Two Applications of Simulation in the Educational Environment.

Computer-based learning simulations are a relatively recent development within the educational process. The paper focuses on the simulation techniques that allow for interactive responding via a time-shared computer terminal. Two simulations which provide a laboratory-like means for student involvement with complex quantitative models are discussed in the context of an individualized environment. STATSIM, exercises in statistics, permits the student to explore simulated representations of descriptive and inferential statistics relating to sampling distributions, the concepts of Type I and Type II errors, and the sequential nature of hypothesis testing. The simulation of mathematical learning models provides a student laboratory for investigation of associative learning. The paper concludes with a discussion of an experimental investigation of student control of instructional sequence in which learning simulations were employed as learning materials. The results suggested that naive students may show increased performance when permitted learner control over instructional sequence. Author