Transforming Videos into Interactive Simulations
Video simulations allow you to turn standard, passive videos into highly engaging, branching learning experiences. By leveraging the Mindsmith Agent, you can automatically extract segments, screenshots, and transcripts from a video and convert them into an interactive scenario housed within an Experience tile.
Whether you are building a software walkthrough or chunking a long lecture into bite-sized knowledge checks, the Mindsmith Agent handles the heavy lifting of extracting frames and building the interactive flow.
How to Create a Video Simulation
The fastest way to build a video simulation is to let the Mindsmith Agent guide you through the process.
Open the Mindsmith Agent in your lesson.
Upload your video file as a resource using the attachment icon in the chat.
Ask the Mindsmith Agent to "Turn this video into an interactive simulation."
The Mindsmith Agent will watch the video and read the transcript. If it detects a software screen recording, it will pause and ask if you want an Instructional path or a Follow-along path. Answer the prompt to continue.
The Mindsmith Agent will generate an Experience tile containing your branching scenario and automatically open the scenario editor for you to review.
Types of Video Simulations
Depending on your source video, the Mindsmith Agent will build one of two primary simulation styles.
Software Screen Recordings
If your video is a software tutorial or screen recording, the Mindsmith Agent transforms it into an interactive click-through simulation. You can choose between two paths:
Instructional: The learner never watches the actual video. Instead, the Mindsmith Agent extracts key frames from the video and turns them into a sequence of interactive screenshots. The learner is given a prompt (e.g., "Click the Settings button") and must click the correct area on the screenshot to proceed.
Follow-Along: The learner watches a short, trimmed video clip demonstrating a task. Immediately after, they are shown a screenshot of the interface and asked to practice the exact click they just watched.
Knowledge-Based Videos
If your video is a lecture, presentation, or talking-head training, the Mindsmith Agent will chunk the video into logical segments to prevent learner fatigue.
The learner watches a short video segment.
They are immediately presented with a multiple-choice question overlaying a visual frame from the video.
If they answer correctly, they move to the next video segment. If they answer incorrectly, they are routed to a feedback screen before rejoining the main path.
Understanding Simulation Elements
Inside the Experience tile editor, your simulation is built using a sequence of connected nodes. You can edit, add, or rearrange these elements at any time.
Video Nodes
Video nodes play trimmed segments of your original video. When editing a video node, you can adjust the start and end times to ensure the learner only sees the exact moment needed for that step.
Explore Nodes (Clickable Hotspots)
Explore nodes display an extracted screenshot from your video and overlay it with interactive hotspots. There are three types of hotspots you can configure:
Invisible Hotspots: Best for testing the learner. The learner reads an instruction and must guess where to click without any visual clues.
Highlighted Hotspots: Best for guiding the learner. A visible outline shows them exactly where the next step is.
Point Tooltips: Best for annotating interfaces. These are small markers that reveal text when hovered over, perfect for labeling parts of a dashboard before moving on.
Tip: When asking the Mindsmith Agent to add or adjust hotspots on an image, be highly specific. Instead of saying "put a hotspot on the button," say "put a hotspot tightly around the blue Support button with the globe icon in the bottom left corner."
Choice Nodes (Knowledge Checks)
Choice nodes are branching quiz questions. The AI will automatically extract a relevant background image from your video to give the question visual context. You can edit the question text and customize the declarative options learners can choose from.
Editing the Simulation Flow
Every node in your simulation connects to another destination, creating a map of the learner's journey.
To change where a learner goes after interacting with a node:
Click on the node you want to edit in the Experience tile visual editor.
In the node menu, locate the Next dropdown selector.
Choose the destination. You can route the learner to another specific node in the chain, force them to retry a question, send them to an external link, or mark the scenario as Complete.
Every simulation should end with a summary Choice node that recaps what the learner just practiced, with a final option that completes the experience and returns them to the main lesson page.