The Learning Federation


	Instructional Design: Using Games and Simulations in Learning Discovering how people learn, how experts organize information, and the skills of effective learners.

	Question Generation and Answer Systems How to take advantage of the benefits offered by emerging technologies to facilitate inquiry and build profiles of learner’s interests, capabilities and learning styles.

	Learner Modeling and Assessment What learner characteristics to measure, when to measure and how to use the information.

	Building Simulations and Exploration Environments How to build simulations that reflect current understanding of physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics that permit exploration-based pedagogy

	Integration Tools for Building and Maintaining Advanced Learning Systems A plan to develop engineering strategies for using learning system tools to build learning systems.

Research has demonstrated that simulation environments are powerful learning tools that encourage exploration by allowing learners to manipulate their learning experience and visualize results. Simulations used in academic settings can enhance lectures, supplement labs, and engage students. In the workplace, simulations are a cost-effective way to train personnel. Despite important successes in the use of simulation and synthetic environments, there are still a number of limitations to current applications and programs. The goal of this R&D effort is to make simulations and synthetic environments easier to build and incorporate into learning environments.

This component roadmap provides:

An assessment of the R&D needs
Identification of key research questions and technical requirements
A detailed chronology of R&D activities over the next 3-10 years
Long-term goals and shorter-term benchmarks

Download the complete Building Simulations Exploration Environments component roadmap to learn more about the detailed R&D tasks related to these research priorities.