Simulation Technology and Parallelism
in
Learning Environments

At the Faculty of Educational Science and Technology at the University of Twente in Enschede, the Netherlands, some universal design systems have been developed with which a trained courseware designer can make computer simulation programs in the fields of physics, biology, medical science, economics and technical training applications. The educational computer simulation programs created with this system are characterized by highly graphic interface.

This book provides an introduction to the use of computer simulation in learning and training, based on models and simulation as a method of learning and the principles of learning environments. The first three chapters present an overview of learning environment concepts and techniques, technical concepts, designing concepts, languages, hardware as well as presentation, acceptation and communication techniques.

Chapters 2 and 3 describe the aspects of software, hardware and environments for computer simulation, the designing philosophy, the concepts of parallelism and the Parallel Instruction theory. There are userinterfaces based on so called first order parallelism and second order parallelism.

The simulation design systems MacTHESIS is described. There is a Macintosh version: MacTHESIS, and an MS-DOS version of the same system: THESIS. Later redesigned to the JavaTHESIS system, based on Java and applets. The simulation programs built with MacTHESIS are based upon the desk top philosophy and theories about parallelism. The programs made with MacTHESIS resemble loose sheets of paper, which can be moved on the screen by mouse, causing visualized dynamic processes to occur on the pages. By handling the mouse in special 'inclick regions' one can intervene in the dynamic processes of the simulation programs. All the models underlying the computer simulation programs built with MacTHESIS (Macintosh) can simply be implemented in THESIS (MS-DOS) and vice versa.

Also all our models, as discriped in this e-book, can be implemented in our JavaTHESIS system; as my regular students as wel as my MSc and PhD students did in the period 1996 to now.

MacTHESIS on the Macintosh and THESIS on MS-DOS machines use libraries (SIMLIB) with procedures and functions to build easy to use computer simulation programs. In 1995 the university developed an editor tool for building a simulation program with MacTHESIS: 'MacSimAuthor'. This tool will be described later and are published on other places in my websites.

We still working on a Java version of such WYSIWYG - tool as MacSimAuthor. The workname of this editor is 'JavaSimAuthor'.

The designer (or the 'second designer', the teacher at school) can make a choice of paper materials or computer based instructional materials built with HyperCard, SuperCard, or AuthorWare Professional (Course of Action) for coaching students.

Now a days that kind of envelop systems is the world wide web. Simulation applets are now a days complex smart parts of educational websites.

The remaining chapters (4 through 14) introduce a variety of different models for computer simulation programs, tested using one of these simulation systems. The most important educational aspects of these models are described and intervention possibilities are mentioned along with the most important model equations and numerical values.

The book contains a number of figures and 'screen dumps' that illustrate the computer simulation programs discussed. Most of the examples are given for Macintosh but for some programs the MS-DOS version is given. This book is based on 3 courses the author gives at the University of Twente:

• 'Instrumentation Technology' (now: 'Aterlier 1')
• 'CAI / CAL Techniques' (now: 'Multimedia Design and Development') and
• 'Computer Simulation Environments' (now: 'Technology & Simulation').

In the first two chapters terms are mentioned incidentally. An explanation will be given in the following chapters. In general an attempt has been made to refer directly to the chapters concerned. Technical jargon is used as little as possible, but it is often functional and has therefore not been avoided. The terms are printed between ' ' when they are used for the first time. Synonyms are put between brackets. Sometimes these synonyms are used in the rest of the text.

- Martin Renkema, first version MacTHESIS system (program system)
- Ben Reimerink, MacTHESIS system (program system)
- Ankie Damhuis, translation & correction
- Minke Wolters, PLC
- Bob Botter, HOSPITAL
- Willem Jaap Zwart, FLOWSIM and CAILIB (version 1.0)
- Albert Rhemrev, SuperTHESIS
- Joachim Wetterling, BOILER
- Corné van Delft, manual MacTHESIS and CHEMISTRY
- Jan Lansink, CHEMISTRY
- Arie Dirkzwager, advices
- Maurice van Egeraat, layout
- Eric Verduyn, editing & DTP
- Eric Jaap van Oenen, MacCOAT
- Marcel Gmelich Meijling, BRINEtUTor (version 1 en 2)
- Arthur Veugelers, COAGULATION / STREMMEN
- Betty Collis, advices
- Jef Moonen, supervisor LvS-project & advices

all from the University of Twente;
and:

- Hans van Miltenburg (Erasmus University Rotterdam) model of ECONOMY
- Paul Glaser (SLO, Enschede), Lisa & Macintosh computers (donation)
- Piet van Schaick Zillesen (University of Wageningen), research & development
- Peter Kunneman (ECC/AA, Enschede), commercial support MacTHESIS
- P.J. Mous (University of Wageningen) PERCH / BAARS
- R. Malhotra (University of Mangalore, India), TRANSISTOR, version 0.
- P. Gorny (University of Oldenburg, Germany), advice and references
- J. Wedekind (University of TŸbingen, Germany), advice and references
- T. Coleman (University of Mississippi, USA), CARDIO
- Greg Kearsley (University of Washington, USA), corrections and advice
- N. Ikeda (Kitasoto University, Japan), FLUIDS
- Y.J. Kingma (University of Delft), HEART
- Betty Schell, Hengelo, corrections and editing
- Harry Struyker Boudier (University of Limburg), AORTA, CARDIO
- Rogier van Wijk van Brievingh (University of Delft), advice
- D. Ingram (University of London), MacDOPE and MacDOPEX.

Enschede, 2002 - 2005