Would you like to learn more efficiently? Learn through simulation!
Reading time: 4 minutes
Learning never goes out of style. On the contrary, specific knowledge is always valued, and it makes individuals and companies distinguish themselves from their competitors. What we are always looking for are faster and more efficient ways to acquire new knowledge and skills.
This is where simulation learning definitely stands out as a good method to acquire new knowledge in a fast and logical way. Simulations create a fictional environment, very similar to reality, where experimentation is encouraged and errors are acceptable. It is also a secure environment that helps create challenges, as well as assess one’s knowledge and preparedness to deal with unforeseen events. Simulation learning provides us with security and contributes to more effective management of challenging situations that may arise in reality. Such situations are no longer something new and unknown to us, so it is easier for us to deal with them. The advantages of such learning are not only recognized by institutions and companies, but are also successfully used in the education sector.
As the term itself suggests, simulation learning brings a sense of reality into the whole process. It puts us in a fictional situation that simulates real events and possible problems needing to be solved or managed.
As early as during World War II, mathematicians began applying simulation methods when they wanted to test certain behaviors and processes before applying them in reality, and in the 1980s, Cambridge University began using simulation learning as a generally accepted learning method.
Simulation improves skills
Simulation learning is often used in medicine, physics, aeronautics and biology, but said fields are not the only ones where this method can be applied. Communication, management and organizational skills can be learned or improved very successfully through simulation.
Through simulation, we usually want to learn things we don’t want to do wrong in real life, i.e. things we need to prepare for, as unpreparedness could potentially cause damage, injury or financial loss.
For instance, just as a future pilot first learns to master the skill of flying in a flight simulator, or a neurosurgeon first learns to perform surgical procedures in a simulation, only to apply what they learn to a patient later, solving a communication crisis can be tested and perfected through a crisis simulation.
Modern technology allows us to use a variety of software solutions to support simulation learning that make the whole process simpler and more fun.
Actual experience of a directed situation
Crisis Simulation is a training program that prepares participants to solve a communication crisis through simulation. Learning is based on constructivism, which helps the participants create their own version of a situation through their own experience, become aware of their behaviors, reactions, and the behavior of the team in which they work, as well as acquire new and specific knowledge and skills.
Realistic scenarios with lots of details and events that may or may not be important for the real problem bring the participant into different situations, encourage them to think and reflect, and create stressful, confusing or fun moments to get out of, use or ignore.
And just as, in a flight simulator, pilots intentionally or unintentionally get into unpredictable situations and solve problems, destroy their aircraft or land safely at their destinations, Crisis Simulation takes the participants through a plethora of plots and situations to manage in order to bring the crisis to a successful end. So fasten your seatbelts, we’re taking off!
Author: Renata Krajačić
