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How-To: Preparing Sessions Using Experiential Learning

Credits Kristin Antin, Ashley Fowler, Jon Camfield...   Last Updated 2026-10

How can trainers leverage tabletop exercises, games, and other Experiential learning activities into LevelUp training sessions? This resource explains how to integrate these into ADIDS, run them responsibly, and provides a set of exisitng games, tabletop scenarios, and other resources.

This How-To resource expands on the individual ADIDS session design with guidance on incorporating experiential learning elements such as tabletop exercises and educational games.

Content based on (and in part quoted from) the Team CommUnity Wiki and the Internews resource, Tabletop Exercise Scenarios and Facilitation Guide for Digital Safety Training for Journalists

Tabletop exercises and card games are powerful ways to build security awareness. By simulating real-world threats in a low-stakes environment, participants can familiarize themselves with terminologies, tactics, and work through common scenarios. This can help them think like adversaries and threat model more effectively — all without the consequences of an actual incident.

Incorporating Experiential Learning into ADIDS

LevelUp uses the Activity-Discussion-Inputs-Deepening-Synthesis, or ADIDS approach, to adult learning and has organized its curriculum for training sessions according to this design. Depending on the goals and lessons, games and tabletops can be part of the thematic Activity element to drive comfort with terms and concepts, as part of Deepening to provide a more hands-on walkthrough of complex topics, or exist outside of the framework to add variety in a training event.

Contextualization

Even simulated scenarios can trigger traumatic memories. As you consider the role of games and tabletop exercises, please review the Considerations section of Icebreakers, Energizers and Thematic Activities and the Psychosocial Underpinnings of Security Training resource to ensure your audience will be able to fully and safely engage.

Using tabletop exercises (TTXs) and role-playing in training

Content in this section is CC-BY-SA Internews, from Tabletop Exercise Scenarios and Facilitation Guide for Digital Safety Training for Journalists. The full resource goes into further depth in design and facilitation, and includes sample scenarios.

Tabletop exercises (TTXs) are a valuable scenario-based training tool, which can make digital safety training more engaging and interactive. TTXs provide an opportunity for training participants to apply newly acquired knowledge and skills by engaging in a fictional situation (referred to as a TTX scenario or scene) that approximates a real-life one. TTX scenarios can examine a large range of security situations such as an office raid, a data leak, a case of doxxing, or a sensitive investigation. TTXs can:

  • Provide a low-risk space for training participants to practice preparing for and responding to security issues that they might encounter.
  • Stimulate critical discussion and action around digital security issues and how to best approach them in different contexts and situations. This might be especially helpful for training participants who work together regularly to consider their joint or organizational approach to safety.
  • Test and assess how well an individual or organization is equipped to deal with security issues that they may encounter. This can uncover weaknesses and gaps in existing processes, procedures, and knowledge that need to be improved.
  • Increase understanding and respect between security/incident-response collaborators.
  • Identify individual, organizational, and community gaps in knowledge, strengths and limitations. A successful TTX goes beyond tools and basic practices, also highlighting what procedures or policies may be missing or need to be improved.
Planning a TTX
  • Target Audience Before you start planning your TTX, take a moment to think about your target audience and how this will affect learning objectives. You might be working with participants who have very different levels of digital security skills, knowledge, and experience. Take some time to modify the TTX so that it best addresses their specific needs. Once you have your target audience, plan out your learning objectives and consider specific skills or behaviors you will train on. Selecting concrete skills prior to your training is essential for helping you scope your focus as a trainer, setting tangible learning goals for participants, and will help set a benchmark for measuring whether the training was effective.
  • Time Commitment Figure out how much time you will need for the TTX. While sometimes government agencies or corporations create TTXs that span multiple days, your audience might be much more pressed for time. Work, caregiving, and other life commitments of your participants should be taken into consideration. Typically, a TTX that has 4-6 questions or injects might take around 1 to 1.5 hours to complete. This is also very dependent on the size of your group. Bigger groups will typically take longer to complete a TTX. You will also need to factor in time for a debrief and to review the learning objectives and the concrete skills or behaviors youʼd like participants to implement following the scene. Participants may require further training or follow-up to be able to successfully implement the concrete skills or behaviors.
  • Setup and Logistics Consider the space you have available for the activity. If conducted in person, it is ideal to facilitate the TTX in a space which allows for collaboration. A room with tables and comfortable chairs is likely more conducive for a TTX than a lecture hall. Determine what resources you will need for the TTX. You may wish to create a slide deck, handouts, or other type of presentation materials to display the scene background, questions/prompts, and/or injects. You may also need to ensure that there is quality Wi-Fi or other technological accommodations, such as a projector. Accessibility of the space should also be prioritized if able (e.g., wheelchair accessible, gender-inclusive bathrooms, convenient transportation options, etc.).
  • Facilitation Decide on whether there will be multiple facilitation roles and what those will be. It might make the most sense for one facilitator to lead the TTX, with others helping with specific breakout rooms or sub-tasks. Facilitators also may wish to rehearse facilitating some elements prior.
Facilitating a TTX

Facilitating a TTX differs from leading a traditional digital security training or upskilling session. In traditional digital safety training, trainers tend to speak a lot and are expected to share their knowledge with participants. In a TTX training, however, most of the speaking and work happens among the participants themselves, as they discuss the scenario and make decisions. The TTX facilitator plays the role of process holder, making sure that the TTX goes smoothly and meets its goals. The TTX facilitator introduces the exercise, context, and background; answers some basic questions; and adds injects. Other recommendations for TTX facilitation include:

  • Make sure that you are deeply familiar with the TTX.
  • Remember what the goal and learning objectives of the TTX are and direct the discussions so that participants can reach those goals.
  • Communicate roles and expectations clearly at the beginning and throughout the TTX.
  • Keep a close eye on the clock and make sure you are respecting and maximizing the time you have with participants.
  • Make sure that the space is safe and welcoming and that many people can feel like their perspectives are heard and considered.
  • When a participant mentions a good practice, highlight it! This can boost confidence and encourage further participation.
  • If you donʼt know the answer to a technical question, donʼt be scared to say so and commit to follow up after the TTX. For questions about the scenario, keep a focus on the goals and learning objectives and fill in any gaps as you see fit to reach those goals, or even have the participants decide.
  • If the TTX starts to go in another direction than originally intended, that is ok! Be flexible but make sure that it ultimately addresses the learning outcomes.
  • If possible, collect feedback throughout the engagement and be ready to make micro-adjustments. If you plan on hosting multiple iterations of a TTX, you can also gather feedback at the end of the session to better understand how you can improve moving forward.
TTX Design

If you are considering creating your TTX, consider the following.

Learning objectives should be set at the beginning of the design phase, complement one another, follow a logical order in terms of learning, be prioritized based on importance, and connect back to the overall goal of the TTX. To simplify the training process and make it easier to measure success, connect your learning objectives to concrete skills or behaviors that participants should focus on during the TTX. Ideally, you will set these learning objectives and concrete skills based on the needs and skill levels of your participants. You may know those already if youʼre working with a community you are familiar with. Alternatively, you may need to conduct an initial needs assessment (perhaps through key informant interviews or a pre-survey) to gather this information if you are less familiar with participants.

The scenario should be as close to real life as possible but generally should not name real people or organizations. Focus on real situations, challenges, and experiences. In rare cases, it may be appropriate to use real locations, but you should consider security risks and potential limitations of doing so. Listing real locations could, for example, mean that people spend too much time on remembering or researching details about them, and focus less on the scenario.

In terms of complexity, the scenario should not overshadow or distract from the learning. Choices can help participants understand the impact their decisions will have but remember that adding complexity and choices makes it harder to build a TTX and will also make the whole exercise much longer.

You can also use time as a design element during your scenario by assigning times to events occurring during the TTX, asking time-bound questions, or utilizing flashbacks or flashforwards. In any case, you should be clear about the use of time at the beginning of the scenario and maintain clarity throughout the scene.

Depending on the skill level of the facilitator and participants, you may consider the inclusion of technical elements within the TTX. This could mean participants are required to use a specific tool, software, or process to move through the scenario. If you do include a technical element, allow for extra time to complete these tasks, and always have a backup plan in case of technical issues or make the technical component optional to accommodate different skill levels.

You can also use injects within your TTX. Injects may be big or small and may be dependent on the participants or independent from them. Generally, injects are used in longer scenarios given the amount of time required. Injects are delivered by the facilitator and the timing is key. To successfully integrate an inject into a scene, facilitator resources are required both before and during the TTX facilitation. Your use of injects should be matched against the need to achieve the pre-determined learning objectives.

Tabletop Resources

Tabletop Exercise Scenarios and Facilitation Guide for Digital Safety Training for Journalists ‘‘By Internews’’ Please note that the English version has 11 TTXs and the Spanish, Arabic, Albanian, Czech, Romanian, Hungarian, Croatian, and Polish versions have five.

https://internews.org/resource/tabletop-exercise-scenarios-and-facilitation-guide-for-digital-safety-training-for-journalists/

Tabletop exercises (TTXs) are a valuable scenario-based training tool, which can make digital safety training more engaging and interactive. These resources include a guide on designing and facilitating TTXs as a digital safety training method, as well as a set of digital safety focused TTX scenarios, which may be used by anyone to enhance digital security training. Within these guides, you will find brief explanations of what is a TTX, why TTXs can be valuable supplements to digital safety training, and how one can develop, plan, and facilitate TTXs.

Tabletop Exercises from other sectors

Using educational games in training

Games like Backdoors and Breaches: NGO Edition, Press Panic, and The Mass Cyber Card Deck can make cybersecurity concepts tangible and engaging. Rather than sitting through dense compliance training, players are challenged to make real decisions around incident response, threat modeling, and security tradeoffs. The result is stronger team communication, better preparedness, and security concepts that actually stick.

Game Resources

  • [Backdoors and Breaches: NGO Edition]https://github.com/ngoisac/play.backdoorsandbreaches.com Backdoors & Breaches takes traditional tabletop exercises and turns them into a structured, cooperative card game. An ‘Incident Captain’ crafts a scenario using hidden Attack cards, while Defenders work together—using Detections, dice, and critical thinking—to uncover what happened before it’s too late. The core game was created by Black Hills Information Security and Active Countermeasures , with the specialized NGO-pack designed by NGO-ISAC.

  • The Mass Cyber Card Deck By MassCyberCenter The CyberSecureDeck, Defend the Network! card game is an engaging way to foster discussions about cybersecurity, identifying threats and addressing vulnerabilities. The game’s objectives are to practice cyber incident response, evaluate response and recovery needs and enhance response plans. The goal of the game is for the players to guide the organization through a cybersecurity scenario, focusing on Identifying, Protecting, Detecting, Responding and Recovering from incidents.

  • Press Panic! by Larus Argentatus (Print your own deck: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/press-panic-orgsec-newsroom ) Press Panic is an open source digital security game that is specifically designed to help groups strengthen their organizational security. This card game is particularly helpful in grounding the concept of threat modeling.

  • CAT & Mouse: Better incident response through simulation CAT & Mouse is a cybersecurity online training game for small to medium sized teams and organizations, particularly those in the not-for-profit space. Each round of the game simulates a real cyber attack, where players take on the role of either the defenders or attackers. CAT & Mouse was developed by a team of cybersecurity experts and game designers first created this game for the Ford Foundation in 2021-2022.

*CyberSec Games A collection of popular cybersecurity games.