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The term Edutainment has been around for a long time (thought to be coined by The Walt Disney Company in 1948.) And Edutainment as a form of teaching has been around since time immemorial. (Fables incorporating morals are an obvious example of teaching blended with story-telling). What makes edutainment a highly effective means of educating is the context of the message, the receptiveness of the audience, and the long-term retention of the shared information.

Principles relative to Edutainment include:

1) Relevance: Learning is more likely when people can see the usefulness of the knowledge they are given.
2) Incremental Learning: Learning is most effective when people can learn at their own pace.
3) Distributed Learning: Different people learn in different ways over different periods of time. It is important to present information differently so that people can absorb it.

In the professional setting, it would seem much of edutainment has to do with Adult Learning Principles.
In 1970 Malcolm Knowles theorized that adults learn differently than children and the process of teaching must satisfy a deep-seated set of motivations.

He encapsulated those motivations in a set of six characteristics of adult learners:

1) Autonomous and self-directed
2) Accumulated a foundation of experiences and knowledge
3) Goal oriented
4) Relevancy oriented
5) Practical
6) Need to be shown respect

Considering the power and effectiveness of virtual events for the healthcare industry, they are the perfect environment for Edutainment and Adult Learning Principles to work in concert to maximize the learning experience of the attendees. These learners are educated, motivated, focused, and want to be in command of their learning experience. What makes virtual events so successful for the attendees, as well as the event organizers, is its ability to address each of the principles and characteristics listed above.

So, the moral of the story is: while virtual events utilize some of the most cutting-edge technologies in interactive communications, we really haven’t strayed far from story-telling around the campfire.

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