Many decades ago, one of the opportunities that students had in high school was a Driver’s Education course. Part of this course included Simulators and once that was successfully completed, actual behind the wheel driving with an instructor. The simulators were in a large trailer with 8-10 steering wheels, dashboards, and even brake pedals and accelerators, with a large screen up front. You had to successfully perform all the correct functions based on the film you were watching to complete this portion of the class. If memory serves, however, only 1 of the 8 or 10 in our trailer worked when I took the class. This is probably one of the many reasons they no longer have Driver’s Education in our local High Schools. However, this is part of what sparked the newer generation of Simulations in Education.

According to NCBI (https://www.ncbi.nln.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2966567/), “Simulation is a technique for practice and learning that can be applied to many different disciplines and trainees.” While the above example was an example of technology, Simulation is actually a technique. It is used to replace and enhance real life experiences, when not actually occurring, to guide the learner in the better way to handle certain situations. A quick explanation of simulations and its benefits can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/110412983. That explanation is specific to training student nurses.

The team I currently work with does this style of training often. Several years ago, I was tasked with creating several different simulations to help train my teammates in the types of incidents that would be on our leadership teams’ radar. These types of incidents could cost the company a lot of money and it was our job to make sure that the incident was handled correctly and as quickly as possible. It gave my teammates, and myself, an opportunity to practice the process for handling these incidents, as well as educate us further on questions or prompts that should be asked or brought up.

Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, conducted a simulation to teach one of their classes about the Stock Market. (https://serc.carleton,edu/sp/library/simulations/index.html). The simulation was intended to give the students a better understanding of the behavior of people and the stock market.

This is also done with online schools in teaching math, science, and other courses. Colorado University has a great sampling of simulations teaching different math and science concepts. (https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/new) Another example of using simulation is the American Red Cross uses simulation when their approved instructors are teaching CPR.

In conclusion, simulations have come a long way over the years and can involved direct hands on type of situations as well as computer simulated situations. They allow a learner to practice the basic situations, without the stress of it being live and be able to learn from that simulation. In some cases, it could save lives for nurses and doctors and other first responders to practice on simulation equipment before a live patient.