Best practices & troubleshooting

This article collects practical tips for designing simulations that work, plus fixes for the most common problems. It assumes you have already created a simulation (the easiest way is the AI builder) and are refining it in the editor.

Best practices

Keep it focused

The single most important rule: one learning goal, one character, one situation. Focused, single-scenario simulations lead to better learning than sprawling ones that try to cover everything. If you need to teach several situations, build a separate simulation for each.

Make the character believable

On the Persona page, give the character a real role, clear motivations, and a consistent way of speaking in Detailed Characteristics, and add a few Sample Statements in their own voice so the AI matches their tone. Write the way people actually talk — "I'm worried this'll take way longer than you're saying" beats "I am experiencing apprehension regarding the timeline."

Set a vivid scenario

On the Scenario page, the Scenario Story should make clear who the learner is, what is happening, and what is at stake. Give enough context to feel real, but avoid burying the learner in detail.

Write feedback that helps

On the Feedback Report page, aim for two to five criteria. Make each Topic specific and observable (not "Communicated well" but "Acknowledged the customer's frustration before offering a solution"), and use the Feedback Instructions to tell the AI exactly how to judge it. Too many criteria leave learners unsure what to improve.

Test before you share

Use the Testing Space button to create a testing space and run the simulation yourself before sharing it with learners. (Testing runs are free for organizations and cost 0.2 credits on a personal account, and testing spaces cannot share simulations.) Fix anything that feels off, then Share.

Troubleshooting

The character breaks role, or feels flat or robotic

Strengthen the Detailed Characteristics and Sample Statements on the Persona page, and make sure they don't contradict the Scenario. Shorter, more conversational replies sound more natural. If the instructions conflict (for example, a "friendly" persona told to act hostile), the AI gets confused — align the two.

Feedback is too generic, or scores are always high or low

On the Feedback Report page, make each criterion's Topic specific and its Feedback Instructions concrete, and trim to a handful of criteria. For more control over the overall grade, switch Overall Grade Method to Weighted Average and set each criterion's weight.

Learners aren't seeing the feedback or grades

What the learner sees is controlled on the Report Display page, not on the Feedback pages. Check the Show to learner switch and the Grade Display options there, and check whether the criterion itself is hidden from learners (the eye toggle in the criteria editor). See Simulation Display.

The learner can't finish or continue

A Minimum rounds setting may require more back-and-forth first — check it on the Simulation Chat page (to finish the conversation) and on the Feedback Chat Intro page (to move past the feedback chat). Set it to 0 to remove the requirement.

I can't upload a document

You must save the simulation first — documents can only be attached to a saved simulation. Accepted types are PDF, Word (.docx), and text (.txt). See Simulation Instructions.

There's no voice option

Voice is set on the Delivery Mode page, the first page under Simulation Display, and any creator in an organization can use it (individual accounts without an organization do not include voice). Choose Voice call (or Let the learner choose), pick a voice, and the run becomes a spoken one. See Set up a voice simulation. If audio is on but will not start for a learner, work through Voice and video simulations: what goes wrong and how to fix it.

Participants can't open the simulation

Make sure the space you shared is Active (an inactive space hides its content) and that you sent learners the correct link. For sharing help, see the Sharing simulations articles.

Detailed results disappeared

If Advanced Privacy is on, chats and evaluation text are automatically deleted 24 hours after a learner finishes (grades are kept). This is by design. See General settings.

When to contact support

Reach out to Cesura support for billing or account problems, sign-in issues, persistent technical errors that remain after the fixes above, or data-privacy questions. It helps to include the simulation's name, what you were trying to do, the steps you already tried, and any error message you saw.

In this series

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