1. Simulated Processes in a Learning Environment (SimPLE) Anne Rose, David Eckard, Gary Rubloff, Catherine Plaisant, Yatin Sankholkar, Ben Shneiderman, George Ziets Symposium and Open House May 29, 1998

2. Overview Simulation environments are powerful learning tools
encourage exploration
cost effective training mechanisms
SimPLE is an authoring tool for creating simulation-based learning environments
Couples power and flexibility of a generic simulation engine with a custom front end

3. Simulation Engine (VisSim)

4. VacTechSim

5. ClusterSim

6. NileSim

7. Pilot Study SimPLE (GUI + VisSim) vs. VisSim only 10 students
Observations:
all students preferred SimPLE
more engaged with SimPLE
found controls in VisSim confusing

8. Demo in Zoology-Psychology Building, Rm 3111
Gauge Experiment
Wide range (1015), high accuracy gauges that show:
direction of change (up/down)
speed of change (fast, slow, stopped)
specific ranges (low, operating, high)
Demo in Zoology-Psychology Building, Rm 3111

9. Future Work and Conclusions
select other application domains
investigate use of other simulation engines
continue to enhance authoring tool
learning historian to capture and playback histories
Authoring tools, like SimPLE, are a key step toward the wide spread use of simulation-based learning environments

10. Additional Information
Supported by NSF under grant EEC
Technical report and video in handout materials
Demos in A.V. Williams Building, Room 3174

11. Software Architecture
Separates user interface from simulation engine
Allows independent contributions of education content and software development