Simulations can rescue many online learning topics. As the challenges discussed previously illustrate, there are some situations for which simulations are ideal. This article looks at the advantages and disadvantages of using this instructional strategy. Clearly there are lots of good reasons to use simulation, but these need to be seen in light of the real disadvantages. Instructional designers need to decide what tradeoffs they are willing to make in the context of the training program they are designing; there are no absolute right or wrong answers.

The advantages

Simulations engage the learners by thrusting them into the learning experience. These kinds of interactions actively engage learners to analyze, synthesize, organize, and evaluate content and result in learners constructing their own knowledge. The following section looks at the advantages of active learning through simulations.

Allow Learners to Learn by Doing

From our own experience we know that the best way to learn how to do something is to actually do it. In our home and work life, learning by doing is a natural and practical way of learning how to do things such as bake a cake or operate a new copy machine. We could learn how to do these things by reading, listening to someone tell us how to do them, or by watching a video, but these strategies are far less effective than learning by doing. Simulations offer learners an opportunity to learn by doing in a virtual environment. Examples of learning by doing such as EMTB.com’s automated external defibrillator (www.emtb.com/8e/Interactive_simulation_view .cfm?simid=11) and the CADWeb coronary artery disease programs put learning by doing into practice.

Allow Learners to Practice Tasks That Might Otherwise Be Too Expensive, Dangerous, or Impractical

Experienced instructional designers will tell you the challenge of advocating for a learning-by-doing strategy is the practicality. Some cases, such as teaching people how to deal with an angry customer, how to drive on wet roads, or how to recognize the effects of different dosages of a hypertension medication, are best done in a simulated environment. In these cases, it is either not practical to allow learners to perform every skill in a real setting, it may be too dangerous, or the equipment may not be available. The example of managing a nuclear reactor in the next section illustrates this point. In many cases it may be too expensive to allow large numbers of learners to learn by doing. In these cases simulations can provide realistic experiences not possible otherwise.

Engage Learners in Active Exploration and Learning

Gaining the learner’s attention is one of the first steps in many theories of learning (Gagne, 1985; Keller, 1987; Dick, Carey, & Carey, 2000). In addition to gaining the learner’s attention, program developers needs to keep the learner’s attention. One way to gain and to maintain learners’ attention is to make learners active participants by creating simulations that challenge them to solve problems and apply new knowledge. For example, after teaching the principles of supply and demand, use a simulation requiring learner to set the price and determine the number of units to optimize three outcomes maximizing profit, maximizing market share, and minimizing manufacturing costs. MIT offers an online version of The Beer Game to teach supply chain management. Programs like this require learners to actively explore and learn how changes in supply and demand affect profitability, market share, and the size of a manufacturing run.

Simplify Complex Concepts, Processes, and Situations

Reality is messy and complex; simulations allow educators to build artificial environments and objects that simplify reality. Using a simple model, learners can solve problems, apply procedures, and understand processes in a safe environment. This simplified world allows learners to gain confidence and build skills and mental models needed to address real problems. For example, a role-play simulation for medical professionals required to ask for organ donation can teach the essential communication skills and legal considerations. Another example of this can be seen in the Kansas University program to teach medical professionals how to treat burn patients.

Motivate Learners

Motivation is often defined as the internal or external force that accounts for the arousal and the direction and sustenance of behavior. Simulations have the ability to motivate learners by showing them how the learning is relevant and meaningful to them. An example of this can be seen in the patient education for Prozac. A simulation called SimProzac (http://agentsheets.com/Applets/simprozac/), created by a psychiatrist for his patients, motivates learners (patients) to explore the relationships among Prozac, the neurotransmitter serotonin, and neurons and how those interactions may affect them. By playing with this simulation, patients are more motivated to learn about the drug than by reading the paper-based description included with the drug.

Set the Stage for Future Learning and Provide Practice and an Opportunity for Knowledge Integration

Simulations can set the stage for future learning. When simulations are used as a pre-instructional activity, they provide motivation by linking future learning to realworld application, reveal misconceptions that would inhibit learning, provide a context or cognitive structure for receiving new material, and serve as concrete examples of complex, abstract concepts. For example, prior to attending a traditional class on controlling hypertension, doctors are required to complete three simulated cases in which they need to diagnose the problem and prescribe medication. These simulations provide the groundwork needed to prepare them for the classroom portion of the class by revealing their misconceptions about hypertension and provide a context for understanding the new information that will be presented in the classroom portion of the class.

The disadvantages

Simulations, like other instructional strategies, have disadvantages. Learning through exploration and learning through doing put high cognitive demands on learners. Learners are expected to analyze and assimilate new information; this is more taxing than simple memorization or taking notes in a lecture. Often more of a dissuading factor is the cost and time required to create simulations. These disadvantages need to be weighed in light of the problem being solved and the tradeoffs evaluated.

Simulations Can Result in Inefficient and Ineffective Learning Behavior

This can happen if the learner founders through the simulation. Simulations must undergo formative evaluation to ensure they are effective and efficient. Formative evaluation will dictate when learner support and guidance are required to assist a student working through a simulation. This support and guidance are accomplished in simulations through the use of prescriptive feedback and a “help page” that supplies supplementary guidance and instruction. If you don’t have time to build effective and efficient direction and feedback, simulations may not deliver.

Simulations Can Be Difficult to Design

Simulations are rule-based interactions, and it is not clear that any set of rules simple enough to incorporate into a computer program are also adequate to describe the complexities of the physical world or virtual world. Instructional designers need clarity regarding the goal of the simulation, model, or role play. It is also important to understand the assumption and biases that are part of simulations. Apopular simulation program is SimCity (http://simcity.ea.com/), a program designed to allow users to build a city by making decisions regarding things such as zoning, sanitation, and public transportation and to see the results of these decisions. This is an excellent example of a program that has many assumptions about cause and effect regarding urban development and demonstrates the challenges of design.

Simulations May Oversimplify

The simplification of complex reality is an educational asset of simulations. By focusing the learner’s attention on a simple set of rules, procedures, concepts, and processes, it is easier for the learner to understand these things than it would be in the complex real world. Instructional designers need to be aware that in the absence of hands-on experience, learners may confuse the simplified model with reality. When possible, learners should be given an opportunity in the curriculum to transition from (or at least compare) simulation to reality to avoid any confusion.

In Simulations for Software Applications or Soft Skills, It Can Be Difficult to Find Realistic and Meaningful Activities

This is especially true for broad applications used across a wide domain. For example, it’s difficult to develop scenarios that are directly related to a specific user’s job for general word processing applications. Likewise, it is difficult to develop programs for skills such as negotiations, communication, and supervision that cross industries and organizational cultures.

Simulations Are Expensive to Develop

Simulation development is typically so expensive it is usually undertaken only when poor performance in “real life” would lead to a crisis. In general, simulations should be used when the cost of alternate instructional strategies is high, the risks involved are considered too high, and demonstration of competence in a controlled risk-free environment is sought, or when it is impossible to study concepts in “real time.” The expense of this strategy is offset by the advantages of having an instructional application constantly available that is repeatable, consistent, takes less time, and costs less than alternative instructional strategies such at learning on the job (potentially making costly errors) and providing one-on-one instruction.

An example of an organization that found value in using simulations is the Rotman’s Change Management and Health Leadership programs at the University of Toronto. In this program, learners get to test out change management theory and practice in a scenario-based game that compresses the cause-and-effect relationship of their decision making. In Rotman’s alumni magazine, Greg Warman, a senior partner at ExperiencePoint, who developed Rotman’s living case study, provides some insight. Warman discusses the number of technical specialists and amount of time needed to complete a project. He observes that, “not surprisingly, the cost is high, ranging anywhere from $250,000 to $1 million” (Bradford, 2003). He also points out that these costs dictate that customizable simulations must have shelf life.

Simulations Can Be Technically Challenging to Distribute

Simulations often rely on plug-in or software applications to help them play the simulation. Other programs require that the user download a program to make the simulation, model, or role play function. Keep in mind, many organizations do not allow learners to install plug-in or other application or in other cases learners simply don’t have the skills needed to install a plug-in or execute a download. Even simulations, models, and role plays that rely on Java Applets or Serverlets may encounter problems with firewalls.