Our approach
Built with educators. Grounded in evidence. Designed to build real skill.
MPC: VISTA was not designed in isolation. It was built through a deliberate process: formative research with practicing educators, iterative design informed by adult learning science, expert review by Making Proud Choices! master trainers, and field testing with educators across the country.
Why most online professional development does not build teaching skill
Most online training for sex education curricula follows the same pattern: watch a video, read some slides, take a quiz, get a certificate. This approach transfers information reasonably well. It does not build skill.
Skill is built through practice, feedback, and reflection. The question MPC: VISTA was designed to answer is: how do you create the conditions for that kind of learning online, before an educator is standing in front of real students?
The answer we arrived at, grounded in decades of research on deliberate practice and adult learning, is simulation. Not passive simulation, where you watch someone else navigate a scenario, but active simulation, where your decisions drive what happens next and you see the consequences in real time.
Standard online training
What it lacks
- Passive content delivery
- Measures knowledge, not skill
- No opportunity to practice
- No feedback on decisions
- No safe space to make mistakes
MPC: VISTA
What it provides
- Active, decision-based learning
- Measures teaching behavior
- Structured practice with realistic scenarios
- Immediate, specific feedback
- Safe environment to try, fail, and learn
The learning principles behind MPC: VISTA
Every design decision in MPC: VISTA is grounded in research on how adults develop professional skill.
Deliberate practice
Skill development requires focused repetition with feedback, not just exposure to content. MPC: VISTA builds practice into every session through simulation scenarios that require real decisions.
Observational learning
Seeing skilled performance modeled before attempting it oneself improves learning outcomes. The See It phase in each session shows expert educators navigating the most challenging moments in that module.
Immediate feedback
Feedback is most effective when it is specific, timely, and tied to a concrete decision. After every choice in the Do It simulation, educators see exactly what worked, what did not, and why.
Spaced learning
Distributing learning across sessions improves retention. MPC: VISTA is structured as eight discrete sessions designed to be completed in multiple sittings over time.
Reflective practice
Structured reflection after practice consolidates learning and supports transfer to new situations. The Process It phase prompts educators to connect what they practiced to their own teaching context.
Authentic context
Adults learn best when training mirrors the conditions they will face in practice. Every scenario in MPC: VISTA is drawn from the real challenges educators encounter when teaching MPC, validated by master trainers and practicing educators.
Built with input from educators across the country
Before a single simulation scenario was written, we talked with educators. The formative research phase of MPC: VISTA included advisory panel consultations, educator interviews, and focus groups with practicing MPC facilitators. We wanted to understand what they found hardest about teaching MPC, where they felt least prepared, and what training would actually be useful to them.
What we heard
Through advisory panel consultations, educator interviews, and focus groups with practicing MPC facilitators, we heard a consistent set of challenges:
Handling unexpected student questions. Educators described feeling caught off guard by questions that were tangentially related to the lesson, sensitive, or politically charged, and not knowing how to give a concise, accurate answer and get back on track without losing the class.
Time management. MPC puts educators in a time crunch. Facilitators consistently described struggling to get through all the content while also allowing students to engage meaningfully. Not mastering the material in advance made it worse.
The role plays. Both the scripted and unscripted role plays in the later MPC modules were consistently flagged as the moments where untrained educators lost the room. Without a clear sense of what the activity is trying to accomplish, facilitators could not guide students through it when things went sideways.
Understanding the why. Educators who understood the pedagogical logic behind each activity were far better equipped to facilitate it well and make thoughtful adaptations when needed. Educators who were simply following the manual were not.
Navigating inclusive classroom dynamics in restrictive environments. A growing challenge for educators is managing questions about gender identity and sexual orientation in school settings where legal restrictions may limit what can be said directly, without shutting students down or creating an unsafe environment.
What educators told us they needed
Educators were clear about what would actually help them:
Practice before they need it. More than information, educators wanted opportunities to rehearse the hardest moments before standing in front of students. Every round of MPC training, facilitators consistently asked for more practice time. It was never enough.
Seeing what it looks like when it is done well. Educators wanted to see an experienced MPC facilitator model the most difficult activities before attempting them, including the moments that go wrong and how skilled facilitators recover.
Understanding the intent behind each activity. Not just what to do, but why. Educators who grasped the experiential learning logic behind MPC were far better prepared to facilitate it and adapt thoughtfully when necessary.
Training that reflected who they are and who they teach. Educators noted that training materials and videos that did not reflect the diversity of their students and communities caused them to disengage. Representation in the training itself matters.
A safe space to make mistakes. The consensus: the problem is not that educators are bad teachers. The problem is that they are expected to master difficult, sensitive facilitation skills in front of real students, for the first time, without practice.
In their own words
Direct quotes from MPC: VISTA advisors and the MPC community.
Practice, practice, practice. If you do a role play for the first time, it is not going to go well because you are trying to read it and do it at the same time. But if you practice and understand what you are trying to do, then your own personal attitude is going to be good about doing it, and your outcome is going to be good because you feel confidence in what you are doing.
The ability to answer questions and navigate sensitive moments, that is really an important skill and it is just done with practice. Every time I did a training, we always ended up building in more time to practice that skill. It was always the thing that people wanted more of and that we spent more time on.
If the educator did not know what the purpose was or what kind of answers they were looking for, the activity would just stop dead. No matter what response the student gave, if you have a firm grasp on what the intentions and the expected outcomes are, you can guide or direct the activity if it gets off track. If you do not, you cannot.
The MPC: VISTA development process
Formative research with educators
We conducted interviews and focus groups with educators who teach or have taught Making Proud Choices! to understand their training needs, their biggest facilitation challenges, and the moments in MPC where they felt least prepared. These conversations shaped every aspect of the training design.Scenario development with MPC master trainers
Simulation scenarios were developed collaboratively with MPC master trainers and reviewed for accuracy, authenticity, and alignment with MPC's pedagogical intent. Every scenario reflects a real situation educators encounter when teaching MPC, not a hypothetical one.Advisory panel review
Our advisory panel, which includes MPC co-developer Dr. Loretta Sweet Jemmott and leading experts in sexual health education and adolescent health, reviewed training content across multiple development stages for accuracy, appropriateness, and real-world applicability. Reviewers assessed each simulation scenario for authenticity, evaluated whether facilitation guidance reflected how MPC is actually taught in real classrooms, and provided input on how the training should address increasingly complex challenges in the current teaching environment, including how to navigate sensitive student questions within legal and institutional constraints while maintaining an inclusive classroom climate.Iterative design and field testing
Early versions of MPC: VISTA were tested with educators across the country, who provided feedback on usability, clarity, pacing, and the authenticity of the simulation scenarios. Their input drove multiple rounds of revision before the final version was produced.Proof-of-concept randomized trial
Before the full MPC: VISTA training was developed, dfusion and the RAND Corporation tested whether simulation-based training could produce teaching outcomes equivalent to in-person training. The published results established the evidence foundation for the current project.NIH-funded randomized controlled trial
The current study is a rigorous three-arm RCT evaluating whether MPC: VISTA produces measurably greater improvements in educator teaching skill compared to alternative training and no training. This is the standard we hold ourselves to.
From training to student outcomes: the MPC: VISTA logic model
Inputs
- NIH funding
- dfusion research team
- MPC master trainer expertise
- Advisory panel
- MPC: VISTA platform
- Educator participants
Activities
- Interactive Learn It modules
- Expert modeling videos (See It)
- Classroom simulations (Do It)
- Structured reflection (Process It)
- Immediate feedback
Outputs
- Educators trained in all 8 MPC modules
- Practice with realistic scenarios
- Feedback on teaching decisions
Short-term outcomes
- Increased MPC content knowledge
- Improved facilitation skill
- Greater confidence teaching MPC
- Higher implementation fidelity
Long-term outcomes
- Students receive high-quality MPC instruction
- Improved student attitudes toward sexual health
- Reduced teen pregnancy and HIV risk behaviors
Logic model developed by the MPC: VISTA research team at dfusion, Inc. Informed by the Making Proud Choices! program theory of change, the theory of reasoned action and theory of planned behavior underlying MPC’s design, and formative consultations with MPC co-developer Dr. Loretta Sweet Jemmott and the MPC: VISTA advisory panel.
With gratitude
MPC: VISTA was developed with the support and guidance of educators across the country who gave their time and expertise to help us get this right. Their feedback shaped the simulation scenarios, the facilitation guidance, and the pacing of the training.
We are grateful to every educator who participated in our formative research, reviewed early prototypes, and told us honestly what was and was not working. This training is better because of them.
Ready to build these skills?
Participate in the MPC: VISTA research study and receive the full training plus $300 for your time.
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