Product Updates

CoPilot Designer v2.3: New Faces, New Places

October 22, 2021
Written by:
Talespin Team
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When organizations and creators author learning content in CoPilot Designer, our no-code authoring tool for immersive soft skills learning content, one of the most important decisions that they make is defining the context of the scenario - where the immersive learning simulation will take place, and with which virtual human character. The ability to create customizable immersive experiences with a wide range of characters and environments makes learning content more realistic, engaging, and inclusive for learners.

CoPilot Designer’s Ever-Growing Virtual Human and Virtual Environment Asset Library

With version 2.3 of CoPilot Designer, we’re excited to introduce new virtual humans and environments to our asset library for content creators to use in their immersive experiences. As a part of our ongoing updates to CoPilot Designer, we will be continually adding new virtual humans and virtual environments to our diverse asset library. This will help our creators and customers develop learning content across a wide variety of use cases, and immerse learners in realistic soft skills training scenarios.

The Importance of Virtual Human and Environment Selection for Immersive Learning Experiences

A diverse range of characters, dressed for a variety of professions

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi discovered that people find genuine satisfaction during a state of  consciousness called Flow. In this state, they are completely absorbed in an activity, especially an activity which involves their creative abilities. This Flow state is an emotionally-engaged ‘sweet spot’ that immersive learning is proven to deliver for learners - This is what we strive to enable people to reach when they engage with learning content created with CoPilot Designer. 

The realism and relevance of the visuals within immersive experiences are critical elements that influence a person’s ability to enter a Flow state while learning. When it comes to soft skills training simulations, virtual human characters and the virtual environment in which the simulation takes place are the key visuals that have the biggest impact on a learner’s experience. 

When selecting these assets, learning content creators must take into consideration their learning objectives and training topic to ensure the characters and environment align to the learning scenario, making the immersive learning content feel more real, and in turn, more conducive to enabling learners to achieve a state of Flow.  

When working in CoPilot Designer, creators have the ability to select their virtual environment and virtual human characters in Project Configuration, and then bring their characters to life using the Performance Editor’s drag-and-drop track system. By assigning animations in Performance Editor, such as gestures, poses and emotions, creators can develop scenarios where the virtual human engages and reacts in an emotionally realistic manner while engaging in dialogue with the learner. 

Indoor and outdoor environments, meeting profession-specific conversations

The level of emotional realism and interactivity portrayed by the virtual humans creates a strong sense of presence, which increases “knowing” over “remembering” and taps into the learners’ real-life cognition. Higher levels of presence have been associated with better factual memory recall and increased episodic memory, the memory of personally experienced events. Learners are able to recall memories of their learning experience and relive them in the moment as the protagonist of the scene they were in, increasing the strength of the memory and retention of their learning. 

To empower creators to develop content that brings learners to a state of Flow, version 2.3 of CoPilot Designer brings with it an expanded asset library of virtual environments and virtual humans, such as new office spaces, casual environments, and virtual humans in various work attire options. 

Virtual Humans and Environments for New Use Cases

Our library of virtual humans features a diverse spectrum of characters with different ethnicities, age groups and genders. Each character can be selected with various choices of clothing, spanning across the categories of business, business casual, casual, work uniforms, and healthcare attire. 

With a range of clothing options, each virtual human can be used to simulate various conversational training use cases, such as business attire for a sales conversation, or scrubs to simulate a conversation in the healthcare industry. The power is in the hands of the creator to select the right virtual human and attire that best matches the learning scenario they are trying to create.

Select the virtual human and environment that best reflects your learning scenario

In addition to virtual human assets, CoPilot Designer’s asset library gives creators access to virtual environments that span across different settings and meet various profession-specific needs and ambiances. Creators can select from an extensive list of environments, ranging from executive offices to informal meeting rooms, casual settings such as a sidewalk cafe or outdoor dining patio, and even the option to select an environment that is devoid of distractions. These environments enable creators to author learning content set in office spaces, indoor and outdoor settings, night and day, and various other atmospheres. 

The selection of virtual environments and virtual humans can be mixed and matched to create effective content for some of the most in-demand use cases, including communication skills, sales training, customer service, leadership development, difficult conversations, and beyond. With future releases of CoPilot Designer, we will be adding asset packs of virtual humans and environments to continue enabling creators to make a wide range of immersive learning scenarios. 

Create the Next Generation of Immersive Soft Skills Content

The flexibility and ease with which creators set the foundation for their immersive learning experience within CoPilot Designer gives them the power to design custom content aligned to the needs of their learners and organization.

Through virtual human and environment selection, authors set the foundation for learners’ immersive experiences, where they can learn new skills, complete skills assessments, receive real-time feedback, and repeat lessons in a safe place to fail.

Content created in CoPilot Designer allows for real-time scoring and feedback to support and measure learner skills development. Integrated with the Talespin platform’s Dashboard for skills data reporting and training administration, and the Talespin App for cross-platform distribution on VR and 2D devices, our platform offers an end-to-end solution for content creation, distribution, and skills data that is ready to reskill and upskill the workforce.

Contact us to book a free trial of CoPilot Designer, or reach out to our team at learnmore@talespin.com.

Stay tuned for future updates on the Talespin blog. We are always looking for ways to better support our user community, and your input can help us transform the future of work together.

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