The ICCA’s Pupillage Ethics materials were developed to support pupils preparing for the Bar Standards Board’s centrally set Pupillage Ethics Exam. Designed to align with the official BSB syllabus, the course offers a comprehensive guide to professional ethics, though the ICCA is not involved in setting or marking the assessment itself. Passing the ethics exam is a mandatory requirement for all pupils, unless formally exempted by the BSB.

Techniques

Over an eight-month project for the Inns of Court College of Advocacy, I developed three branching scenarios focused on professional ethics. I began by storyboarding each scenario and creating a mood board to guide the visual style for characters and settings. I collaborated with an illustrator to produce custom artwork based on these designs.

Working closely with an internal subject matter expert, I wrote the interactive stories using Twine, ensuring they reflected real-world ethical dilemmas faced by advocates.

Voiceovers were recorded professionally using studio actors sourced via a third-party provider. Once all elements were signed off, I assembled the final activities using a combination of Camtasia and Articulate Storyline 360.

Challenges

The main challenges were ensuring all the branches were linked up correctly in Articulate and timing the voiceover with the onscreen text. Both of these areas were quite time-consuming as they required quite a bit of meticulous testing. I decided to create short videos for each interaction rather than creating a new slide, because some of the conversations were quite long, and I didn’t want each slide to refresh each time the learner clicked to continue.

Summary

This project challenged me to blend visual storytelling, realistic ethical dilemmas, and branching logic. The result is a set of immersive, decision-driven learning experiences that help new advocates work through complex professional scenarios.

Skills Demonstrated

• Scenario writing and storyboarding
• Visual design direction and collaboration
• Interactive branching logic
• Audio production coordination
• Multimedia assembly and testing

Tools Used

• Twine
• Articulate Storyline 360
• Camtasia

You can access a short demo of this activity by clicking on the button below.