Experiential learning is all about Learning by Doing!
So, let's get creative!
Module Five of your onboarding journey is focused on allowing new Creators to practice building an engaging, scalable, experiential learning prototype using our fit-for-purpose tools and templates.
This is the chance to apply your learning of the tools, showcase your design skills, and elevate the learner experience.
Expected Time to Complete Module 5 Part 1: Approximately 30-60+mins*
*Time investment will vary based on:
1) the depth of planning you choose to do for your DIY project prototype
2) whether you have existing course content or design docs to source from
3) your level of engagement with the provided material and supplemental resources
Module 5 Purpose
To highlight your learning, tool expertise, and understanding of experiential learning basics, you will create your own project prototype using the SimGate suite of tools.
Why do you benefit from building a project prototype?
Gain practical experience and a deeper understanding of SimGate features and functionalities
Develop tool proficiency to enhance your skill set and expand your capabilities
Experiment with quickly building engaging, scalable, experiential learning using fit-for-purpose templates and/or ReX Beta to level-up content
Showcase tangible evidence of your innovation and creativity as you explore new ways of designing learning experiences
Mastering new tools and technologies can open up new opportunities for career advancement
Part 1: Planning and Designing Your Project
In Part 1 of this module, you will:
Review Prototype success criteria
Answer foundational questions about your target learner
Make initial decisions that best fit your learner's needs
Identify the High-Level Design structure of your project
Think Through Your Content and Learner Journey
Remember, Module 5 guidance is meant to accelerate your design process and provide you with templates to fast-track building a prototype. However, you can use any process you like to create learning experiences in SimGate Studio.
Prototype “Success criteria”
As you create and assess your DIY project prototype, this is your chance to sharpen your design skills and set the stage for future projects using SimGate. This experience is all about getting hands-on, having fun while experimenting, and making meaningful progress toward your design and development goals.
Before diving in, it's always helpful to have clear criteria defining the path to success so that you feel more in control of your learning journey!
Click the arrow to expand each section for additional guidance!
Minimum Prototype Criteria
Minimum Prototype Criteria
To help you focus your efforts, ensure you explore the full potential of SimGate and demonstrate basic tool proficiency, you'll want to meet the following criteria for your prototype*. It doesn’t need to be fully complete or highly detailed, but it should meet the following minimum criteria:
Clearly communicate your vision and design intentions
Display project structure through the wireframe format, activity choices, and branching (placeholder content is acceptable!)
Cover enough features and functionality to demonstrate proficiency with SimGate tools (e.g. a variety of components like addons, images, video, avatars, branching, outputs, scoring, etc.)
Include the following building blocks/pages:
Welcome Page
Slideshow Introduction to Course/Role/Goal/Setting
Interface Page (Profiles, Bio & Background, Results, or Network Map etc)
3-4 Activities (Scenario, COA, Listbuilder, Video Response, or Conversation)
Reflection & Feedback Report
*Successful completion of a project prototype is a requirement to earn the certification.
What Does Good Look Like?
What Does Good Look Like?
To help you critically assess and refine your work, you’ll have the opportunity to self-evaluate your project prototype by focusing on these core design elements. You’ll measure the extent to which Framing, Flow, Feedback, and Feeling are effectively integrated into your project.
Framing:
Relevant context, storyline, and learner understanding
Clearly defined learner's role, goal, and success criteria
Clarity on learning objectives and set up for success
Flow:
Seamless end-to-end learning journey
Cohesive content and smooth transitions
Aligned activities and structure
Realistic challenges and appropriate difficulty level
Feedback
Incorporated feedback opportunities
Metrics for measuring success
Feedback alignment with objectives
Feeling:
Emotional stimulation
Nudges new behaviors or optimal action
Triggers for self-generated insights and mindset shifts
💡TIP: To complete the onboarding process, our final meeting will celebrate your achievements and learning by sharing our DIY projects and allowing time for self- and peer-evaluation. We will use the interactive PDF titled "SimGate Onboarding | Self-Evaluation Rubric" (click the link to download the PDF). This rubric incorporates the previously mentioned success criteria to help you assess and refine your work, identify growth opportunities, and set personal goals for future projects based on your insights.
Step 1: Planning Your Project
There are important foundational elements that need to be considered to set yourself (and the learner!) up for success when creating experiential learning programs.
Answer Foundational QuestionsBefore diving into any tools, it's well worth the effort to prepare and plan so that your development is an efficient and enjoyable process that results in the outcomes you are looking for.
|
Who is your Learner? |
At Regis, we begin with the end in mind. In the Discovery phase, we prioritize understanding our learners—their world, daily challenges, and role-specific tradeoffs. This insight helps define clear learning objectives, such as targeted skills, knowledge, or mindset shifts.
So, you'll start by gathering answers to these key learner questions:
|
What are your objectives? |
Along with answering key learner questions, you'll need foundational insights about your organization's learning objectives, metrics, and contextual topics. This information helps you make informed design decisions, craft relevant storylines, and develop content that addresses learner needs. It also ensures that feedback and scoring align with the desired outcomes.
|
What type of Learning Experience will you create for your learners? |
Once you have answered the above questions, you can begin to define the best course format to meet the learners' needs. e.g. type of course design, delivery method, and duration.
 You can also use this matrix to see all the ways you can leverage SIMGATE for experiential learning! |
These "initial decisions" will guide the rest of your projectplanning and creation! |
Step 2: Think Through the Structural Design of your Project
To help you start visualizing and planning the high-level design structure for your SimGate prototype project, here are some ideas and examples of how Regis tailors different flows to best suit various learning solutions.
General Elements of a High-Level Design Flow
The flow of your High-Level Design will vary based on the type of experience you're creating, but generally includes these elements:
Here are examples of what some of our high-level designs look like.
Flow Examples by Learning Type
Stylized Starter templates with a predefined flow have been created for you to help new Creators:
Create experiential learning quickly so they fast-track design and prototyping to gain proficiency and agency.
Focus on learning SimGate functionality (not design) so they can experience the breadth of what is possible in the tool.
See examples of what good looks like.
Each Starter flow includes one or more rounds and a variety of activity templates, designed to support your desired learning experience. Check out these examples:
#1 - KNOWLEDGE OR SKILL BUILDING ELEARNING STARTER
#1 - KNOWLEDGE OR SKILL BUILDING ELEARNING STARTER
Click the arrow to see the full wireflow!
#2 - MICRO-LEARNING STARTER
#2 - MICRO-LEARNING STARTER
Click the arrow to see the full wireflow!
#3 - SCENARIO BASED STARTER
#3 - SCENARIO BASED STARTER
Click the arrow to see the full wireflow!
Flow template + Learning Objectives
See how each flow template aligns with learning objectives. You can use Bloom’s Taxonomy to identify the flow template that is right for your project based on the level of higher-order thinking skills necessary to meet your target learner’s needs.
Learning Objectives and Metrics + Starter template
How might your learner objectives and feedback metrics evolve based on the type of learning experience you are creating? See how they change for an course on "Data Interpretation":
Selecting your Starter flow template
Once you've answered the key foundational questions and have a solid idea of what high-level design structure would support your chosen learning experience, now it's time to decide which pre-built starter template will help you accelerate your in-tool design and development. (In Part 2 of Module 5, you will get instructions on how to duplicate and build using the templates - this step is meant to help you )
Which Pre-Built Starter Template aligns to your Learning Experience?
Each Starter is topic-agnostic, but intentionally designed to enable a specific learner experience. Based on your target learner, topic, and Bloom’s-based learning objectives, confirm the flow template that best suits your desired learning experience:
NOTE: Starter templates are accessible in your SimGate Portal main enterprise folder! More on this in part 2 of Module 5!
💡TIP: Creativity is encouraged! The screenshots and flows are just examples to get your creative juices flowing. The exact structure, order, and activities you choose are up to you! Once you start building in Studio, you can swap out activities, add states, and rearrange as you see fit.
Step 3: Think Through Your Content and Learner Journey
~Roger Schank, leading researcher in cognitive learning theory
After steps 1 & 2, you know who your learner is, the type of experience you are creating for them, the intended objectives, and what skills are being measured.
Now it’s time to weave the above details into a larger narrative and content that draws in your learners, creating a rich learning environment to practice and make decisions. Regardless of whether you plan to use ReX to help you or not, review the chart below for key questions and examples to prompt your thinking and ensure you create a cohesive experience.
Remember, you’ll want to integrate these core design elements into your projects intentionally: Framing, Flow, Feedback, and Feeling.
Define Key Elements
Defining these elements will help you customize your wireflow:
Storyline + High-Level Design Flow
How do these elements fit together? For example, a 1-round structure could follow a flow like this:
Want to see an Example Activity Scenario (Structure + Content)?
Want to see an Example Activity Scenario (Structure + Content)?
Writing effective scenarios is an art! If wanted, we now have ReX, a co-author, to help expedite this process. Yet, it's still up to us humans to know "what good looks like" so that we can validate the content or edit as needed.
Here is an example of a simple scenario and its basic components:
Click the arrow to view this example!
💡 While content writing is not the focus of your onboarding experience, it is an important part of effective experiential design!
For an in-depth guide to scenario writing, check this out:
Content + High-Level Design Flow
It all works together to create an immersive and cohesive, fit-for-purpose experiential learning program.
Want to use ReX to help with planning your DIY Prototype?
Want to use ReX to help with planning your DIY Prototype?
With ReX Beta, you now have a co-author to help you tackle tasks like:
identify your target learner and craft their persona
craft learning objects
brainstorm topics, storylines, and scenarios
conduct industry research
summarize and reference internal documents
overall content preparation
create activity scenarios and answer choices
export content directly into Studio wireflow
...and more!
ReX can help with your Initial Decisions
As you learned in Module 2 (Rex), the prerequisite prompts align with the planning and "Initial Decisions" discussed above! We believe these foundational questions are critical to answering before you dive into any project creation:
Who is the learner?
What are the intended skills, behaviors, or mindset shifts to practice and improve?
What are the objectives or outcomes?
What will they be measured on? (metrics/KPIs)
What are the basic topics/context?
What is the course format?
Use the summary from the Pre-Requisites, combined with your chosen experience type, to inform the high-level design of your overall course. Then, use the Starter wire flow templates (based on learning type) to mirror your structure!
ReX can help with your storyline and content creation
Use this chart to decide if ReX is the best path for you:
Click the arrow to open this section for additional guidance!
After going through the planning process of learner identification, topic selection, course type confirmation, and content preparation, it's time to bring your prototype to life!
Coming next...Module 5, Part 2 will get you started creating
your new practice project!
