The use of Digital Simulation as a branch of eLearning has seen significant growth, particularly during and after the Covid period. While eLearning is generally easier for general subjects with its computer and internet requirements, STEM subjects with experimental components rely on various simulation tools. The application of Digital Simulation in eLearning has witnessed remarkable growth. The Covid period brought about restrictions and limitations on traditional hands-on experimentation, leading educators and learners to explore alternative methods.
Digital Simulation emerged as an invaluable solution, offering a virtual platform where students could engage in simulated experiments and gain practical insights. This shift resulted in an increased recognition of the importance and effectiveness of simulation tools in STEM education. These tools provide a safe and controlled environment for conducting complex experiments and allow students to explore different scenarios. Therefore, I am particularly interested in delving deeper into this specific niche, as it possesses immense potential and stands out among other educational technologies.
I see this blog post is very informative about simulations in STEM education: https://cadrek12.org/spotlight/simulations-stem-teaching-learning
Thank you for the post Terrence. The article you linked is very interesting because I expected it would be largely about having students use simulations to enhance their learning, so I was surprised when a large part of the article was about a pre-service teacher using a simulated classroom to improve their teaching mastery. This shows how many different opportunities there are in this space for further applications. The educational uses are near infinite, as well as applications used by military, aviation, healthcare, and many more industries.
I personally use simulations frequently while teaching physics and science. I exclusively use free simulations such as PhET (https://phet.colorado.edu/), and yet I see from this report that the ‘virtual training and simulation industry’ is worth about 300 billion dollars which will increase to nearly a trillion dollars by 2030 (https://straitsresearch.com/report/virtual-training-and-simulation-market). I will be keeping a close eye on developments in this market, and one day I hope to contribute a digital game or simulation to the science education industry myself.