Best Practices: Integrating Technology in Simulations
Instructors should carefully consider which type of simulation is most appropriate given their learning objectives. Options include the traditional in-person approach (i.e. face-to-face), computer-based approaches (i.e. online or virtual), or a blended approach (i.e. a combination of face-to-face and virtual activities). In each case, the instructor should evaluate whether and how a given technology can deepen or enhance student engagement or learning.
In-person Simulations
This remains the most conventional approach a traditional face-to-face university course. Integrating technology can help to create more realistic and convincing scenarios. Technology can also aid training on complex and critical problems, better error management and error prevention, and provide additional scope of repetitive practice for risky or sophisticated procedures (Jones, 2015). For example, patient simulators used in medical education can reproduce all the classic components of a disease, which student’s may not be able to experience otherwise.
Computer-based Simulations
An online approach is useful for overcoming spatial or temporal boundaries, or for teaching topics that are less tangible like molecular reactions or astrophysics (Moore et al., 2014). In a social science classroom, online technologies can be useful for replicating the dynamism of real-world political processes (Gehlbach et al., 2008).
Blended Simulations
A blended learning approach can be useful for extending or enhancing an in-class simulation beyond the physical limits of the classroom. Online tools have been used to recreate the frenetic and nuanced character of international negotiations (Schnurr et al., 2015). An additional benefit of pairing online interactions alongside in-person ones is that they open up alternative venues for participation, which can help overcome gendered, cultural or linguistic barriers that tend to exclude certain students within face-to-face interactions (Schnurr et al., 2013).
Social Media
Students are digitally connected and active on multiple emerging forms of technology and media from an early age (Selwyn, 2012). Social media platforms are becoming powerful tools that can be integrated into simulation to enhance student learning by offering communication tools that students are already familiar with and offering the possibility of continuous feedback (Everson et al., 2013). Social media can also help instructor’s replicate real-world scenarios. For example, disaster management simulations have used Twitter and SMS to help students learn how to gather and process information during a crisis (Anderson et al., 2014).