ThingLink Virtual Environments and Scenarios Enhance Child Protection Training

Kyla Ball March 5, 2025

Background

Zero Abuse Project (founded in 2018) is a non-profit organization based in the US. Their mission is “To protect children from abuse and sexual assault, by engaging people and resources through a trauma-informed approach of education, research, advocacy, and advanced technology.” They provide training and education programs to professionals and students, helping effectively prevent, recognize, and respond to child sexual abuse. 

Child Advocacy Studies (CAST)

Within Zero Abuse Project, Child Advocacy Studies (CAST) exists as a Higher Education program that spans various disciplines, empowering students to confidently recognize, react to, and respond effectively to suspected instances of child maltreatment. 

Since its establishment in 2004, CAST has been successfully implemented in over 100 academic institutions across 31 states, and has recently branched out internationally. It is currently the only evidence-based child maltreatment training programme for Higher Education in the US, and all resources and training is provided for free to these institutions.

CAST now incorporates ThingLink in their programs to create realistic and interactive walkthroughs and scenarios that replicate the environments and situations that professionals may encounter when working with children. ThingLink spoke to Tyler Counsil, CAST Director and Nicole Davis, CAST Manager, to understand the difference that using the platform has made to their programs.

Challenges that CAST aims to solve

CAST research has shown that cases of child maltreatment are rising. Alongside this, child maltreatment cases are frequently mishandled due to:

• Ineffective training and insufficient skill-development in Frontline Child Protection employees, and
• Insufficient workforce preparation, which alongside an increasing caseload, leads to high staff-turnover and understaffing – which then results in longer response times for cases.

One of the key reasons for CAST’s establishment was to help slow this flow of trained professionals leaving the field, through providing a more realistic experience of the sorts of situations that they might encounter, and how these might affect them, before they start their career. 

How CAST fits alongside academic studies

Currently 60% of US 4 year degree courses, and 50% of 2 year courses, provide no learning in child abuse. CAST has been developed to fill this gap, as an academic major, minor or certificate program that focuses on child maltreatment. A CAST minor program can be paired with any related academic major, such as Medicine or Law. It prepares students for the real-world intersection of the two disciplines by teaching competencies and core skills, best-practice approaches and methods, resilience strategies and an understanding of collaborative, multi-agency working. 

CAST has developed a range of different toolkits suitable for delivery on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Frontline professionals are used as the subject matter experts and faculty training to maximize CAST instruction is delivered online. Whilst CAST has traditionally been deployed on campuses, it is also now being used for training those already working in the field via on-demand learning. Additionally, non-traditional learners can engage in CAST learning through microcredentials and badging programs. CAST, in short, has expanded to provide child maltreatment education for all learners regardless of the paths they take to gain knowledge and insights into putting an end to child abuse. 

Immersive learning experiences at CAST

Experiential learning is a core part of the CAST programs, with learners experiencing some or all of the following environments and situations in a virtual format, tailored to their current or future profession:

• Home inspections and walkthroughs;
• Evidence collection, evaluation and prioritization; 
• Multidisciplinary team investigations;
• Communications with victims and non-offending caregivers; 
• Interrogation of potential suspects;
• Court testimony.

Creating virtual training environments in ThingLink

CAST has been using ThingLink to create and present immersive learning content for the home inspection environments, using and linking 360 images as virtual tours in ThingLink’s Multimedia Editor. 

“We’re big advocates of experiential learning and problem-based learning, and that’s where ThingLink came in – the immersion platform.”

Tyler Counsil, CAST Director

The team needed to design and build out mock home environments with the correct aesthetic, in sufficient detail – and then capture the interiors as immersive 360s for online training. However with limited time and budget in place, they were able to use ThingLink’s in-built AI image generation tools to create mock environments first. (See below for an example.)

When more time and resources were available, the team were able to create 360s in ThingLink from the real-life mock house teaching environments at a training center in Daviess County, Indiana. (See below.)

Whichever version they use, the approach to the 360 content is the same. Trainees are given the background context, the expected outcomes, and in some cases the roles they should adopt if taking a role-play approach – all provided as part of the “simulation packet”. The house can then be explored in the order they choose, with no set route between the rooms or areas. Learners can explore the house on their own, or as part of a multi-disciplinary team, where the team may choose to split the house into parts before re-convening. Further activities or exercises are then incorporated, depending on the particular trainees or program, and the resources available to the educators facilitating the program delivery.

The mock house environments are delivered as micro-learning experiences, delivered via a range of different channels depending on preference. These may include the student LMS, via the Zero Abuse Project Portal, QR codes or URL. The learners then have continued access to the immersive resource at any time after the training program, to revisit and refresh their learning. Zero Abuse’s CAST Team provides several of these simulation packets and experiential guides for faculty teaching CAST coursework via its online Simulation Hub for Experiential Learning, or SHEL. 

How the CAST team use ThingLink Scenario Builder: training for students and professionals

In addition, ThingLink Scenario Builder is used by CAST to quickly create microlearning experiences relevant to specific audiences, and has proved particularly useful when time with the audience is short – for example at a professional training conference or seminar. The team have used ThingLink’s AI tools to quickly build scenarios either from scratch or using existing materials as the basis. Images, text content, questions and branched paths can be generated from simple text prompts, or even from uploaded PDF content, and edited where necessary.

Key benefit: ThingLink immersive environments and scenarios bridge the gap between study and real life

“ThingLink is bridging the gap – augmenting and enhancing what we do and giving us a safe space to train future professionals. When you don’t have access to the real environment, you can enhance and expand with an immersive environment. The experiential aspect of ThingLink takes the training beyond the didactic.”

Tyler Counsil, CAST Director

The immersive environments allow students to prepare themselves for being in an extremely challenging environment or situation – bridging the gap between study and real life by providing opportunities for realistic problem-solving. Even more importantly, students are able to experience the emotions that could surface during the work, and how they might regulate their own responses, in a safe environment. Vitally, it allows learners to ask themselves whether that career or field is the right fit for them and whether they are comfortable and prepared to continue along that training path. For some, it may provide the incentive to pursue a career involving child protection with a renewed purpose. In this way, CAST is helping to stem the very high turnover of staff in the field.

“We want them to see the realities but in a safe space – we can create a safety net environment using ThingLink.”

Tyler Counsil, CAST Director

Further benefits of using ThingLink for CAST

• CAST’s professional training has been able to expand because of ThingLink – allowing simple creation and straightforward sharing of immersive environments wherever they are needed, and adapted for a diverse range of audiences.
• The platform has given CAST freedom to create the exactly-tailored training they need, all in-house. CAST have found ThingLink easy to use, easy to edit and intuitive both when using and adapting existing training materials or creating new content.
  • “If you can think it, you can create it in ThingLink. Everything I’ve ever envisioned, I’ve been able to do with the platform. ThingLink has been a game-changer on the front line of education.” Tyler Counsil, CAST Director
• Sometimes training requests to CAST are very last minute. Using ThingLink’s in-built AI tools cuts down development and delivery time to prepare the content for trainees. 
• Viewable anywhere and shareable via QR code or URL – students can work through the ThingLink content on their own devices. 

Benefits to Higher Education institutions of the immersive CAST training with ThingLink:  

• A highly valued additional child welfare program to add to their student offer at very low cost.
• They can be sure that students are properly trained in current approaches and methods.

Benefits to employers of the ThingLink immersive environments:

• Well-prepared and competent employees, leading to improved employee retention.
• Less requirement for on-the-job training, meaning significant cost and time savings.

Benefits to students of the ThingLink immersive training environments:

• They are well-prepared mentally and emotionally for their future roles.
• ThingLink immersive environments and scenarios demonstrate how to apply their academic learning in a real setting where child safety is at risk.

“The merger of ThingLink with active learning is the best alternative right now [to on the job training] – and best practice.”

Tyler Counsil, CAST Director

Benefits of ThingLink’s scenarios and virtual environments to those currently in the profession

• The ThingLink training modules allow them to practice skills and competencies – keeping them up to date. 
• Knowing that recent graduates have received the training increases confidence in new starters and reduces the need for on-the-job training and mentoring.
• Many CAST-qualified professionals are in rural locations, where signals are poor, and devices are varied. ThingLink professional development training courses can be shared and undertaken on any device and even offline, meaning that professionals are able revisit and brush up on skills whenever they need to.
• The CAST team highlighted as particularly valuable this “equity, accessibility and convenience of ThingLink” in providing the ability to learn anywhere, any time.

Contacting CAST

If you would like to learn more about CAST or bring it to your Higher Education campuses at no cost, please use their ‘Contact Us‘ form, which is also available on the CAST website, to schedule a conversation. 

Final word

When evaluating ThingLink’s contribution to the work of CAST and Zero Abuse Project, of paramount importance at all times is the protection of children vulnerable to maltreatment and abuse. By providing the creative tools and platform to support learning outcomes in such a critical field, ThingLink training is helping to support and empower the next generation of professionals fighting to eradicate child abuse. 

“ThingLink is propelling the field forward and saving lives.”

Tyler Counsil, CAST Director

Perspectives on immersive training for professionals with ThingLink

Fields such as law enforcement, emergency medical care, and disaster relief can present traumatic scenes and situations which challenge even the most experienced professionals. Creating realistic training environments and scenarios with ThingLink is an effective way to prepare individuals for the realities of what they may experience, and how they might react in such a situation.

However this type of training is equally effective when used to prepare any employee or student for an emergency situation, safety training, or indeed any high-stakes, high stress situation. They can learn to recognise the signs of stress before they have to deal with the in-person experience, and take steps to safeguard their emotional wellbeing. For more guidance on creating immersive training with ThingLink Scenario Builder, and more examples of immersive training for professionals and students, see below.

New and Improved ThingLink Scenario Builder