Create a simulation with AI (start here)

The recommended way to create a simulation in Cesura is with AI. Instead of filling in a blank editor, you describe what you want to teach, and the AI builder, Professor Cesura, works through the simulation with you one part at a time. It shows you a draft of each part, you approve or change it, and then it builds a complete simulation. You can fine-tune anything in the editor afterwards.

Professor Cesura is the builder for every organization. Every way into creating a simulation with AI opens it.

Step 1: Start a new simulation

Open the Library and click New Simulation. The Professor Cesura chat opens.

To build by hand instead, choose New Simulation (Manual), which opens the simulation editor with empty fields. Cesura first asks "Create with AI Instead?". Click Create with AI to switch to Professor Cesura, or Continue Manually to open the editor. Select Don't show this again to skip the question next time.

Step 2: Describe what you want to teach

Professor Cesura opens with a welcome message that explains how the builder works and asks you to agree to its terms of use. To begin, either click Approve under the welcome message, or type a few sentences about the simulation you want and who it is for, and send them.

If you have material the simulation should be based on, click the paperclip (Upload document) or drag a file onto it. You can attach one PDF, DOCX or TXT file per message, up to 10 MB. It is sent with your next message. For very long documents, Professor Cesura reads the first 40,000 characters.

Professor Cesura chats in your interface language: English, Hebrew, French, Arabic or German. Its messages show the Professor Cesura mascot, and your own messages show your profile picture or initial.

Step 3: Work through each part with Professor Cesura

Professor Cesura builds the simulation in parts, for example the character, the scenario, and how performance is assessed. For each part it asks what it needs and then shows you a draft inside the chat. Drafts show their formatting, such as headings and bold text, the way the learner will see it. At every draft you can:

• Approve it. Click Approve to accept the draft and move on.
• Pick an option. When Professor Cesura offers choices instead, click the one you want. When you can choose several, select them and click Confirm selection.
• Edit it in place. Click the pencil next to a field to open its text and rewrite it. Some fields are a switch or a dropdown you change directly, and lists let you Add an item or Remove this row. Your edits are not sent until you click Apply changes. Professor Cesura then shows the corrected draft for you to approve.
• Ask for a change in your own words. The message box stays open at every step, so you can type what you would like changed.

Drafts you already answered stay in the conversation, so you can scroll back and see everything you agreed to. For the best result:

• Be specific. Vague descriptions produce generic simulations.
• Focus on a single, clear scenario rather than trying to cover several at once.
• Use real, natural language: the way your learners actually talk.

Step 4: Create the simulation

When you reach the last part, Professor Cesura shows a Create simulation button in the chat. Click it when you are happy with the drafts.

To skip the remaining parts, click the Create simulation button at the top of the chat (below the message box on a phone). It is available once the conversation has started. Professor Cesura completes the remaining parts on its own and builds the simulation, and it answers the remaining steps itself for the rest of that conversation.

Step 5: Choose the simulation's language

Either way, the Define Simulation Language dialog opens: "Choose the language the simulation is written in. Your conversation with Professor Cesura stays in its current language."

1. Pick the language your learners will use. The list has more than 70 languages. It starts on your interface language, or on the language you picked last time in this conversation.
2. Click Continue.

The language can differ from the one you chatted in. For example, you can talk to Professor Cesura in Hebrew and build an English simulation. The chat itself does not change language.

Step 6: Wait for the build

Cesura shows Creating simulation... with a progress bar, a percentage, and three stages: Preparing simulation, Creating simulation and Finalizing setup. The bar follows the build's real progress, so it moves as each part is written, and a line under it says what Professor Cesura is working on. A build usually takes a few minutes.

If there is no news for a few minutes, Cesura tells you "This is taking longer than usual." You can click Close and return to the chat. The build keeps running on the server, and you can come back to it later.

When it finishes, your simulation opens in the editor.

Had to stop before building? Your conversation is saved. Open History, go to the Creation History tab, and click Continue Creating to pick it up where you left it. See Creation History.

Step 7: Review and fine-tune

Your simulation opens with the parts you worked through already filled in, such as the character, the scenario, the theory, and the feedback criteria. When the simulation needs a briefing before the conversation, Professor Cesura can build that too: questions for the learner, a document to upload with instructions, and whether the character reads it. Nothing is locked in: review each tab and adjust anything you like. See The simulation editor, explained for a tour of every setting.

When you are happy, use Test to try it yourself, then Share to make it available to learners.

If something goes wrong

• "The simulation could not be built from this conversation." Send another message, and Professor Cesura tries building it again.
• "The simulation could not be written in the language you chose." Click Build in this conversation's language, or send another message to try the translation again.
• "Some evaluation criteria came back without a rubric, so the simulation was not built." Send a message asking Professor Cesura to rewrite the evaluation criteria in full. If you used the Create simulation button at the top of the chat, Professor Cesura sends that request itself, once.
• "This run stopped before it could finish." Click Start over to begin a new conversation.
• "Failed to send - Tap to retry" under one of your messages. Click it to send that message again.

What it costs

Professor Cesura builds are free on organization accounts. On a personal account, a conversation is charged once, when its simulation is built. A build that fails costs nothing. See Credits & billing.

In this series

1. The simulation editor, explained
2. Create a simulation with AI (you are here)
3. General settings
4. Simulation Display
5. Simulation Instructions
6. Feedback Instructions
7. The debrief
8. Formatting content with Markdown
9. Best practices & troubleshooting
10. Set up a simulation as an exam
11. Enable & configure the Realtime Guide