Simulations Stimulate learning!

AN AIRBUS A-320 suddenly flies into an electric storm and loses contact with Air Traffic Control. The pilot tries to manoeuvre through the turbulence and clouds to restore communication. To add to his worries, the `Fuel Low' indicator flashes on. The onboard computer warns him that the starboard elevator has been struck by lightning and the aircraft is about to stall. Already the plane is shuddering in mid-flight and its nose is dipping at an alarming angle. The lives of three hundred passengers hang in the balance. Fortunately for everybody, the pilot, his hapless and panicked passengers and the airline, nothing is lost except a few hairs off the worried pilot's head! The whole scenario was a simulation, designed to help the pilot hone his skills in crisis and disaster control.

The genus airline pilot undergoes extensive simulator training before he is entrusted with the lives of passengers and multi- million dollar aircraft. Similarly, organisations that value customers and undertake mission-critical projects may run the risk of training initiatives falling flat, merely because the theory is so different from the practice. Simulating real-time situations can improve the effectiveness of any training.

Understanding the concept

Simulations have three attributes. They:

Imitate something real

Are not real and

Can be altered by the user to be more difficult or less as needs be

Simulation training is based on the assumption that human beings learn best from their mistakes. Children naturally stumble and fall when learning to walk.

With the first success, the feeling of failure is replaced with a sense of accomplishment. Initially, failure results in descending sharply on his rear, as he grows older the consequences of failure increase exponentially--client displeasure and loss of business replaces a sore bottom- the price of a mistake! It is important that a learner actually needs to fail so that he can learn.

Organisations are faced with the dilemma of training their people without letting their several mistakes negatively influence their image or bottom line. The idea is to let the trainee make all the mistakes he wants to in a `safe' though `real' situation without chasing away customers. Once he masters the several simulations the chances of making a mess in the real world is virtually nil!

Simulated scenarios are a safe place to fail. As Anne Laures, corporate manager says, "The real benefit of a simulation is that the learner gets to fail in private." When trainers simulate a necessary risk of failure in the learning environment it produces properly trained employees. Such employees add value to the organisation. Its not unlike a dress rehearsal of a play. The scene is enacted ad lib, and if the player makes a mistake, he can redo it till he gets it right. In a real-life scenario, he won't get that chance! "Ah-ha!"

Cognitive psychology professor Salvatore Soraci believes that people remember things they learn better after a mental struggle. There is an "ah-ha!" that comes after a learner generates his own hypothesis on how something works or when he discovers the correct answer. This "ah-ha!" experience doesn't occur in a passive classroom. It happens however, in simulation learning when the learner practices and interacts dynamically with concepts.

Simulations tend to force passive learners into a more active learning. It makes a learner responsible for his learning. Instead of depending on the trainer's charisma to motivate him to learn new concepts the learner is self- motivated to achieve simulation goals. Simulations are better than real experience because they compress time and remove extraneous details. Moreover, unlike real life experiences they can be tweaked for learning. Above all, they cause no damage to the organisation or to the customer!

A Harvard study for IBM revealed that while the majority of respondents chose classroom learning over web-based e-learning methods before the training, once they had undergone simulation training they said, "(They) would never suffer in a traditional face to face experience again having been taken through every permutation and combination in the simulations!"

Simulations at IBM

Learning initiatives and technologies need to be justified. While organisations use e-learning, web-based training and simulations to save delivery and travel costs, the effectiveness of the learning approach is what attracts IBM to use simulations. Nancy Lewis director of advanced learning believes that adults learn best by solving problems. That is why IBM included simulations in its training programmes. Nancy says, "It's not that IBM doesn't want to save delivery costs, but the only reason why we did this (including simulation training) was to create a more effective learning approach."

Simulating leadership

Poor leadership is the biggest risk organisations face. Leadership skills normally come with years of experience. Can simulation teach such skills? SimuLearn's "Virtual Leader" programme creates a learning environment for such skills. The learner joins as the leader of a group of five animated Artificial Intelligent (AI) characters with different personalities, points of view and agendas. The leader is assigned the task of making them work together towards a common business goal. The learner as the leader of the pack needs to apply his leadership skills to ascertain that the group focuses on the assigned task. The learner's success or failure is reflected in how the characters respond and react.

Coca-Cola is a user of "Virtual Leader". Mike Ulven, a senior executive says, "It helps you appreciate the diversity of thought in complex situations. The real challenge is to internalise the concepts behind the leadership model. The simulation is a place to practice this model before you use it in the real world." Most training programmes are information based. It takes learners a little under a year to forget what his certificate course taught him! Simulation on the other hand is about behaviour change. Ulven adds, "You practice what you have learned in a game environment to the point that it becomes a part of your own behaviour."

Another truism

"As you teach so should you test" is a training truism. Apart from being powerful instructional tools, simulations provide valuable assessment information. This minimises the risks of inadequate learner skills, thereby eliminating damage. Multiple choices, matching the answers and sequential assessment tools may measure learner knowledge. However these tools are insufficient to measure competencies in specific skills.

An individual can be placed in a simulated situation containing a set of problems. The learner's new skills are now put to test. His performance in this situation is a strong indicator of his competency.

Dr.Peg Maddoks, Director Internet learning, Cisco systems, laments; "Too many people were coming into our tests with memory and recall information from a study guide that allowed them to pass the test. What was lacking was a demonstration that they had the understanding and skills."

Cisco now includes simulation assessments to gauge competencies. Simulations also minimise malpractices. The story is so close to what happens in several of our own competitive examinations, that the application of simulation testing could be introduced at these venues with profit!

The future of simulations

Training programmes are usually vulnerable to two types of errors. One is accepting a false hypothesis as true. The trainer wrongly assumes that the learner has the skills but the test state otherwise. The second is accepting a true hypothesis as false.

That is the learner does not have the skills but the test says he does. Simulations minimise an organisation's exposure to the risks and consequences of such errors.

Today's fast changing, high stake business world needs people who can directly apply the skills they learn in training programmes.

In addition, the zeitgeist needs to be assured that their employees actually possess the skills at the end of the training. Simulations offer the best training bargain without diluting the natural process of learning by mistakes!

ABHIMANYU ACHARYA