Richard Haass, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), once called our current era “the most dangerous moment since World War II,” citing a “perfect storm” of compounding factors. His view is widely shared across geopolitical thought leadership. In their Global Risks Report 2025 report, the World Economic Forum highlighted state-based armed conflict as the greatest global risk currently, with geoeconomic confrontation, misinformation/disinformation, societal polarization, and erosion of civic freedoms falling closely behind.
Addressing such global instability and its security implications for the U.S. will require the brightest minds of young generations to meet the challenge, and our responsibility as educators is to provide them with the best training and tools possible. My research colleagues at Augusta University and I believe that simulations provided by CFR Education, run in an asynchronous online format, can be a highly accessible and powerful way to train students in key ideas and concepts in foreign policy and security studies, one that is particularly well-suited to today’s shifting educational landscape.
CFR Education, the educational arm of the Council on Foreign Relations, offers, among other resources, simulations that put students in the shoes of policymakers facing the most pressing issues in international relations based on various hypothetical, historical, and current event scenarios.
A Framework for Asynchronous Online Simulations
The demand for asynchronous online education has grown enormously and is projected to continue growing. Degree programs in security studies and foreign policy are thus faced with the dual task of both meeting this demand and also adequately preparing students who will be grappling with the urgent challenges of our time.
There is abundant research showing that educational simulations are an effective way to boost important pedagogical goals such as student engagement, critical thinking, and deep learning. However, most studies until now have focused on simulations via in-person or synchronous online learning environments. Our team sought out to discover whether asynchronous online simulations can be just as engaging as in-person or synchronous online simulations.
To do this in a topically timely way, we chose the CFR Education Simulation, “Should the United States Ban TikTok to Preserve National Security?” to be used in a graduate-level course within our Intelligence and Security Studies Program. In this simulation, students role-play as members of the U.S. National Security Council (NSC) who present their viewpoints regarding the titular question to the “President,” played in this case by the course instructor.
Using Tools to Replicate In-Person Simulations
Since CFR Education simulations were designed for in-person learning environments, we used four digital tools to modify and adapt the simulation to make it compelling and effective in an asynchronous, online format.
First, Desire2Learn (D2L) served as the central hub that integrated all the other tools. Since D2L was the learning management system (LMS) that we used at Augusta University, this reduced the cognitive load of introducing multiple technologies. Next, we used Articulate Rise to build the simulation environment and Canva to add engaging visuals. Finally, we used Yellowdig for the social components of role-play, debate, and discussion.
While each tool played an important role, Yellowdig was especially critical for facilitating ongoing student engagement. As they made their way through the simulation content, students used Yellowdig to post their original positions on the issue, comments, responses, video debates, and policy papers on the issue, all in a self-contained space. The highly social and “gameful” design of Yellowdig facilitated the building of student connections, interaction, and rapport throughout the entire simulation, thereby preventing the drop-off in engagement that often occurs over time. This enabled us to closely replicate the experience of real-time simulations.
Towards Mass Adoption of CFR Education Simulations
To assess the success of the simulation and how engaged students were, we used analytical data provided by Yellowdig in tandem with the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework. CoI is recognized as a leading, research-supported model for effective online pedagogy and is built around three core elements—social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence—and seven design principles.
Yellowdig’s score metrics, combined with their interpretive guidelines, revealed that students were highly engaged during the entire online, asynchronously run simulation in a way that was consistent with the CoI framework. Moreover, students’ final assessments demonstrated that they fully understood the simulation and its learning objectives (details can be viewed in our working research paper, which is pending peer review). Thus, we are hopeful that the final research conclusively demonstrates the effectiveness of using asynchronous online simulations.
By combining CFR Education’s simulations with well-designed technologies such as Yellowdig and Articulate Rise, institutions can harness the proven educational power of simulations while matching the engagement levels of in-person and synchronous online learning. This has exciting implications for widespread use of CFR Education simulations in asynchronous online learning programs at scale, addressing the aforementioned double needs of preparing students for the security challenges of the future while meeting the growing demand for asynchronous online education.
Author Bio
Craig Albert is a Professor of Political Science and Graduate Director of National Defense Studies at Augusta University in Georgia. He has a PhD in Political Science from the University of Connecticut.