Engineering · Experiential Research Cohort · Spring 2027 Explain It to the Room

One design decision. Three audiences. Graded on all of them.

Explain It to the Room lets every capstone student practice explaining the same decision to faculty, industry and a non-technical stakeholder, as often as they need, and gives faculty a scored record for each audience.

Free for 15 engineering courses, January to March 2027.

Reserve your place

Free from January to March 2027. One place per course.

15 places left
of 15
Trusted by 300+ universities and colleges
5×confidence increase after one session
94%completion rate across 2,400 students
85%of students identify specific skills to improve
Inside Explain It to the Room

Two harder practice panels. Then three assessed audiences.

Practice builds up to a committee chair who wants specifics and a product director who keeps raising objections. The assessed roleplays cover all three audiences, matched to the baseline. Built for final-year engineering and computing capstone students.

Practice

Assessed audiences

Practice, level 2

Prof. James Whitmore

Veteran capstone committee chair

Not unkind, not impressed by generalities. Needs a second, sharper attempt.

Practice, level 3

Tara Singh

Product director, hardware firm

Raises a new commercial objection every time: cost, then scale, then schedule. Does not yield.

Faculty, baseline and endpoint

Dr. Nadia Osei and Dr. Priya Chandran

Faculty panel: rigor

Methodical and precise. Will ask 'Why not the alternative?'

Industry, baseline and endpoint

Marcus Delaney and David Ferreira

Industry panel: practicality

Thinks in cost, schedule and scale. 'What does it cost? Does it scale?'

Community, endpoint

Sandra Okafor and Patricia Ngozi

Community representative

No engineering background. Wants to know what the decision means for people like her, in plain terms.

“That is too broad. Give me the specific basis.”

Professor Whitmore at level 2. Twenty years on defense panels, and he has heard every vague justification.

CriterionStrongWeak
Audience calibrationAdjusts level to who is askingSame explanation three times
Trade-off explainedExplains the trade-off, not just the choiceOnly the chosen option
Jargon avoided without patronizingPlain and respectful with non-engineersJargon, or talking down

8 scored criteria, mapped to ABET EAC Student Outcomes

Three of them are shown here. Faculty can edit every criterion to match their own rubric.

ABET Outcome 2ABET Outcome 3
What Bodyswaps is

Students practice the conversation. Faculty see the evidence.

Christophe, CEO, on why we built Bodyswaps

Christophe, CEO, on why we built Bodyswaps

Talk to an AI panel

Students explain the same design decision to faculty, industry and a non-technical stakeholder.

Get coached straight after

An AI Coach debrief after every conversation shows students what worked and what to try next.

Faculty see every attempt

Every assessed conversation is scored against clear criteria, with transcripts and progress for each student.

What faculty see

  • First attempt against latest, criterion by criterion, so you can see the whole class move.
  • Every student's latest grade and how it changed, with nothing averaged away.
  • One click from any grade to the transcript and the feedback the student saw.
Bodyswaps cohort report
Bodyswaps cohort report showing grades for each student, first attempt against latest
The Experiential Research Cohort

A free semester of Explain It to the Room, in return for helping us learn what works.

The Experiential Research Cohort is a one-semester program. Each course runs a ready-built Bodyswaps pathway with its students, and the anonymized results from every course feed one findings report, which names every program that took part.

✓What's included

  • Free access, January to March 2027Every student on your course, for the full semester.
  • Explain It to the Room, ready to runMapped to the capstone defense and ABET Outcome 3. Faculty can edit the criteria, characters and levels.
  • Setup and supportWe get your students set up and stay with you through the semester.
  • Evidence for every studentScores, transcripts and AI Coach debriefs, first attempt to latest.
  • Your program named in the findingsThe cross-institution report credits every program that took part.

→What we ask

  • Run it with a real courseStudents use Explain It to the Room in a course taught between January and March 2027.
  • Share anonymized student dataResults feed the cohort research. Nothing identifies your students.
  • A short survey at the endFrom whoever ran it at your institution.
Now to December

Reserve your place. We confirm it and set up your course.

January to March 2027

Students practice, free, as often as they need.

After March

Evidence for every student, and the findings report.

15 places left
of 15
Reserve a place
Why educators trust Bodyswaps

Built for the conversations that matter, and used by faculty who teach them.

“Bodyswaps has consistently provided a clear way to facilitate learning at scale. Over 200 students enrolled, with automated feedback delivery.”
MC
Mary Lee Carter, MS CHSEAssistant Director, Healthcare Simulation
Is it really free?

Yes. From January to March 2027 there is no cost to your institution. In return we ask for anonymized student data for the cohort research and a short survey at the end.

Does this replace the faculty panel?

No. Students still defend to your panel. This gives them practice explaining the same decision to different audiences before it.

Can faculty change the pathway?

Yes. Explain It to the Room is ready to run as built, and faculty can edit the criteria, characters and levels to match their course and rubric.

What data do you share, and how is it used?

Anonymized results feed the cross-institution findings report. Nothing in the report identifies individual students.

How many places are there?

Fifteen, one per course. We confirm every place personally.

What do we get at the end?

Scores, transcripts and AI Coach debriefs for every student, plus the cross-institution findings report with your program named in it.

Spring 2027 cohort

Join the spring 2027 Explain It to the Room cohort.

Fifteen free places, one per course. Reserve yours and we will be in touch to get your students set up.

Nova, an AI roleplay character

Reserve your place

Free from January to March 2027. One place per course.

15 places left
of 15
15 places left
Spring 2027 cohort
Reserve a place

Reserve your place

Free from January to March 2027. One place per course.

15 places left
of 15