MARKETPLACE BUZZ

“Simulation will evolve to become the killer application for e-learning. Interest in simulation is increasing for several reasons. Research with adult learners consistently shows learning is most effective in problem-solving or hands-on situations. 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 enterprises to build simulations that are complex, visually stimulating, interactive and provide immediate feedback. Finally, Web capabilities-such as collaborative commerce applications, rich media (audio-conferencing and videoconferencing) and network connectivity-can enable rich, complex simulations to be extended across enterprise boundaries.”
James Lundy, Debra Logan, Kathy Harris, Gartner Group

“...When it comes to people skills – sales, customer service, managerial training, and executive development – companies revert to the school model. They use in-house universities, guest lecturers, elaborate manuals, and tests to impart knowledge. One large bank, for instance, boasts that it offers employees 1000 different courses. Executive development and leadership programs abound. Organizations justify their programs by saying that they inspire the learner; they catalyze new ways of thinking; and they introduce learners to new policies and procedures. Terrific. I’m all for encouraging people to try new things. But no matter how inspired and enlightened people are, two principles of learning remain:

(1) Nothing anyone says (no matter how eloquent the speaker or insightful the words) will do any more than inspire you. You must internalize procedures to do a better job. To do this you must try them out and receive help when you fail.

(2) Even if you could learn to do a better job by hearing about a marvelous new management technique, it still wouldn’t matter; if you didn’t practice the technique over and over again, you wouldn't remember it for long.

I can give a child the best instruction money can buy in how to ride a bicycle. I can show her a step-by-step procedure for getting on the bike and pedaling it; I can show her films that demonstrate how one keeps one’s balance while pedaling; I can inspire her with stories of bicycling daring. But unless the child gets on the bike, gets help when she falls off, and practices until she doesn’t fall again, she’s never going to learn how to ride.”
Roger Schank, Virtual Learning

“Ask yourself this question: Would you undergo heart surgery if the surgeon had been trained in the same way that business-school students are trained? Imagine that the surgeon had sat around in medical school discussing heart surgery, watching heart surgery videos and listening to other heart surgeons talk about what they did – and now you’re lying on the operating table, that surgeon’s first real patient. Would you actually let that surgeon cut you open? I don’t think so!”
Alan Webber, Fast Company

“Practice exercises in e-learning should require learners to process information in a job-realistic context. Questions that ask the learner to merely recognize or recall information previously provided in the training will not promote learning that transfers to the job.”
Ruth Colvin Clark and Richard E. Mayer, e-Learning and the Science of Instruction

“One of the best ways to develop and reinforce knowledge transfer is by replicating real life experiences. Unfortunately live simulations have drawbacks. In addition to the very high cost, classroom simulations are one-time events that once completed, are incapable of offering any lesson reinforcement or support. As a result, computer-based simulations have become increasingly popular with applications ranging from war games simulations for the military to situational leadership scenarios for corporate managers.”
Fred McCrea -“Riding the Big Waves”“

"Simulations represent experience as opposed to information. Learning through direct experience has, in many contexts, been demonstrated to be more effective and enjoyable than learning through 'information communicated as facts.’ Direct, multi-sensory representations have the capacity to engage people intellectually as well as emotionally, to enhance the contextual aspects of information, and to encourage integrated, holistic responses.”
Brenda Laurel, 1995

"Simulations are likely the next major market for e-learning collaboration…Scenario-based simulations offer e-learners a chance to test their new knowledge or skills in a safe environment. Learners can be exposed to potential cultural or job-related situations before they are given additional duties or are transferred to a different region or country. As simulation tools increase in authenticity and power, they will require greater opportunities for joint decision-making and role-play."
Curtis Bonk, Collaborative Tools for e-Learning, 2002

"E-learning simulation is all about applying knowledge in job-based scenarios. This growing area of e-learning is poised to be a mainstream corporate application and promises to increase learning depth and retention."
James Lundy, Gartner Group

"Although simulations aren’t the answer for every situation or type of content, the use of simulations in blended learning interventions often yield the sort of thing training managers want to hear: bottom-line impact."

"The promise in the early e-Learning industry of 'faster, cheaper, better' becomes fulfilled in second generation e-Learning products characterized by simulation.”
Brandon-hall.com