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