make the learning relevant and contextual, again further enhancing the accessibility of the learning.