Computer simulations are increasingly recognized as educational tools that facilitate students' learning in a safe environment. However, the way in which the simulations are used can have considerable impact on learning outcomes. Some have argued that exploratory learning is an effective strategy for learning new materials; but others have expressed concern that allowing free exploration may result in less efficient, or even inaccurate, learning and therefore encourage more guided exploration. The purpose of this research is to compare learning outcomes of nursing students in a critical care course when using an interactive computer simulation designed to teach fundamentals of oxygenation management under two exploratory learning methods (free versus guided exploration). The conceptual framework for the study was derived from the Informatics Research Organizing Model. The experimental study used a pretest-posttest design. Students in an existing or just finished critical care course were invited to participate in the study. Following a pretest that included a paper and pencil assessment of students' oxygenation management knowledge and two computer-generated clinical scenarios, students were encouraged to learn about the simulation using either guided or free exploration. The Guided Exploration group was given tasks to achieve, while the Free Exploration group was asked to learn about the instructional oxygenation management simulation without any specific tasks. Students then completed a posttest that was identical to the pretest with the addition of one novel clinical scenario to assess knowledge transfer. The results of data analysis using paired t-tests showed no significant differences in learning in the post test for the total group. The independent t-test showed no differences in the mean score between the Free and Guided Exploration groups.

In October of 1992 an assembly of researchers in simulation and computer models for instruction convened in Bonas, France, to learn from one another in a non-automated environment. The event was the Advanced Research Workshop entitled The Use of Computer Models for Explication, Analysis, and Experiential Learning. Sponsored by the Scientific Affairs Division of NATO, this workshop brought together 29 leading experts in the field loosely described as instruction and learning in simulation environments. The three-day workshop was organized in a manner to maximize exchange of knowledge, of beliefs, and of issues. The participants came from six countries with experiences to share, with opinions to voice, and with questions to explore. Starting some weeks prior to the workshop, the exchange included presentation of the scientific papers, discussions immediately following each presentation, and informal discussions outside the scheduled meeting times. Naturally, the character and content of the workshop was determined by the backgrounds and interests of the participants. One objective in drawing together these particular specialists was to achieve a congress with coherent diversity, i.e., we sought individuals who could view an emerging area from different perspectives yet had produced work of interest to many. Major topic areas included theories of instruction being developed or tested, use of multiple domain models to enhance understanding, experiential learning environments, modelling diagnostic environments, tools for authoring complex models, and case studies from industry.

Computer simulations are increasingly recognized as educational tools that facilitate students' learning in a safe environment. However, the way in which the simulations are used can have considerable impact on learning outcomes. Some have argued that exploratory learning is an effective strategy for lear-ning new materials; but others have expressed concern that allowing free ex-ploration may result in less efficient, or even inaccurate, learning and there-fore encourage more guided exploration. The purpose of this work is to com-pare learning outcomes of students using an interactive computer simulation designed to teach fundamentals of oxygenation management under two ex-ploratory learning methods (free versus guided exploration). This book is ad-dressed to health professionals such as nurses and doctors who are planning to use computer simulation in clinical as well as educators using interactive simulations as part of their educational process.

This volume includes extended and revised versions of a set of selected papers from the 2011 2nd International Conference on Education and Educational Technology (EET 2011) held in Chengdu, China, October 1-2, 2011. The mission of EET 2011 Volume 1 is to provide a forum for researchers, educators, engineers, and government officials involved in the general areas of education and educational technology to disseminate their latest research results and exchange views on the future research directions of these fields. 130 related topic papers were selected into this volume. All the papers were reviewed by 2 program committee members and selected by the volume editor Prof. Yuanzhi Wang, from Intelligent Information Technology Application Research Association, Hong Kong. The conference will bring together leading researchers, engineers and scientists in the domain of interest. We hope every participant can have a good opportunity to exchange their research ideas and results and to discuss the state of the art in the areas of the education and educational technology.

First Published in 1994. This book is about modelling in education. It is about providing children with computer tools to enable them to create their own worlds, to express their own representations of their world, and also to explore other people's representations - learning with artificial worlds. This title is best suited for the classroom teacher who has used some modelling, and now wishes to seriously consider the role of modelling within their curriculum.