For Teachers and Admins
Vocareum Atlas is an AI learning-experience builder that turns a plain-language description into a working, interactive learning application.
With Atlas, you describe what you want learners to practice, such as a hard conversation, a high-pressure decision, or a hands-on technical task. Atlas then builds that description into an app, such as a simulation, role-play, or guided lab. You can change anything in the app by asking for the change in plain language. You do not need to write code.
Many teams want to use AI in teaching and training. However, consumer chatbots are hard to govern, and building a custom AI app usually means hosting it, connecting it to your Learning Management System (LMS), and handing out API keys. Atlas handles these tasks for you. Every Atlas app is delivered through the Vocareum platform, with access controls, AI budgets, and grade pass-back built in.
Use Atlas when you want learners to have hands-on practice and apply skills. Atlas works alongside other Vocareum products. It does not replace lab types such as Vocareum Notebook or Cloud Labs. Instead, Atlas creates the learning experience, and Vocareum labs can provide the real tools behind it.
Before you can use Atlas, your organization must have Generative AI (GenAI) enabled, and you must have an appropriate role. For details, refer to the Atlas Roles and Access section of this article.
Key Features and Capabilities
Building Apps with Plain Language
Atlas uses an AI-assisted build process. You can start by describing the scenario, the tools learners should use, and your criteria for success. Atlas builds a working app from that description. To make changes, you describe what you want to add, remove, or adjust, and Atlas updates the app.
You can start by uploading materials you already have — such as learning objectives, course content, scenarios, and rubrics — or with a single sentence.
Supported Learning Experiences
Atlas supports many kinds of interactive practice. Common examples include the following:
Business, clinical, and professional simulations: Learners make business decisions, work with virtual patients, or practice in high-fidelity, simulated environments that use fictional data.
Guided hands-on labs: Learners complete step-by-step tasks with real tools, and Atlas checks each step before the next one unlocks.
Conversation role-plays: Learners practice sales objections, customer escalations, feedback conversations, or negotiations with AI personas that respond to what the learner actually says.
Decision scenarios: Learners make choices in branching situations and explain their reasoning in their own words.
Technical and incident-response scenarios: Learners work through realistic problems, such as a system outage, with AI coworkers they can ask for help.
AI practice sandboxes: Learners compare the output of different AI models and practice writing prompts.
Isolated and Persistent Learner Sessions
Every learner works in their own copy of the app, so one learner cannot affect another learner's work. Atlas saves each learner's progress automatically, so learners can leave and later pick up exactly where they left off.
When you finish building an app, every learner uses that same finished version. And if you update the app, all learners receive the update.
Scoring, Feedback, and Debriefs
Atlas captures what learners actually do in an app, including their decisions, conversation transcripts, tool usage, and outcomes. Atlas can score this work against your rubrics and criteria for success.
At the end of a session, learners can receive a feedback report that explains how they performed. You can review learner results, and scores can be sent back to your LMS.
An Organization Admin or a Teacher also has access to an admin dashboard that provides telemetry and app analytics by default inside every app.
Governed AI Access
Every AI request in an Atlas app goes through Vocareum's GenAI Gateway. This means that:
Learners and teachers never need to create, share, or manage their own API keys.
AI usage is tracked and limited by budgets, including per-learner spending caps.
AI usage is visible and auditable.
Connections to Real Tools
When an experience needs authentic, hands-on practice, Atlas can connect it to Vocareum environments. These include Vocareum Notebook, Visual Studio Code (VS Code) labs, JupyterLab labs, Cloud Labs, and other lab types.
LMS and Single Sign-On Integration
Atlas apps are delivered through Vocareum, so they work with the same integrations as the rest of your Vocareum courses. These integrations include the following:
LMS integration through Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI), with support for platforms such as Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, and D2L Brightspace.
Roster syncing and grade pass-back to your LMS gradebook, where configured.
Single Sign-On (SSO), so learners sign in with their existing institutional or company account.
Atlas Roles and Access
Access to Atlas depends on two things: the roles a person holds, and whether GenAI is enabled for the organization.
User Roles
Atlas uses three groups of roles. Organization roles control access to Atlas across your whole organization. Atlas app roles control what a person can do with a specific Atlas app. Course roles control what a person can do in a Vocareum course where an Atlas app is used.
Organization Admin
Organization Admins manage Vocareum settings for their entire organization. For Atlas, this includes enabling GenAI, setting AI budgets, and managing which users have access to Atlas.
Organization Admins can also build and manage Atlas apps for use in courses. For more information about the Organization Admin role, refer to Getting Started (Administrators).
Atlas App Roles: Owner, Editor, Viewer
Atlas app roles apply to one Atlas app at a time. A person can have a different role on each app. The following table describes each role.
Role | Description |
Owner | The person who created the app. Owners can edit and delete the app, and can manage who else has access to it. |
Editor | A person who can make changes to the app, such as updating its content, instructions, or scoring criteria. Editors can also manage access to the app, but they cannot delete the app. |
Viewer | A person who can open and review the app without making changes. This role is useful for reviewers, co-teachers, or stakeholders who need to check an app before it is published. |
Course Roles: Teacher, Grader, Student
Course roles are the standard Vocareum course roles. They control how people interact with an Atlas app after it is added to a course. The following table describes each role.
Role | Description |
Teacher | Adds Atlas apps to the course, manages enrollment, reviews learner results, and manages grades. |
Grader | Reviews learner work and results, such as transcripts and feedback reports, and grades submissions. |
Student | Opens and completes the Atlas apps assigned in the course, and receives feedback and scores. |
GenAI Requirements
Atlas uses AI to build apps and to power the experiences inside them, such as AI personas, feedback, and scoring. Because of this, GenAI must be enabled for your organization before anyone can use Atlas.
For Admins: Enabling GenAI and setting AI budgets are organization-level tasks. Teachers cannot complete these tasks. If Atlas is not available in your organization, contact your Organization Admin.
Organization Admins are responsible for the following GenAI tasks:
Enabling GenAI resources for the organization.
Choosing which AI models are available.
Setting AI budgets, including limits for each user or learner.
Giving access to the people who build Atlas apps.
All AI usage in Atlas is routed through the GenAI Gateway and counts toward your organization's AI budgets. Additional resource fees may apply for AI usage.
Resource Links
For more information about building and using Atlas apps, refer to the following guides: