The Center for Social Innovation (C4) promotes best practices that improve the lives of marginalized and vulnerable people, with a focus on complex public health problems such as homelessness, trauma, mental illness, and addiction. C4 wanted to build a simulation that would focus on training for Motivational Interviewing (MI), a client-centered counseling style based on conversation. They teamed up with Forio to create a unique learning experience for practitioners.
Most Forio simulations focus either on a single learner’s interaction with the computer, or on the interaction of a group of learners with each other as they work together to make a series of decisions. In collaborating with C4, however, we discovered that direct person-to-person interaction would be the only means to success for this subject matter. Based on this insight, we designed a simulation that provides three unique arenas, allowing practitioners to learn and practice their Motivational Interviewing skills in different ways.
In the first arena, the focus is on skills building. Practitioners can review the components of MI and progress at their own pace, using a fairly traditional approach: learners interact with the computer to learn about the core components of MI.
Then, learners practice their MI skills using face-to-face interactions. In the second arena, learners watch and respond to pre-recorded videos. In the third arena, learners interact directly with each other: the simulation uses WebRTC to facilitate face-to-face conversations via webcam (read the gory details of how this works).
In both varieties of video-based interactions, learners can review and discuss their interviews, leaving ratings, comments, and feedback for each other. Additionally, each interaction is saved — so it’s reviewable for years to come, allowing C4 to build up a library of learning opportunities. By using this unique approach, we were able bring person-to-person interactions into an online learning tool.
Learn more: Watch C4’s President and CEO, Jeff Olivet, discuss the simulation in this video.
