Definitions

One of the most frequent questions asked about simulations is simply one of definitions: what is a simulation? Is it the same as a game, or a role play? Is it problem- or enquiry-based learning? Does it imply something particular?

In simple terms, a simulation is a recreation of a real-world situation, designed to explore key elements of that situation. It is a simplification and essentialisation of some object or process that allows participants to experience that object or process. Put differently, we take out some element of the real world and create a simple space in which to consider and interact with it.

However, beyond that very broad definition, simulations are what you make of them. As this guide hopefully demonstrates, simulations can cover a vast range of activities, from the very simple and brief, to the deeply involved and extended.

Games tend to fall at the simpler end of the spectrum – e.g. in creating very stylised environments – but also shade into the related worlds of video-gaming and serious games. Role-plays are effectively coterminous with simulations, albeit with the emphasis more explicitly on the adoption of a particular role or person. To try to reduce confusion, ‘simulation’ is used in this guide to cover all of these. While simulations do share many common features with problem- and enquiry-based learning, the latter do not have the same basic conceit of recreating real-world situations and so fall into a somewhat different category.

What ties together all of these pedagogical approaches is the notion that the world can be brought into the classroom in a way that allows participants to actively engage with - and immerse themselves in - the material. In short, they offer an excellent way for students to build knowledge and skills in a learning environment that they control. For the educator, it opens up new spaces for interaction and moves the focus on to student-led learning. This has been most simply captured by the proverb quoted in Hertel & Millis (2002, pp. ix): “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”

As a final point here, it is helpful to think about some of the key roles involved in simulations. A game-designer is the person (or people) who set up the simulation’s objectives and rules, while the game-leader is the person on the ground for the actual running of the simulation (the game-play): this is often the same person as the game-designer. The game-play might also be observed by assessors, who play a purely passive role. Finally, we have the participants (usually students in this context).