Remote instructors
Practice decisions around shared course files, video meetings, grading tools, account notices, and external communication without interrupting a live class.
For Online Learning
Phishing Simulation Planning for Online and Hybrid Learning
Online learning depends on identity, email, video meetings, cloud documents, learning platforms, remote support, and access from varied networks and devices.
A useful awareness exercise should practice how employees verify those digital requests when they cannot walk to a local help desk or rely on the same device, schedule, and support route.
Audience-specific scenarios • Safe campaign boundaries • Reporting practice • Measured follow-up
01Understand the audience
Design around how online and hybrid education teams actually work
Start with the people, systems, and verification routes involved in the work. A relevant exercise practices an action the participant can realistically take in that environment.
Learner-support teams
Reinforce identity and escalation procedures for account recovery, enrollment questions, payment issues, and urgent requests received remotely.
Platform administrators
Use a separate, approved scope for privileged users and focus on known vendor, identity, configuration, and incident-reporting routes.
Distributed vendors and contractors
Confirm which organizations provide training, support, notification, incident response, and data handling before including external personnel.
02Choose the scenario
Use recognizable requests with a safe response
Each scenario needs one learning objective and one explainable next step. Use fictional details and avoid exploiting a live problem, deadline, or sensitive relationship.
Learning-platform alert
Practice opening the known platform independently when an unexpected course, grading, storage, or sign-in notice arrives.
Video-meeting invitation
Reinforce checking the organizer, meeting context, destination, and expected platform before joining or entering credentials.
Remote support request
Ask employees to contact support through a known route rather than installing software, sharing a code, or granting access from an unsolicited message.
Shared cloud resource
Practice validating the owner and purpose of an unexpected document without using a real course, learner, recording, or assessment.
03Plan responsibly
Resolve the operating questions before launch
| Consideration | Question to answer | Required preparation |
|---|---|---|
| Out-of-band verification | Can a remote employee verify the request without using the message's link, reply address, or phone number? | Publish a known support portal, saved number, reporting tool, or independently accessible service first. |
| Devices and networks | Which managed and personal devices, browsers, mail clients, and accessibility tools are supported? | Pilot representative environments without requiring unsafe changes to personal devices. |
| Time zones and coverage | Will participants receive the exercise when security or support teams are offline? | Choose a staffed window or provide a response process that works asynchronously across regions. |
| Platform incidents | Could the exercise be confused with a real outage, compromise, or urgent vendor notification? | Check active incidents immediately before launch and stop when platform or support conditions change. |
04Run the exercise
Move from an approved brief to useful follow-up
- 1
Define one behavior
State the request being tested, the expected verification or reporting action, the authorized audience, and how the observation will be used.
- 2
Confirm the real route
Make sure participants can reach a known service, support contact, reporting button, or independent approver before asking them to use it.
- 3
Pilot end to end
Test representative accounts, devices, accessibility tools, email controls, links, teaching pages, event records, reports, and stop conditions.
- 4
Brief response teams
Prepare IT, security, communications, managers, and relevant service providers to support the exercise while continuing to treat unrelated reports as real.
- 5
Debrief and improve
Explain the cues and expected action, provide relevant learning, and assign every workflow or control improvement to an owner and review date.
Source: CISA StopRansomware Guide
05Interpret the results
Measure the exercise without creating an employee scorecard
Interpret results with time zone, device, mail client, platform familiarity, language, accessibility, and support availability in view. A missing report may reveal that the remote reporting route was unavailable rather than that the employee ignored the message.
Report intended recipients, exclusions, successful deliveries, unique recipient events, verified reports where available, response handling, and completed follow-up. Keep automated security-tool activity separate from confirmed employee behavior and show counts beside percentages.
A recorded interaction does not explain why it happened. Review message difficulty, role context, device access, prior guidance, and whether the expected verification route was practical. Use aggregate reporting for program decisions and restrict individual records to appropriate owners.
06Go beyond training
Connect awareness practice to technical and operational controls
A phishing simulation exercises selected employee decisions; it does not secure an education environment by itself. Review identity protection, email defenses, patching, endpoint controls, backups, privileged access, vendor management, incident response, recovery, and the ownership of incoming reports.
Use the campaign review to choose a concrete next action: clarify a payment callback, improve the help route, protect an exposed identity flow, update a vendor escalation, remove an unnecessary privilege, or exercise the response process. Product usage alone does not establish legal, regulatory, or contractual compliance.
Source: CISA: Cyber Threats to K-12 Remote Learning Education
Common questions
Common questions about Phishmake's features, onboarding, and support, answered to help you get started with confidence.
Can remote instructors be tested on personal devices?
Follow institutional policy and the approved technical scope. Do not require invasive access or configuration changes on a personal device. Make the reporting and learning experience work through supported channels.
When should an online-learning simulation run?
Choose a staffed window that accounts for time zones and avoids live examinations, major course launches, grading deadlines, and active platform incidents. Define an asynchronous support path where continuous coverage is unavailable.
Can a simulation use a real course or student message?
Use fictional course, learner, assessment, recording, and message details. Real education records and active classroom communications should not be copied into simulated content.
What should online-learning teams measure?
Measure delivery, unique intended events, verified reports, response handling, follow-up, and discovered workflow gaps. Record device, time-zone, platform, and support context before comparing groups or campaigns.
Sources & further reading
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