AN OVERVIEW TO BUILD AN INTELLIGENT COMPUTER SIMULATION PROGRAM IN DYNAMIC EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENTS

By Adel Agina

TAET master student at TO of Twente University. 2002/2003
9.March.2003/ Enschede-The Netherlands

ABSTRACT

An Intelligence Computer Simulation Program (ICSP) is a model-driven simulation with a rule base to monitor the dynamic behaviour of the model itself at every simulation step (loop iteration, DT) and gives a special kind of (extra) feedback to the user with the usual feedback.

This article will clarify the outlines of the basic issues that must be taken into account and consideration when the ICSP has decided to be implemented. This article is intimately based on the lectures of the Simulation Course of TAET program and the research of Dr. Rik Min (TO at Twente Uni.) as well as my humble experience as a computer programmer.

KEYWORDS

Concept of Parallelism theory (PT), Parallel Instruction theory (PIT), Dual Code theory (DCT), Cognitive Load theory (CLT), Split Attention theory (SPT), Characteristics of Intelligent Simulation.

INTRODUCTION

The Computer Simulation (CS) has been used as a tool for teaching and learning as well as training in many different areas and disciplines. The idea behind using CS as a pedagogical tool, as my opinion and as I believe at least, depending on the fact that is, experience is the best teacher. Therefore, if it’s impossible to gain experience in real-time soon, then an artificial environment like simulation could be one of the ways to be used to offer the needs to the novice to be able to learn quickly to become an expert.

The CS can be defined as a form of learning with computers in which the user (student and instructor) may experiment with a specific simulation situation. This situation strongly resembles reality or a deliberate simplification. The computer simulation, in fact, enables users to make different decisions and to get different feedbacks to make widely comparison without any risks or dangerousness. The feedback of the simulation program is called Visual Feedback, which is an important characteristic of the CS as well as it’s the way to determine weather this simulation program is intelligent or not.

By simulating a real situation in such environment, learner is not only motivated to work and learn, but learn by interacting with simulations is a tool similar to the way they would react to the real environment. The interaction between the learner and ICSP is the main factor to build any intelligent simulator.

In fact, simulation simplifies and facilitates the reality to enable the learners to solve problems and learn procedures, come to understanding of the characteristics and phenomena as well as how to control them, or learn what actions to take or must be taken in different situations. In all cases, the final purpose of simulation is to help the learner to build useful mental models ans aspects of part of such environment and provide an opportunity to test it safely and efficiently without risks.

The learner learns by actually performing the activities to be learnt in context that is similar to the real environment that could be done by using different techniques. Simulations permit the study of processes, procedures, and phenomena that either cannot be taught under any circumstances or cannot be easily taught using traditional educational methods.

According to that, the subject to be discussed in this article is how the simulation could be used to make the user (student and instructor) an expert in short time? What are the basic requirements of the simulation to generate the perfect simulator? What are the characteristics of the intelligent simulator? …

On the other hand and briefly, how the Intelligent Computer Simulation (ICSP) can be created and easily used?

The CONCEPT OF PARALLELISM THEORY (PT)

The parallelism is natural phenomenon that frequently happens daily in different ways with different forms and faces despite no one aware about it or pays attention to it. For instance, you may pay attention to your teacher during the session to perceive what he explains and the same time you follow some instructions in your textbook to know exactly what you should ask.

Despite, some of instructors/teachers are disagree or fully disagree about the way of the parallelism in education because they think its not an optimal learning environment and student must only pay attention to their explanation, students are completely different in the way of thinking and they need to learn because they are inspired to achieve that things by other situations and tools. In this case, each student tries to create his/her own simulation to cover the entire situation although they split their attention already between: what the teacher explains, what are the instructions in the textbook they must follow and what they should ask although no one of them aware about the parallelism in this situation.

That’s why the parallelism is a nature phenomenon that must be utilized to create ICSP, which is one of the learning tools that must be utilized to motivate students to learn more as well as teachers to be able to generate new pedagogical approaches.

The PARALLEL INSTRUCTION THEORY (PIT)

The PI theory based on offering all the relevant information to be discussed in the Open Learning Environment in visible mode where the techniques like audio, video, simulation, animation as well as text are really used. Therefore, the PI assumes that the user can work and learn if the environment has designed in such away that all the relevant information is available or it can be immediately retrieved because a lot of people has a problem with their short-term-memory to solve problems as they can not see all the information to solve that problem.

The PI is also natural phenomenon that happens always in real-life daily events. For instance, you may eat your lunch and at the same time you watch the BBC news where the TV screen contains more than one small window to show you the events of that news that you already heard (split attention).

Besides, the PI theory emphasizes that the need of instruction in simulation environment is desirable but parallelism is inventible and essential as well as if the Open Learning Environment for simulation was designed without clear instruction or with non-sufficient one, the entire environment will completely be failed. The associated instruction with the simulation environment must be clear for reading, easy for understanding and accessible to users whenever they need it at any time. This instruction could be designed by using audio, video or even text as a help, … etc.

This fact clarifies that the Computer Simulations is more successful with paper workbooks, which is already emphasizes the importance of the Simulator Interface Designer and the Simulator Educational Creator.

According to that, the perfect ICSP essentially depending on both designers to make the simulator be able to generate the right simulation and the associated instruction must include full and clear explanation of the simulation process as well as the relations between all simulation and simulator parts and the proper feedback that must be given because people are better motivated to receive instruction when they can decide for themselves at what time and how much they need to do that.

The DUAL CODE THEORY (DCT)

The DCT theory refers to what will happen in the users’ mind when they are hearing voice and observing the computer simulation program. This theory will illustrate how could someone organize these information in his/her mind and s/he could precisely understand the phenomenon that is represented by computer simulation program. As a result, both Parallel Instruction and Dual Code Theory are interconnected to each other to make complete and perfect simulation program. Therefore, the DCT is based on the general view that cognition consists of the activity of symbolic (nonverbal) representational system on computer program that is specialized for dealing with environmental information. This view implies that representational systems must incorporate perceptual, affective, and behavioral knowledge. The most general assumption in dual coding theory is that there is two classes of phenomena handled cognitively by separate subsystems, one specialized for the representation and processing of information concerning nonverbal objects and events, the other specialized for dealing with language. The idea of separate subsystems means that the two systems are assumed to be structurally and functionally distinct. Structurally, they differ in the nature of representational units and the way the units are organized into higher order structures. Functionally, they are independent in the sense that either system can be active without the other or both can be active in parallel. At the same time, they are functionally interconnected so that activity in one system can initiate activity in the other. The structural and functional distinctions combine to produce qualitative differences in the kinds of processing for which the two systems are specialized.

The COGNITIVE LOAD THEORY (CLT)

Most of people think that we remember information by 'capturing' it on something like videotape in our minds. This is not the case. In fact, what we see and remember is completely and intimately depends more on what we already have and know in our minds, than on what is actually presented (Information retrieval). More specifically, the human memory is divided into two main types, Short-Term-Memory, Long-Term-Memory and I add this type: Working-Memory.

The Short-Term-Memory: refers to the possibility to remember an event after few seconds/minutes immediately where most of people have this problem.

The Long-Term-Memory: refers to the immense (big) body of knowledge and skills that we hold in a more-or-less permanently accessible form in our mind.

The Working-Memory: is the part of our mind that provides our consciousness to enable us to think (both logically and creatively), to solve problems and to make the solution expressive. It’s intimately related to where and how we direct our attention to "think about something", or to process some information to solve specific problem.

According to those definitions, the computer simulation program that uses the Short or Long-Term-Memory will not be perfectly work because most of people, if not all, are unable to remember the events that already disappeared after few minutes or even after few seconds and they cannot deal with simulation based on the remembering and retrieval information from their minds especially if the users are children.

The computer simulation program, as my opinion at least, must be designed and built based on the Working- Memory where the user can use it to process some information to solve specific problem without loosing control of that process. Nevertheless, Working-Memory is extremely limited and must be permanently activated to compel the user to interact with simulation. Offering an immediate user-help (instruction resources) with simulator could do this activation to keep the user’s Working-Memory always on because if the resources of working memory are exceeded then learning with simulation will be ineffective and useless.

THE SPLIT ATTENTION THEORY (SPT)

The SPT, in fact, is also natural phenomenon that appears whenever the learner needs to simultaneously attend to two or more sources of instruction or activities. This theory is also used in computer programming interface according to the experience of the designer.

The question is how the instruction and other information are simultaneously available on the computer screen to prevent the user Short-Term-Memory problem? More specifically, the right question that must be asked is: what and how much instruction and information does the user minimally need -in respect of space- in order to solve a problem interactively?

Every software designer feels instinctively how he should solve the above problems. But because of the instinctive aversion to seek solutions in combination with paper or books parallel to the screen, some designers sin from time to time by wanting too much in an application for a wider audience. They lean too much on the memory of this audience. The information is there, but it does not come out parallel. That can be an error. The PI-theory explains this with the help of cognitive psychology: some users have an irritatingly brief Short-Term-Memory.

Therefore, the best advice that could be given is to stimulate the natural need of the user to have all kinds of information side-by-side and together. This could be done by one of the following suggestions:

Splitting the screen in several frames where one frame contains the simulator, the second explains the instruction that must be achieved and the third offers the needed information. It’s better to put the three frames on one screen and probably the virtual parallelism (scrolled screen) will be used depending on the amount of information.

Using audio or video technique in parallel with the instruction itself where the user can deal with all things at the same time.

In fact, the proper solution of this problem is depending on the answer of several questions:

Has the user an experience with computer usage? If not, how the ICSP enable him to be an expert to use it immediately? Does the user like to read text or s/he prefers to hear the instruction via audio or video tools? If yes, does the computer s/he uses already have audio tools? If not, how the instruction and other information can be offered? …, Etc

Generally, and this is my general advice as a computer programmer, to be a professional Simulator Interface Designer and Simulator Educational Creator, you have to think into two different ways; as a student wants to use ICSP to learn more and to be an expert in a short time and as an instructor want to offer a lot of tasks to his/her students in professional and easy way where s/he can control those tasks.

To make my advice comprehensive, it’s better to work in team where each member pays full attention to one part of the ICSP to generate the perfect one in educational environment according to the characteristics of the intelligent simulation.

CHARATERISTICS OF THE INTELLIGENT SIMULATOR

A simulation usually consists of three sections:

The introduction: to introduce and clarify the main purpose of the simulator.

The presentations and interactions: how the learner completely interacts with simulator.

The completion of the simulation: the learner should understand the final objective.

After the introduction, a cycle of instructions usually follows, consisting of:

The presenting of a scene: could be done by offering special tutorial on how to use.

The request to the learner to react: the way of how simulator to ask the learner to do such task.

The learner reaction: how the learner response to that task.

The simulator's response: the changing of the simulation graph according to the learner's action.

Depending on the nature and mechanism of the simulation program, the cycle may repeat frequently on each step (loop iteration, DT), as in a Cardio simulation, or infrequently, as in a process simulation where the cycle may occur only after the learner selects the initial parameters.

SIMULATION AS A TOOL IN A DYNAMIC LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Computer-Based Simulations have many applications in higher education. There are many different computer-based simulations such as patient-simulations, model-driven simulations, animations and simulations in which modelling come first. There are another Computer-Based Simulations that are mostly dealing with less or more complex mathematical models. This type of simulation can be used as a learning environment to gain and increase insight into certain dynamic phenomena, which already are impossible or very hard to demonstrate in any other way in a classroom or in other working environment.

The Web-based simulation represents a convergence of computer simulation methodologies and applications within the World Wide Web (WWW). There are many possible bridge areas between the web and the simulation field. Web-based simulation does not mean only "distributed simulation" or "simulation documentation". The introduction and widespread use of the web suggests that there are many areas where web science and technology will meet simulation to provide impetus and the goal to both fields.

The WEB thus gives the electronic learning environment industry and Computer Based Learning (named by terms as CBT, CAI, CAL or multimedia) a new opportunity. Interactive multimedia now has entered its second - and decisive - stage.

The integration of the web with the field of simulation should provide lots of ideas for how simulation is to change. With the web being the driver of much of today's software technologies, simulation designers need to study how we can embed simulation "documents" in browsers and how new distributed web-based simulations are to be designed. What follows are some examples of web-based simulation using CGI scripts and Java.

THE RATIONALE FOR USING SIMULATION IN A DYNAMIC LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Many advantages can be cited with respect to the use of computer simulation programs in education while number of them do not specifically relate to simulation only but also to the validity for practical laboratories or the use of the computer in education in general.

There are some specific aspects of simulation that give advantages to use it in education. The following are some of those aspects and their descriptions:

Aspect	Description: Why this aspect?
Enhances safety	Many experiments cannot be carried out in the classroom because they are dangerous, and yet learners will need these skills in the workplace. Simulation programs can represent these dangerous events without the hazards If the learner were to make a mistake, the experiment can be repeated without injury. Experiences not readily available in reality Real-life experiences are not readily available, but a simulated trip in the past brings the learner some feeling of what it must have been like.
Controls level of complexity	Simulations can control the complexity of the learning situation for instructional benefit. It thus provides the learner with an environment that is more conductive to learning than the real one. Distractions are filtered out and the learner is left with a situation in which attention is being concentrated on aspects actually relevant to the immediate task at hand This model should not be simplified to the extent that the learning experience becomes distorted. It should not be so complex that learners of the intended level are unable to master it.
Introduction of new topics	Simulations can help to introduce a new topic. The introduction of a new topic to a class can be a problem, as there is often much information to be covered before the learners have enough knowledge to do anything interesting An extensive introduction can be boring for the learners and they may loose interest in the topic A simulation can assist in introducing the topic and raising questions.
Motivation	A good simulation program motivates learners because it is inspiring.
Simulates instruction	The instructor can also be simulated. The simulated instructor is always available and infinitely patient. The simulated instructor can: Monitor learner performance Identify errors Attempt to diagnose conceptual problems.
Simulates the not-possible expectation	It can simulate the not-possible, e.g.: Changing the weather to see the influence on agriculture.
Eliminates frustration	Learners often encounter experiments that do not work as the result of faulty apparatus or techniques A simulated experiment can be repeated many times without concern of materials and apparatus. Medical treatments can be repeated until the correct treatment of a sick patient is learned Finding patients with "ideal" symptoms are difficult.
Discovery learning	The introduction of discovery learning has been strongly advocated for a number of years What-if questions can be asked effectively, e.g. ‘what would happen if I doubled the dose prescribed?’. Learners have more interaction with the content and are thus more likely to assimilate the knowledge, skills and concepts involved.
Transfer of learning	Simulations can help in the transfer of skills or knowledge learned in one situation and applied in other situations Traditional instruction provides the learner with: Information Tips Hints Exercises Simulations provide the learner with: Actual practice Immediate feedback.
Efficient	Research has shown that simulations are more efficient in the sense that: More transfer occurred per unit of learning time with simulations than with formal lectures.
Higher-order thinking skills	It has been suggested that verbal interactions between learners, when using simulation software facilitate higher-order thinking, as learners readily interact with their peers to solve problems.

Nevertheless, using simulation in education is also has many disadvantages. Limitations are in some cases the result of the wrong or inappropriate use of such programs. Possible limitations of a general and educational kind are:

Simulation concerns the manipulation of a number of variables of a model representing a real system. However, manipulation of a single variable often means that the reality of the system as a whole can be lost. Certain systems or components of a realistic situation are not transparent. Some factors have a lot of influence on the whole, but they have indistinct relations in the whole and can therefore not be represented in a model. These factors, however, cannot be forgotten in the learning process.

A computer simulation program cannot develop the students' emotional and intuitive awareness that the use of simulations is specifically directed at establishing relations between variables in a model. So this intuition has to be developed in a different way.

Computer simulation cannot react to unexpected 'sub-goals', which the student may develop during a learning-process. These sub-goals would be brought up during a teacher-student interaction but they remain unsaid during the individual student use of a simulation.

Computer simulation programs may function well from a technical point of view, but they are difficult to fit into a curriculum.

Often a computer simulation program cannot be adapted to take into different student levels into account within a group or class. A computer simulation program can certainly be made to adapt to different circumstances if the designer bears that in mind; however, for many computer simulation programs this has not happened.

During the experience of interaction with a computer simulation program, the student is frequently asked to solve problems in which creativity is often the decisive factor to success. The fact that this creativity is more present in some pupils than in others is not taken into account by the simulation. Mutual collaboration and discussion among students while using the software could be a solution for this.

References

The Website of Dr. Rik Min, available online at: http://to-www.to.utwente.nl/TO/ism/course/sim/index.html

Adel Agina/ 9.March.2003