Designing Simulations

Developing software simulations, like developing software, can be broken down into a design phase and production phase. This section provides an overview of the key elements that provide the blueprint for the actual production of your simulation.

Storyboard

Before you start to develop your course modules, you must develop a storyboard, which is the foundation of your simulation. It will help you determine what you actually want to record for each course module or learning objective.

In your storyboard you might outline and describe the following information:

• Objectives for each module
• Caption text and narration script for audio
• Screen shot and task descriptions
• Animation and mouse movement
• User interaction (click box, text entry, rollover, branching, linking, and so on)
• User feedback information
• Color, placement, size of graphics, highlights, logos, and backgrounds
• Navigation
• General timing, maximum length, and size in pixels
• Assessment (where to include, how to include, how to measure, how to report)
• Filenames and URLs

Storyboards are easy to create in Captivate (using the Storyboard view) or Microsoft Word or PowerPoint. You can also search Google to find useful templates online. If you prefer to work in the analog world, you can draw your ideas on sticky notes and paste the sequence on a white board—rearranging the sequence of steps and modules and adding notes to the board as you go.

You can also use storyboards for prototyping. For example, you can have a few users review your storyboard printouts or sticky notes. Ask them questions while they review your storyboard to find out what they think. This preliminary evaluation will give you immediate feedback and help you stay on track before spending valuable resources producing a course that is ineffective.

Captions

Adding captions to a simulation provides a good way to explain the individual steps of the procedure and to help the user make sense of the visual components and the task. Captions also enable you to provide hints and tips. When using captions or text descriptions that refer to a particular area on the screen, such as a button or menu item, place the caption directly next to the corresponding area (Clark and Mayer, 2002).

Keep in mind the key concepts for providing information electronically. Keep captions short, use a web-friendly writing style when structuring your content, and avoid any unnecessary examples that lead to information overload. Always use a style guide and information mapping when composing your captions.

Audio

Research has shown that learning improves when you use audio instead of text to accompany a graphic or animation (Clark and Mayer, 2002). Using audio narration rather than text when commenting on a given task or concept allows the user's mind to process the same piece of information visually and auditory. The idea is to have the user focus on a given task, concept, or other content while reinforcing the visual information with an audio narration. Using both audio and video to provide descriptive information also has been shown to reduce information overload.

When using audio, consider the user's learning environment and needs. For example, some users might prefer a choice between audio and text, while others might have to use text because of their proximity to other users. The following list provides an overview of possible scenarios to consider during the design phase of your simulation:

• Use captions in these situations:

  • Users work in cubicles or access the course in a library, where the audio could disturb others
  • No speakers are available or a sound card is not installed
  • Users are hearing-impaired
• Use captions and audio if your users are foreigners who have difficulties understanding the narration
• Use audio if users are unable to read due to educational, physical, or mental disabilities
• Give users the option to choose between captions and audio to accommodate their learning preference

While background audio may be great for sales and marketing demonstrations, avoid adding background music or other sounds to your simulation. Studies have shown that additional sounds interfere with the learning process and contribute to information overload (Garner, Gillingham, and White, 1989).

Use sound effects effectively to emphasize learning scenarios. Captivate ships with different sound effects that you can use with your projects. You may also want to consider supporting your success and failure messages with sound effects to provide audible feedback.

Graphics

If you teach material that is not represented visually through a screen shot of the software, try to develop or find a relevant graphic to engage in active learning. Research has shown that relevant graphics improve a user's comprehension by up to 80 percent (Cross, 2002). Avoid any decorative illustrations such as borders or images that are nice to look at but irrelevant to the subject matter. Adding decorations obstructs the learning process, lowers the retention rate, and ultimately reduces the effectiveness of the simulation (Clark and Mayer, 2002).

Interactivity

The level of interactivity depends on the type of component you are designing. For example, when you are presenting the information, you simply demonstrate the process—no interactivity is necessary because the user is only an observer during this phase.

Practice components, however, require interactive controls such as click boxes, data input, rollovers, and so on. The more interactive and repetitive the simulation, the easier it is for the user to acquire and remember a task.

In the case of the assessment component, add scoring to the interactions. You can track scores by integrating simulations in a learning management system (LMS) or tools such as Macromedia Authorware or Questionmark Perception.

One method that you can use to increase the level of interactivity and customization is called branching, which enables you to give the user an option between two or more paths to accomplish a given task. For example, if you teach a new computer user how to open an application, you can use two click boxes, one on the Start menu and another on the application's desktop icon. In addition to these multiple paths, you can use branching to create nonlinear simulations where the path depends on the learner's actions.

Branching enables you to create very realistic simulations but it adds to the complexity of developing software simulations and of the learning experience.

Feedback

Frequent interaction combined with immediate feedback will strengthen a user's response. Display feedback on the same screen as the interaction. Furthermore, feedback should be meaningful and explain why an answer choice is wrong or, in the case of a correct answer, provide additional information. For example, when users click correctly on the Copy button in the simulated application, you can let them know that the action is correct and that they can use the shortcuts Control+C on Windows or Command+C on Macintosh as well.

Style Guide

Before you start producing your simulation, develop a style guide that defines what appears in your simulation and how. A style guide helps you maintain consistency across your simulations. If you are a contractor, you may want to create one style guide for each client.

Your style guide should outline and define the following information:

• Introductory screens and backgrounds
• Company logo and placement
• Caption types (for example, informational, action, tip, hint, warning, success, failure)
• Colors, fonts, font sizes (consider the user's equipment)
• Sounds
• Simulation size (try to develop simulations that fit in a screen area of 800 x 600 pixels or smaller; this ensures that the majority of users can view the training and it keeps the file size of your simulations more manageable)
• Assessments (including types, when, where, and so on)
• Writing style (including spelling, wording, specific phrases and terms to be used, and so on)

In Captivate, you can set up a template that acts as your style guide. Simply create a project with the specific dimensions and content that is needed for your tutorials and save it as a template.

Table 1 provides an overview of best practices for your simulation design.

Table 1. Best Practices for Simulation Design

	Do	Don't
Captions	Place near a corresponding area	Place away from a relevant area or on a different page
Audio	Provide narration	Use background music or cool sounds
Images	Use relevant graphics or images	Use decorative borders or meaningless images
Feedback	Provide meaningful feedback	Provide only "correct" or "incorrect" responses to interactions

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