How to complete a Teachable Moment with the scenario data

This article explains what data to fill in when creating a Teachable Moment from scratch, how to insert in its content the variables that the platform replaces with the scenario data each user received, and what to consider when deciding whether to build the content generic or illustrated with captures from a specific simulation.

Data to fill in when creating a Teachable Moment from scratch

When creating or editing a Teachable Moment, the screen is divided into two blocks: the data only the administrator sees, and the data the end user sees.

Data visible by the Administrator

• Name and Description (required): identify the Teachable Moment within your content library.
• Tags, Categories and Themes: classify the content to locate it more easily within the platform.
• Estimated time in minutes to complete the content and Difficulty of content: informational data about the content.
• Active and Archived: define whether the Teachable Moment is available to be assigned.
• Catalog (required): the content catalog it belongs to, for example Information security for end users.
• Behaviors that this Teachable Moment raises awareness about: for example, Click on a link or Enter data.
• Most suitable delivery type for this Teachable Moment: for example, Instant delivery to the user's web browser.
• Regulation clauses that are fully or partially covered by this content: added with the Add Clauses + button.

Data visible by the User

• Email subject (required): supports variables from the Variables menu.
• Preview text: text shown as a preview of the email in the user's inbox.
• Email content (required): built with the WYSIWYG editor. From its toolbar you can insert images or video, and variables from the User data, Organization data and Scenario data menus, the last one detailed in the following sections.
• Preview*: shows the content as the user would see it, with sample values in place of the variables.
• Validate Teachable Moment reading*: enabling this checkbox unlocks the fields to define a validation question.
  • Question to validate reading*: the question presented to the user.
  • For each answer option: the Answer* text, the Feedback* the user gets when choosing it, and the Correct answer* checkbox to mark which one is right. More options are added with the Add Answer +* button.

The validation question and its feedback are defined per Teachable Moment, on this same screen. For the general Feedback and Final question settings, see Teachable Moment Settings.

Why use the scenario variables

A Teachable Moment is more effective when it points the person to the actual email they received, not a generic example. The scenario variables let you write the content once and have each user see their own data: the sender they got, the subject, the page address, and the date the simulation was sent.

This matters especially when a campaign uses several scenarios at once. Without variables, you would need to prepare one Teachable Moment per scenario and maintain them in parallel; with variables, a single piece of content serves all of them.

If you don't yet know how to add a Teachable Moment to a campaign, start with What is a Teachable Moment and how is it used.

Generic content or content with scenario captures

The seven variables fall into two groups, and that difference affects how much you can reuse the same Teachable Moment:

• Text variables ($scenario_sender, $scenario_subject, $scenario_landing_url, $scenario_redirect_url, $scenario_sent_date): the platform fills these in automatically with each scenario's data. They require no additional upload, so a Teachable Moment built only with these variables stays generic and can be reused in any simulation, regardless of the scenario each user receives.
• Image variables ($scenario_email_image, $scenario_landing_image): they show nothing on their own. They require someone to manually upload the corresponding capture on each scenario that uses that Teachable Moment. If the content is reused across several campaigns or simulations, that upload has to be repeated scenario by scenario.

A Teachable Moment that uses image variables stops being generic in practice: it only displays complete on the scenarios where someone uploaded the corresponding capture. Scenarios without that upload still deliver the Teachable Moment, just without the image.

Before building the content, define the goal:

• For a Teachable Moment that is reusable across multiple campaigns and simulations, use only the text variables.
• For an illustrated Teachable Moment, meant for a specific simulation, add the image variables and plan to upload the capture on each scenario that uses it.

Available variables

In the Teachable Moment's content editor, the variables are inserted from the Scenario data* group.

Use $scenario_redirect_url only in a Teachable Moment that is delivered by email after the campaign has ended. When the Teachable Moment is delivered instantly in the browser upon clicking, entering data, downloading, or opening a file, the user never reaches the redirect page: the simulation interrupts with the Teachable Moment before that happens. In that case, the variable provides no useful information.

Inserting the variables in the content

1. From the main menu, go to Content and locate the Teachable Moment you're going to edit, or create a new one.
2. Open the content editor.
3. Place the cursor where you want the data to appear and select the variable from the Scenario data* group.
4. Save the content.

When the Teachable Moment is delivered, each variable is replaced with the scenario data that person received. In the preview and in test sends, on the other hand, the variables show sample values that are identified as such, so you can tell at a glance what the platform builds from what an actual user will receive.

Uploading the scenario captures

The two image variables show nothing on their own: the capture is uploaded on the simulation's scenario, not on the Teachable Moment.

1. Edit the Phishing, Smishing or Ransomware simulation's scenario.
2. Upload the Email image to preview in the teachable moment and, if applicable, the Landing page image to preview in the teachable moment.
3. In the Teachable Moment's content, insert $scenario_email_image or $scenario_landing_image wherever you want them to appear.

The supported formats are JPG, JPEG, PNG and GIF.

One capture per language

The image corresponds to the language you're editing: each translation of the scenario has its own capture. If the scenario is translated into several languages, upload the capture in each one, because the user sees the one for their language.

What happens if you don't upload the capture

The images are optional. If the scenario doesn't have the capture uploaded, the Teachable Moment is delivered without it and the rest of the content displays normally. There's no need to prepare a different version of the content for scenarios without an image.

💡 Best practices

• Decide before building the content whether the Teachable Moment will be generic (text variables only) or illustrated for a specific simulation (with image variables), since that decision affects how much you can reuse it in other campaigns.
• Use the preview to confirm the variables landed where they should and that the wording works with the sample values.
• Write the text around the variable so it reads well with any value: a subject line can be much longer than the example takes up.
• Upload the captures while you're building the scenario, since that's when you have the email and the page in front of you.
• Check that each language of the scenario has its own capture when the scenario is translated.