Built on We Are: How three professionals reimagined immersive learning

Dr. Karl Kapp has years of experience with branching scenarios. He has built them, studied them, and taught others how to create them.

But in traditional branching scenarios, you always choose from a list. For example, if you face an angry customer, you pick from a set of options. In real life, though, there is no list to choose from.

If you’re a customer service rep dealing with an angry client, you have to find the words yourself. You have to talk to them, stay calm, and think quickly.

Clicking "Option B: Apologize and offer a refund" is nothing like that experience.

Dr. Kapp points out that traditional branching scenarios only test if you can spot the right answer, not if you can actually do the right thing. And those are two very different skills.

That's why he was excited about We Are’s AI-powered conversational branching.

Instead of clicking an option, you talk to the character. They respond to what you actually said. This compels you to construct the answer yourself, which is much closer to real-life practice.

In his class on scenario-based learning, he made AI-enabled branching a requirement, and two of his students built projects that show how it works.

Building scenarios to impact behavioral changes

Before joining Dr. Kapp’s program to study instructional design, Gabriel Yudken taught private music lessons for over a decade.

​But as he says, he had already been doing instructional design for years without knowing it.

Every time he figured out how to keep a student engaged, introduce a new concept, or pace a lesson… that was instructional design.

​Hence, it isn’t surprising that, for Dr. Kapp’s class, he built a scenario in We Are Learning about what happens in the first few minutes of a new student's music lesson.

​In his scenario, as a new music teacher, you have to introduce yourself to a ten-year-old student named Joey. You have to handle several aspects of the introduction, such as greeting Joey and his mother, introducing yourself, connecting with the parent, and asking Joey about his experience.

Gabriel used the AI node for the conversations. Instead of picking from a list, Joey responds to what you say. The conversation only moves forward when you ask the right questions.

If you don't ask Joey if he has had lessons before, he stays nervous and doesn't open up. He only relaxes when you ask him the right question.

Traditional branching scenarios only test if you can recognize the right answer by picking from four options. In Gabriel's scenario, you have to come up with your own words and figure out how to help a nervous kid feel comfortable, without a script.

This is the exact skill a real music teacher needs when meeting a student and parent in person.

For example, in the simulation, he teaches that you shouldn't ask a child what kind of music they like at the start of a lesson. Many people think it's a good icebreaker, but Gabriel knows from experience that it usually makes kids freeze.

This kind of detailed, experience-based knowledge is what scenario-based learning aims to share. Gabriel built it right into the simulation's outcomes using We Are Learning.

He also noticed a real change in his behavior after finishing the course. When he met new students and their parents, he felt more prepared than usual. He had practiced the situation so many times by building, testing, and playing through it.

Dr. Kapp said that having learners speak their responses, instead of clicking them, leads to better results and real skill transfer. Gabriel created a scenario that required this, and he experienced the benefits himself in real life, even without using the simulation as a learner.

Integrating learning theory in scenario building to teach soft skills

Lesley Scott takes a more theoretical approach to learning design. She starts with low-stakes choices that seem unimportant at first, then builds up to higher-stakes decisions.

​For example, in her scenario about a dystopian corporation that illegally harvests people's memories, a decision such as feeding the office plant can feel insignificant compared to being threatened by an evil oligarch.

​Lesley designed the learning experience around three main elements.

First, she focused on a clear and measurable outcome - something you can really assess.

Second, she included interactivity that supports the outcome, making the interaction itself part of the learning.

Third, and most importantly to her, is narrative. A good story is not just decoration; it helps transfer learning to real life.

Dr. Kapp agrees when he talks about immersion. He says people can get fully absorbed even with simple tools, like a book.

A story doesn't have to look real to feel real. Lesley’s design supports this idea, as she believes realistic settings can bring extra baggage.

Learners bring their own associations, assumptions, and anxieties to it. A fictional setting, like a dystopian company, removes those distractions. This lets the core skill or behavior stand out, so learners absorb the lesson more easily.

The future of branching scenario tools

Dr. Kapp believes that in five years, all branching-scenario software will use AI-based conversational formats. He wanted his students, like Gabriel and Lesley, to start building in that direction now to prepare for the future.

We Are Learning gave him the opportunity to do this.

What they created in a single semester points to the fact that the most effective learning experiences are not built by technology. They are built by people who understand their learners deeply enough to design consequences that matter.

We Are Learning is made for such learning designers.