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Simulation in E-learning - Part I
Simulation in E-learning Part I
Abstract:
This paper will consider the role of simulation activities in e-learning environments and then will discuss in detail models and examples of online learning services based on simulation. In the end a model simulation for e-learning courses will be proposed.
Introduction
The most relevant fact about simulations is that they allow to build both environments characterised by learning by discover and instructional learning. A simulation creates an interactive environment in which the student learns through experience and partecipate in first person to the construction of his/her own knowledge.The feedback is in real time, usually visual and auditory, and learners "see" and "hear" immediately the consequences of their actions and they can autonomously assess the correctness of their reasoning. They allow also the introduction of elements of play in learning.
Simulations bring students closer to the real experience than do simple unidirectional (teacher or courseware to student) instructional techniques. Technology is now available (and continuing to evolve) that enables designers to build simulations that are complex, visually stimulating, interactive and provide immediate feedback.
Simulations should be a central component of any e-learning strategy because they work, learning becomes faster and more effective. They can be used in virtual laboratories, where students learn by experimenting, in teaching (role-playing and if-then process simulations), and they can also be used in hands-on practice in testing or evaluating and certification
But what is a computer simulation?
Definition Of Simulation
General Definition
A simulation is a model that represents activities and interactions over time. A simulation may be fully automated (i.e., it executes without human intervention), or it may be interactive or interruptible (i.e., the user may intervene during execution). A simulation is an operating representation of selected features of real-world or hypothetical events and processes. It is conducted in accordance with known or assumed procedures and data, and with the aid of methods and equipment ranging from the simplest to the most sophisticated
The ethimology of the word simulation highilights four complementary aspects that might be present in a simulation activity:
1. If you simulate an action or feeling you pretend that you are doing it or feeling it (Role Play)
2. If you simulate an object, a substance or noise you produce something that looks or sounds like it (device simulation)
3. If you simulate a set of conditions you reproduce them in some form, for example in order to conduct an experiment (goal / task simulation)
4. In a simulation game you replicate real-life experience involving two or more players who are required to operate under clearly defined rules for the purpose of achieving a predetermined goal in a concentrated period of time. (game simulations)
Inspired by these examples, we can synthesize a better definition of a simulation: a simulation is a software package (sometimes bundled with special hardware input devices) that re-creates or simulates, albeit in a simplified manner, a complex phenomena, environment, or experience, providing the user with the opportunity for some new level of understanding. It is interactive, and usually grounded in some objective reality. A simulation is based on some underlying computational model of the phenomena, environment, or experience that it is simulating.
Simulation is sometimes confused with visualization and animation, even by authors of simulations. So by way of contrast, a data visualization application is a software package that portrays a fixed data set in graphically useful ways. A simulation is based on a computational model whose parameters can be modified (by the user, or by a random process that is built into the computational model) to generate many data sets. In the case of a data visualization application, the goal is to gain an understanding of the underlying data set; in a simulation, the goal is to gain an understanding of the model..
Also by way of contrast, an animation or a multimedia presentation, like a movie, is a software package that presents a graphical depiction that is the same every time it is viewed. A simulation generates a different depiction every time, since the parameters to the underlying model are (usually) different each time the simulation is run.
Games can be used in educational simulations. Educaitonal games involve more participation than most learning techniques. They stimulate discussion. They can be used for problem solving, evaluation, information, analysis, verbal and interpersonal skill development and conflict resolution. They allow players to see themselves and others under different conditions.
Benefits
Simulation-based learning provides benefits in five key areas:
1. Accelerated learning: Simulation can reduce the time to competency and increase the depth of competency. Studies have shown that simulation can make a student proficient at a skill four to six months earlier than those who took a training class but had no application of the knowledge.
2. Scalability: Simulations are highly scalable, which can lead to increased throughput in learning programs. Computer-based simulations allow more people to be trained in a shorter time frame than the traditional method of learning in hands-on labs.
3. "Anywhere" access: Simulations enable students to practice exercises repeatedly and from any location. This is particularly useful for skills that need to be practiced on or with equipment.
4. Lower costs: Simulation can provide significant cost savings. If test equipment is mission-critical or expensive, simulating it can be a real money saver.
5. Increased attention span: An increased attention span means an increased likelihood of the student completing the course work: Interactivity holds the learner's attention longer than unidirectional instruction. Increasing the intensity and time of the student's attention improves the quality and the retention of learning.
Applications of Simulations in the Learning Process
Simulations can be used throughout the learning process to improve teaching and learning practices.
1. Teaching: Key areas where simulations can improve teaching include supervisory skills (role-playing), customer service skills (what-if interactive models, role-playing), maintenance and repair (animation, spatial simulation, virtual reality) and certifications (hands-on practice).
2. Planning: Administrators may use the modeling forms of simulation for curriculum planning or analysis, and students may use what-if scenarios and models to evaluate the time required to complete a course of study.
3. Testing or progress evaluation: Key uses of simulations include testing, evaluation and certification. When you integrate the power of simulations into testing environments, the result is not just an alternative way of doing things; it is a fundamentally new and better way to be evaluated IT companies, such as Microsoft and Cisco, that are incorporating simulations into their computer-based exams. This robust format allows the test-taker to demonstrate the application of skills in as close to a real-world situation as one can get. The outcome is a truer measure of both skill and knowledge level.
4. Collaboration : Simulating classroom interactions (for example, using icons for each class member, employing group games) can improve the adoption of and attention to e-learning. These, in turn, improve learning as well as retention.
Classification of simulation activities
Simulations can be classified in different ways.
According to Alessi and Trollip (1985) computer simulations can be classified in
physical simulations (simulations of some physical object),
procedural simulations (here the learner must learn certain skills to operate a device),
situational simulations (in which learners play a certain role),
and process simulations (here the learner observes the development of the simulation state over time).
Hays and Singer (1989) make a further distinction between physical (the 'look and feel' of the simulation) and functional (what can be done in the simulation) fidelity.
Moving from the theoretical classifications to the real world simulations offered online, the following main categories account for the variety of functions and objectives.
Software simulations : IT/application training.
Business simulations : teaching business management skills, running mock companies, accounting practices, etc.
Situational simulations : interpersonal skills, soft skills, conversational skills, etc.
Technical simulations : simulating physical systems such as a piece of equipment, or simulating processes through diagrams, etc.
Procedural simulations : teaching step-by-step processes, etc.
Virtual worlds : teaching by re-creating environments, workplaces, etc.
These categories help us define and discuss the different products and services we found on the
market today. Most of the simulations fall into more than one category.
THEORY
The four essential ingredients of an active learning and teaching architecture are:
- Goal-based learning;
- Role Play-based learning;
- Web-based communication and collaboration, and
- Study Materials
First, goal-based learning, a form of learning by doing, is a very powerful learning strategy widely acknowledged as a strong motivator of learning. Learners learn the necessary skills as they accomplish their mission / task. WebQuests are an example of task oriented learning.
Another ingredient of this learning architecture is play - in the sense of
- playing a role
- playing with possibilities and alternative worlds
- playing and having fun for its own sake.
The strategy of learning through playing is significant, not the least is an extremely useful motivator.
The third factor of this learning architecture is the World Wide Web. It provides a virtual space for communication, information and collaboration among students, and between the students and educational facilitators in synchronous and asynchronous modes.
Finally, the fourth critical constituent is the corpus of study materials that should provide the learner with the preliminary knowledge before entering the simulation stage.
Study materials should also stimulate reflection about actions undertaken and strategies pursued by the learners during the simulation.
When is best to introduce simulation
Now, when should simulations be introduced?
Lavoie and Good (1988) suggest that a 'Piagetian' approach should be used, which implies that simulations are introduced in a first phase of learning where exploration is allowed, that concepts are formally introduced later, finally followed by concept application. This approach has been implemented in a project that has showed that the subjects receiving the simulation before the formal instruction outperformed the subjects that received the simulation after the formal instruction on a test which required to apply principles from the simulation.
On the other hand it has also been found that learners should already know something before their learning by discovery is to become fruitful. Insufficient prior knowledge might be the cause that learners do not know which hypothesis to state, can not make a good interpretation of data, and move to unsystematic experimentation behaviour.
Technology
Today, more than ever, an array of software tools, such as Macromedia Flash, are available to make the production of interactive simulation accessible to a wider audience of designers and programmers.
Traditional tools have long been able to produce simulations and have been used to do so for
many years. Authorware and Toolbook have always been robust simulation development tools.
The fact that vendors are bringing specialized niche tools to market reflects the distinct demand
for this specific type of e-Learning product.
Use of simulation environments in testing learning progress or assessing final competences.
The practice of creating problem solving simulations for assessing the level and the range of abilities reached by a student is becoming more and more the most effective method available to test and certify a range of operational skills otherwise difficult to assess.
Be it a course on Computer Technologies or on Languages for Specific Purposes, every time there is a need to test a response real-life situation simulation are the most used and efficient solution.
Traditional testing practices based on linguistic tests have several limitations:
do not consider all the possible aspects of a real-life situation;
might be passed by students that have a mere knowledge of words but not of concepts;
test linguistic competence and not other intelligences that might be essential in a real life problem setting.
Before discussing assessment through simulation any further a crucial point must be stressed:
If a learner is going to be assessed in a real-life setting, also the syllabus should have, somehow, been structured so as to include experiences of the same nature, hands-on activities similar to those that will be proposed in the final assessment session.
Even hypertext materials fail in providing a real-life learning experience. In most hypertexts the user can only choose what he/she wants to see, within the grid of links designed for him/her. And this is not very far from reading a book skipping pages /chapters and following a non-sequential order.
A more real-life simulation would allow users to modify data settings and to learn by the immediate feedback they receive as a reaction to their actions.
Now there are different kinds of simulation techniques and technologies that can be used in testing environments. The most elementary ones are sort of dumb simulations, which basically run the user through a series of images that recreate a real-life setting. They allow only a limited interaction and often only one predetermined path to the end result.
What I found more interesting are those open simulations that are dynamic in nature and are characterised by the complexity of rules and logic that make the simulation work. They very much act like the real thing.
In theory these kinds of simulation could allow testers not only to give a pass/fail report, but to judge a student's performance assessing the amount of real-world experience they have.
How to create open simulation activities? Well, one thing that we should consider is that increasing the realism of graphically rich virtual environments may not always translate to better learning. Flooding learners with too much information at one time has proved to distract the learners from the planned learning outcomes. So these simulation should filter out no relevant information and focus on the processes to be tested / acquired.
Linguistic Simulation
There can be different levels of simulations that can be achieved in a learning environment. Problem Based Learning approaches are just the first level in a continuum that goes from basically linguistic scenarios to real enactments of the target situation.
Linguistic simulations present learners with realistic decisions. Because of their linking to skills required in the real world, they are reported to produce learning improvements ranging from a low of 50% to a high of 190% or more.
What makes simulation-like questions different from other types of questions?
Each question of the set
presents a brief realistic scenario;
highlights one or more key learning points;
outlines cause-and-effect relationships;
asks the learner to respond in a way that he or she understands the key learning point.
Full-blown simulations, that mirror on-the-job decision-making situations, have the advantage in being able to use sound and visuals to convey the background context, can provide realistic feedback and multiple scenarios covering the same learning points.
Roberto Cuccu
End of Part I
In Part II we'll analise some online cases
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