Leading by Example to Raise the Bar for What Teams Build

The Problem

When leading a learning team, there was a shared assumption that immersive, story-driven experiences required tools we didn't have. Rise was seen as a rapid content tool, good for clean, scrollable courses. Not simulations. Not branching scenarios. Not anything that felt like a real experience. That ceiling was limiting what the team would even attempt.

The Approach

The most effective way to change that belief wasn't to tell the team Rise could do more. It was to build something that proved it. I created Pathogen Patrol, a fully immersive simulation inside Rise, built for a fictional senior care community called Knotty Pines. Learners clock into a shift, choose a caregiver persona, and navigate a day of real safety decisions. Audio announcements drive urgency. Hidden hotspots surface what gets missed in real life. A custom Pine Points system tracks progress throughout.

None of that was what Rise was designed for. All of it was built inside it anyway.

The Result

The experience was featured in Tim Slade's eLearning Designer's Academy as a standout example of what's possible in Rise. More importantly, it gave learning designers a concrete example to point to, proof that the ceiling they assumed was fixed wasn't.