Decision-based scenarios use interactive, virtual role-play to put learners into realistic situations where they need to make choices, with their decisions influencing the outcomes. They’re particularly useful for high-stakes situations where behaviour and judgement matter, allowing learners to practise responding to real-world challenges in a safe environment.
By making decisions, seeing the consequences and exploring different outcomes, learners can build confidence and learn through doing rather than simply being told what to do.
So what makes a decision-based scenario effective?
It starts with putting learners in a situation where their decisions actually matter.
Rather than simply asking learners to choose between different options, think about the real-world situations where you want them to practise making decisions, particularly those where getting it wrong could have real consequences.
Start by identifying the behaviour you want to teach.
What do you want the learner to do differently after completing the scenario? What decisions would they need to make in a real-world situation? And what could happen as a result of those decisions?
Imagine you’re creating training for customer service teams. Instead of simply teaching them how to deal with difficult customers, you could put them in a situation where an angry customer is demanding a refund. The learner has to decide how to respond:
- Do they immediately offer a refund?
- Ask questions to understand the situation?
- Or escalate the issue?
Or think about learning in healthcare. A nurse might be faced with a patient whose condition is changing and need to decide how to respond based on the information available to them. In that situation, the decisions they make can have much more serious consequences – making it particularly important that they have the opportunity to practise their judgement in a safe environment before facing a similar situation in real life.
The key is that, whatever the scenario, each decision can lead to a different outcome, allowing the learner to see the potential consequences of their actions.
Practising correct behaviour
This is where learning by doing becomes powerful. Learners aren’t just being told what the correct behaviour is. They’re given the opportunity to practise it, make mistakes and explore different outcomes all in a safe environment.
When designing your scenario, think about the key decisions you want the learner to make, the behaviours you want to reinforce, and the consequences that should follow each choice.
The result is a scenario that feels relevant to the learner’s role and gives them a chance to practise making decisions before they’re faced with the real thing.
With Near-Life, you can turn these ideas into interactive, decision-based scenarios that let learners practise real-world behaviour, without any real-world risk.
Book a demo to find out more about Near-Life or sign up for a free trial and start designing decision-based scenarios today.