Simulations & Multimedia Learning Objects

Simulations and “learning objects” are two great ways to engage students actively in course content. A simulation provides hand-on, close-to-real-world experience for the students and promotes better learning. Simulations are generally broad in scope and can occur over a long duration, such as an entire semester. An example of a simulation might be a stock market game where business students engage in a “game” of buying and selling stock over a period of several months.

Learning Objects are a more focused kind of simulation and are often found as a multimedia tutorial-like application available on the internet. Because they are more focused, learning objects are generally used once and then the students move on to other course content, or additional learning objects that focus on new material. An example of a learning object might be an interactive map of the human body where anatomy students rotate and zoom images to study layers of the body’s skeletal, muscular, and circulatory systems.

The rest of this section is divided into two sections: Simulations (more general) and Learning Objects (more specific).

Content-Based Simulations

Why simulation?

The first question most people ask is why use a simulation. There are two main reasons for using a simulation:

A simulation provides opportunity for experiential learning. Instead of requiring students to make decisions based on imaginative scenarios a simulation provides opportunity for learning by simulating a real-world environment.
Simulations provide opportunity for problem-based learning. Simulations challenge students by ‘creating’ problems (known or emergent) that they need to solve to perform effectively.

How to choose a simulation

Some commercial simulations are available; check with your textbook publisher for availability. It may also be possible to design your own simulation, depending on your discipline. The choice of the exact simulation would depend on your teaching objectives for the course and the characteristics of the simulation. Here are some general tips:

Some simulations are entirely web-based while others require more involvement from the instructors. Both types of simulations have their own pros and cons.
Generic vs. specific. Some simulations are more general while others are really specific requiring industry-specific familiarity.
Some universities and geographic locations are better suited for one type of simulation over others because of the resources available in the university and community. For example, if you are in Detroit it might make more sense to have a simulation that has something to do with automobiles rather than, say, designer clothes.
Talk to other people inside your department or college who have used simulations. Don’t hesitate to ask for advice and help.
The context of the simulation should be of interest to the instructor. As an instructor, you will need to read extra material in newspapers, magazines and trade press related to the context of the simulation. For example, if the simulation is related to the Airline industry or the Automobile industry you will need to read extra material on these industries.

No matter which simulation you chose, be prepared that by the end of the course your students will be more knowledgeable about the simulation than you. This may seem unsettling, but it is natural that your students who have spent days and nights going through the simulation may be more familiar with the details of the simulation than you.

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Using simulations inside and outside of class

A dilemma that most instructors face is how much time should be spent on the simulation in class. Different simulations require different amount of time in class and different courses have varying amounts of class time that can be spent on such activities. Here are some suggestions:

Integrate the simulation with your lectures. While teaching concepts in class, talk about the simulation and how students may see the particular aspect in action in the simulation.
Every few class periods, sum up what has been going on in the simulation. If your teams are competing on stock price, for example, you could put up a graph showing the stock price of the various companies over the past some time and encourage students to speculate on what is going on in the simulation
Talk about the main milestones of the simulation in class. How did the different teams make a particular decision? How many teams made one decision versus how many made another decision?
The more you can have the students discuss why they did what they did, the more students you will be able keep motivated.
By their nature, simulations require that students spend much more time outside the class than they spend in the class working on simulations. Make it clear to the students upfront that they are expected to spend significant amounts of time with their group out of class working on the simulation. Allow them to choose group mates with whom they think their schedule would fit better.

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Assessment and Grading of Simulation Participation

The grade received by a student should be a combination of pre-simulation homework exercises, post-simulation reporting, and actual performance in the simulation. This ensures that even those students who do not perform so well in a competitive simulation are able to improve their grade by doing well on the pre- and post- simulation exercises.
A common dilemma that many instructors face is how much to weight the actual simulation. One suggestion is that the actual performance should be about 40-60% of the total simulation points. Any higher than this and students start feeling that too much of their score is dependent on how well their competitors are doing, any lower than this and students don’t have much motivation.
It is important to do an end-of-simulation reporting. This encourages students to reflect on what they have learned during the semester using the simulation.
It is also a good idea to do mid-point evaluation of how things are going in the simulation. The teams who are consistently performing lower than average tend to get discouraged and this may be a good point to give them some tips and cheer them up. The teams performing well tend to get relaxed and complacent.
By combining multiple indicators instructors may be able to get a rough estimate of how much students have learned by doing the simulation. Some commercially-available simulations benchmark student performance against other schools and universities, giving an indicator of students’ ranking on a national level. Other than this, instructors can use more qualitative measures like student end-of-semester reports and student evaluations.

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Additional tips

Introduce the simulation as part of the syllabus and show your enthusiasm for using the simulation.
The simulation should be structured so that there are practice rounds in the beginning, and after a certain number of practice rounds students can go on to the actual simulation.
The simulation should start with an initial exercise or homework so that the instructor can make sure that the students have some knowledge to go into the simulation.
All the readings necessary to perform satisfactorily in the simulation should be divided into 3 or 4 parts which students are required to read. Students should be expected to come to class after having done the readings so that they can discuss and/or ask questions.
The teams should be encouraged to have functional specialization as well as not losing sight of the big picture. In other words, it is important for each team member to neither ignore the forest nor the trees.
You might optionally tell them that they are in a competition with the other teams in the class. Nothing motivates the students as much as competing with others.

This section contributed by Dr. Doug Moesel (Associate Professor, Management) and Vishal Gupta (Doctoral candidate, College of Business)

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Multimedia Learning Objects

Learning objects are a type of teaching resource – oftentimes a “simulation” – that assists students with learning concepts that are difficult to demonstrate or experience in the customary online or face-to-face course. Within the scope of content development, learning objects are narrowly focused and contain a relatively smaller quantity of lesson material. Because learning objects are generally developed to be focused on specific content, they usually transfer easily between related disciplines. Also, as a result of their modularity, learning objects can be the main component of a lesson, or be delivered in conjunction with other learning materials.

Examples of how learning objects can be used:

Study guide – Digital flash cards are a simple, yet effective way for foreign language students to memorize key phrases, and review verb agreement
Game – Problem solving games can introduce spending accounts for students to purchase clues, time limits to solve problems, and provide varying difficulty levels for students to advance at their own pace
Simulation – Chemistry students might participate in “virtual” chemistry labs and experience the results of reactions as various chemicals are combined
Demonstration – When the greenhouse cannot accommodate all of your Plant Science students, show them how to properly prune a tomato plant in a short video

In general, learning objects:

Usually consist of some combination of audio, video, animation, interactive objects, or web / computer-formatted materials
Focus on “chunks” of educational content rather than broad topics
Are compatible with whatever technology system (web, BlackBoard, WebCT, etc.) they are used in conjunction with
Can be passive or active in the sense that users may play the role of observer or participant by actively manipulating or directing the learning experience

Benefits of use:

Modular – Can be delivered independently or mixed and matched with other content
Reusable – Can be shared and used in various contexts with little or no modification
Repetitive – Unlimited accesses allow extra time for comprehension, or practice
Available – Accessed on-demand (usually online or on CD or DVD)

Learning Object Development and Repositories

The META Team at Educational Technologies at Missouri (ET@MO) has created several customized learning objects for MU faculty: http://meta.missouri.edu/portfolio.htm

Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) is an international repository for (mostly) free learning objects anyone can use: http://www.merlot.org

References

Wiley, David (2002). The Instructional Use of Learning Objects. Agency for Instructional Technology: Bloomington, IN. http://www.reusability.org/read

Learning Object Tutorial. http://www.eduworks.com/LOTT/tutorial

Advanced Distributed Learning. http://www.adlnet.org

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This section contributed by Tanys Nelson (Educational Technologist, Educational Technologies at Missouri – ET@MO)