Wait states contribute to a more interactive, engaging, and effective learning experience by promoting reflection, comprehension, and active participation!
What is a 'wait state'?
A Wait State is used to temporarily pause teams or participants at strategic points within a course, allowing for facilitated debriefs or pacing through a learning program.
At any point in a round within the course (but most often at the end of rounds or the completion of a course), a user or team will be forced into a ‘wait state’ where they cannot go any further.
Why would you use a ‘wait state’?
We build “Wait States” into synchronous learning experiences, typically between rounds and at the end of the course, for facilitators to lead a live (or live-virtual) discussion or debrief about the learning.
This allows control over the participants' timing and content access, time to collectively transition to another phase within or between rounds, and prevents teams from moving ahead before they are supposed to.
When ready, facilitators can advance the learners to the next state or round.
What are the benefits of a ‘wait state’ for learners?
When an intentional part of sim design, wait states contribute to a more interactive, engaging, and effective learning experience by promoting reflection, comprehension, and active participation.
Facilitated Debriefs: It allows learners to pause at specific points in the learning journey to reflect on their progress, discuss key concepts, and receive guidance or feedback from instructors or peers.
Enhanced Comprehension: Pausing at strategic intervals provides learners with the opportunity to digest complex information, clarify any uncertainties, and deepen their understanding of the subject matter.
Pacing and Retention: By controlling the pace of the learning experience, wait states help prevent information overload and support better retention of knowledge and skills over time.
Active Engagement: Encouraging learners to pause and engage in reflection fosters active learning, encouraging critical thinking, problem-solving, and application of concepts to real-world scenarios.
How to incorporate a 'wait state' into the wireflow structure
You can turn any state within the wire flow to a "wait state" by clicking the three-dot drop-down menu in the upper right of each state and choosing “Change to wait state” :
Once changed to a "wait state" - you will see a blue icon on the left with two verticle lines indicating that state is a wait state:
NOTE: For asynchronous experiences, the “wait state” should be turned on for the last state as that will remove the “Continue” button.
Facilitator control via the Dashboard
When participants reach a 'wait state' in the course, they cannot proceed until the facilitator (or admin) advances them to the next state. The dashboard provides visibility into each users' status during their session and will show up under "Current State":
When a team/participant has completed a round and is ready to advance to the next round, the circle/bubble to the right will have a “pause” (ll) icon AND the “Current State” status will say “WAIT STATE” (indicating they have completed all activities and reach the waitstate at the end of the round).
Advancing Users
How to advance users is outlined in this article: Overview: Dashboard Guide for Facilitators.
NOTE: To make sure all teams are at the same point in the sim, at the same time, we suggest you have one facilitator/coach /process person be in charge of advancing all teams from round to round.
It is helpful to do this shortly before the next round begins – this way, teams remain in the “Wait State” of the previous round until the whole group is ready to move on.
This also eliminates the risk that teams get ahead of others in the simulation.
