Authentic, Immersive, Customer Service e-Learning
WeAre Learning transforms training courses into living, breathing, learning experiences that authentically model real performance environments.
That's exactly what we did for hospitality students embarking on their first internship!
In "High Season: Table for Trouble" all instruction, practice, and feedback are woven into an engaging, first person narrative that simulates an interns first day at work.
Alongside a lovable cast of coworkers, you learn how to apply best practices in conflict resolution by applying active listening, empathy, and problem solving in authentic customer complaint scenarios.
It functions like a real game with a tutorial, four endings, and even a "final boss!"
Rising to the eLearning Designer's Academy October 2025 Challenge
The October 2025 challenge invited designers to create an interactive simulation for conflict resolution.
But for me, it was more than a design prompt. It was an opportunity to solve a real problem I see every day in the classroom: bringing skills from the classroom and into the internship.
My goals for this project were to:
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Build a reusable digital resource that extends our instructor-led training.
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Explore We Are Learning’s storytelling features to see how far they can go.
Step Two: Design
Creating a Scene Map
I started with a vision of an immersive story:
a welcoming coworker and a supportive manager, a guided roleplay and "live" complaints.
Armed with an outline to map out the modules,
I dove into We Are Learning to explore what was possible.
Story Outline in Miro
Step Three: Development Phase
Bringing the Story to Life
Diving into We Are Learning was a process of discovering the potential of emerging technology:
the suite of characters, scenes, and animations that bring a story to life in a way that
reflects realistic decision making and consequences.
The Branch Layout of Complaint 1 Issue 1
Stage 1: Laying out a Branch
Each branched module consists of at least one scene that includes a choice which results in a consequence.
I first laid out the text of each scene, the possible choices which impacted the target skills, as well as the speaker's narrative reaction to those choices and the consequences to those reactions.
Stage 2: Creating a Scene
This step is where I get to bring the story to life. I lay out the media that appears in each scene and adjust the AI voice so that it sounds natural.
Then I choose animations and body language which complement the dialogue and the target tone of the scene.
Full Branch Map of the 1st & 2nd Complaints
Scene Creation for the Defensive Response to Complaint 1 Issue 1
Stage 3: Cloning Consequences
To create immersion: decisions need to have unique consequences.
This is created by creating not only a 2nd scene, but also a parallel "clone" to represent a different outcome of a choice. This makes choices meaningful and rewarding.
