Computer-based Simulated Environment Research Articles

Health Care Providers' Performance, Mindset, and Attitudes Toward a Neonatal Resuscitation Computer-Based Simulator: Empirical Study.

BackgroundNeonatal resuscitation involves a complex sequence of actions to establish an infant’s cardiorespiratory function at birth. Many of these responses, which identify the best action sequence in each situation, are taught as part of the recurrent Neonatal Resuscitation Program training, but they have a low incidence in practice, which leaves health care providers (HCPs) less prepared to respond appropriately and efficiently when they do occur. Computer-based simulators are increasingly used to complement traditional training in medical education, especially in the COVID-19 pandemic era of mass transition to digital education. However, it is not known how learners’ attitudes toward computer-based learning and assessment environments influence their performance.ObjectiveThis study explores the relation between HCPs’ attitudes toward a computer-based simulator and their performance in the computer-based simulator, RETAIN (REsuscitation TrAINing), to uncover the predictors of performance in computer-based simulation environments for neonatal resuscitation.MethodsParticipants were 50 neonatal HCPs (45 females, 4 males, 1 not reported; 16 respiratory therapists, 33 registered nurses and nurse practitioners, and 1 physician) affiliated with a large university hospital. Participants completed a demographic presurvey before playing the game and an attitudinal postsurvey after completing the RETAIN game. Participants’ survey responses were collected to measure attitudes toward the computer-based simulator, among other factors. Knowledge on neonatal resuscitation was assessed in each round of the game through increasingly difficult neonatal resuscitation scenarios. This study investigated the moderating role of mindset on the association between the perceived benefits of understanding the terminology used in the computer-based simulator, RETAIN, and their performance on the neonatal resuscitation tasks covered by RETAIN.ResultsThe results revealed that mindset moderated the relation between participants’ perceived terminology used in RETAIN and their actual performance in the game (F3,44=4.56, R2=0.24, adjusted R2=0.19; P=.007; estimate=–1.19, SE=0.38, t44=–3.12, 95% CI –1.96 to –0.42; P=.003). Specifically, participants who perceived the terminology useful also performed better but only when endorsing more of a growth mindset; they also performed worse when endorsing more of a fixed mindset. Most participants reported that they enjoyed playing the game. The more the HCPs agreed that the terminology in the tutorial and in the game was accessible, the better they performed in the game, but only when they reported endorsing a growth mindset exceeding the average mindset of all the participants (F3,44=6.31, R2=0.30, adjusted R2=0.25; P=.001; estimate=–1.21, SE=0.38, t44=−3.16, 95% CI –1.99 to –0.44; P=.003).ConclusionsMindset moderates the strength of the relationship between HCPs’ perception of the role that the terminology employed in a game simulator has on their performance and their actual performance in a computer-based simulator designed for neonatal resuscitation training. Implications of this research include the design and development of interactive learning environments that can support HCPs in performing better on neonatal resuscitation tasks.

The Effect of Training, Used-Hand, and Experience on Endoscopic Surgery Skills in an Educational Computer-Based Simulation Environment (ECE) for Endoneurosurgery Training.

Today, virtual simulation environments create alternative hands-on practice opportunities for surgical training. In order to increase the potential benefits of such environments, it is critical to understand the factors that influence them. This study was conducted to determine the effects of training, used-hand, and experience, as well as the interactions between these variables, on endoscopic surgery skills in an educational computer-based surgical simulation environment. A 2-hour computer-based endoneurosurgery simulation training module was developed for this study. Thirty-one novice- and intermediate-level resident surgeons from the departments of neurosurgery and ear, nose, and throat participated in this experimental study. The results suggest that a 2-hour training during a 2-month period through computer-based simulation environment improves the surgical skills of the residents in both-hand tasks, which is necessary for endoscopic surgical procedures but not in dominant hand tasks. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that computer-based simulation environments potentially improve surgical skills; however, the scenarios for such training modules need to consider especially the bimanual coordination of hands and should be regularly adapted to the individual skill levels and progresses.

Are Left- and Right-Eye Pupil Sizes Always Equal?

Eye movements provide very critical information about the cognitive load and behaviors of human beings. Earlier studies report that under normal conditions, the left- and right-eye pupil sizes are equal. For this reason, most studies undertaking eye-movement analysis are conducted by only considering the pupil size of a single eye or taking the average size of both eye pupils. This study attempts to offer a better understanding concerning whether there are any differences between the left- and right-eye pupil sizes of the right-handed surgical residents while performing surgical tasks in a computer-based simulation environment under different conditions (left-hand, right-hand and both hands). According to the results, in many cases, the right-eye pupil sizes of the participants were larger than their left-eye pupil sizes while performing the tasks under right-hand and both hands conditions. However, no significant difference was found in relation to the tasks performed under left-hand condition in all scenarios. These results are very critical to shed further light on the cognitive load of the surgical residents by analyzing their left-eye and right-eye pupil sizes. Further research is required to investigate the effect of the difficulty level of each scenario, its appropriateness with the skill level of the participants, and handedness on the differences between the leftand right-eye pupil sizes.

The effects of computer-based simulations on speech-language pathology student performance

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of a computer-based simulated learning environment on student learning in speech-language pathology. Despite a growing trend in the implementation of computer-based simulated learning environments, no research yet supports its efficacy. In addition, although over half of the United States’ speech-language pathologists work in school systems, no studies have investigated simulated learning environments that focus on pediatric developmental language disorders as the disorder to be exemplified by the simulations. MethodFour different cohorts of students (103 total students) received either a traditional learning experience or a computer-based simulation experience in a graduate level school-aged language disorders course. Groups were equivalent in academic performance and pre-experimental knowledge. Pre- and post-experimental measures of learning were obtained. ResultsFindings demonstrated that the group that was involved with the simulated learning environment outperformed the traditional instruction group in several key areas associated with clinically-based educational outcomes. ConclusionsSimulated learning environments continue to be a positive innovation in the clinical education of speech-language pathology students. Implications potentially affect educational models of speech-language pathology.

Insights From Pupil Size to Mental Workload of Surgical Residents: Feasibility of an Educational Computer-Based Surgical Simulation Environment (ECE) Considering the Hand Condition.

The advantage of simulation environments is that they present various insights into real situations, where experimental research opportunities are very limited-for example, in endoscopic surgery. These operations require simultaneous use of both hands. For this reason, surgical residents need to develop several motor skills, such as eye-hand coordination and left-right hand coordination. While performing these tasks, the hand condition (dominant, nondominant, both hands) creates different degrees of mental workload, which can be assessed through mental physiological measures-namely, pupil size. Studies show that pupil size grows in direct proportion to mental workload. However, in the literature, there are very limited studies exploring this workload through the pupil sizes of the surgical residents under different hand conditions. Therefore, in this study, we present a computer-based simulation of a surgical task using eye-tracking technology to better understand the influence of the hand condition on the performance of skill-based surgical tasks in a computer-based simulated environment. The results show that under the both-hand condition, the pupil size of the surgical residents is larger than the one under the dominant and nondominant hand conditions. This indicates that when the computer-simulated surgical task is performed with both hands, it is considered more difficult than in the dominant and nondominant hand conditions. In conclusion, this study shows that pupil size measurements are sufficiently feasible to estimate the mental workload of the participants while performing surgical tasks. The results of this study can be used as a guide by instructional system designers of skill-based training programs.

Exploring the effects of concreteness fading across grades in elementary school science education

The present study investigates the effects that concreteness fading has on learning and transfer across three grade levels (4–6) in elementary school science education in comparison to learning with constantly concrete representations. 127 9- to 12-years-old elementary school students studied electric circuits in a computer-based simulation environment, where circuits remained concrete (bulbs) throughout the learning or faded from concrete to abstract (bulbs to resistors). The most important finding was that the outcomes seemed to be influenced by a developmental factor: the study found a significant interaction between condition and grade level in relation to learning outcomes, suggesting that the outcomes generally improved as a function of grade level, but that there were notable differences between the conditions regarding the improvement of outcomes across the three grades. According the results, learning with constantly concrete representations either took less time or resulted in better learning compared to concreteness fading. Because transfer is one of the central arguments for concreteness fading, a somewhat surprising finding was that the concrete condition succeeded at least as well as the fading condition on transfer tasks. The study also discusses why the results and issues related to the conceptualisation and operationalisation of central concepts in the study call for caution towards generalization and for more research with young learners across different grades.

Visualizing Computer Programming in a Computer-based Simulated Environment

This paper investigated the challenges presented by computer programming (sequential/traditional, concurrent and parallel) for novice programmers and developers. The researcher involved Higher Education in Computer Science students learning programming at multiple levels, as they could well represent beginning programmers, who would struggle in successfully achieving a running program due to the complexity of this theoretical process, which has no similar real-life representation. The paper explored the difficulties faced by students in understanding this challenging, yet fundamental, subject of all Computer Science/Computing degree programmes, and focused on the advantages of visualization techniques to facilitate the learning of computer programming, with recommendations on effective computer-based simulated platforms to achieve this visualization. The paper recommended the application of virtual world technologies, such as ‘Second Life’, to achieve the visualization required to facilitate the understanding and learning of computer programming. The paper demonstrated extensive evidence on the advantages of these technologies to achieve program visualization, and how they facilitated enhanced learning of the programming process. The paper also addressed the benefits of collaboration and experimentation, which are ideal for learning computer programming, and how these aspects are strongly supported in virtual worlds.

The effectiveness of simulation activities on the cognitive abilities of undergraduate third‐year nursing students: a randomised control trial

To provide evidence on the effectiveness of simulation activities on the clinical decision-making abilities of undergraduate nursing students. Based on previous research, it was hypothesised that the higher the cognitive score, the greater the ability a nursing student would have to make informed valid decisions in their clinical practice. Globally, simulation is being espoused as an education method that increases the competence of health professionals. At present, there is very little evidence to support current investment in time and resources. Following ethical approval, fifty-eight third-year undergraduate nursing students were randomised in a pretest-post-test group-parallel controlled trial. The learning environment preferences (LEP) inventory was used to test cognitive abilities in order to refute the null hypothesis that activities in computer-based simulated learning environments have a negative effect on cognitive abilities when compared with activities in skills laboratory simulated learning environments. There was no significant difference in cognitive development following two cycles of simulation activities. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that two simulation tasks, either computer-based or laboratory-based, have no effect on an undergraduate student's ability to make clinical decisions in practice. However, there was a significant finding for non-English first-language students, which requires further investigation. More longitudinal studies that quantify the education effects of simulation on the cognitive, affective and psychomotor attributes of health science students and professionals from both English-speaking and non-English-speaking backgrounds are urgently required. It is also recommended that to achieve increased participant numbers and prevent non-participation owing to absenteeism, further studies need to be imbedded directly into curricula. This investigation confirms the effect of simulation activities on real-life clinical practice, and the comparative learning benefits with traditional clinical practice and university education remain unknown.

Big Community in a Small World

With today's technology, people rarely give a second thought to connecting with others all over the world. On line networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn allow us to reach out to long-lost friends, meet new people, and develop important professional relationships. A popular tool for this global communication is the virtual world. A virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment where users create an online identity, appropriately called an avatar (defined as embodiment or personification long before it was used for computer games and communities), and use it to explore, create, and communicate with others. With more than 15 million users, Second Life (SL) is one of the most popular three-dimensional virtual worlds, with an interactive environment (referred to as inworld by its residents) that lends itself well to social networking, collaboration, and learning.

Simulated practice — a panacea for health education?

A variety of approaches to teaching and learning are required to encompass the complexity of nursing. Simulated practice involves computer-based simulated environments, human patient simulation and role play, enabling multiple learning objectives to be taught in a realistic clinical environment without harming patients. The Nursing and Midwifery Council recognizes the use of simulated practice and has enabled higher education pre-registration nurse programme providers to incorporate a maximum of 300 hours of simulated practice as part of the 2300-hour practice hours component. However, not all students respond positively to simulated activity, which should be used to augment clinical practice and not replace it. It is important to ensure the quality of the simulation enables the educational experience to be positive for students.

Exploring Virtual Recruiting From Employers’ Perspective Using “Second Life”

In a constantly evolving economy it is crucial to think outside the traditional way and utilize newly emerging methods and technologies available for effective human resource management. One of such cutting edge technologies is Second Life, a computer-based simulated virtual environment that allows global users to travel through the virtual space, meet and interact with people in real time, and leave with an impression that they have visited a parallel world that is interactive and full of opportunities. In the past two years, businesses have started exploring ways in which virtual worlds such as Second Life can be used for interviewing and recruiting people in real life. This study explores the trend of Second Life job fairs and evaluates the employers’ perspective on the advantages and challenges of using it for Human Resource recruitment. Several crucial questions were asked from the top executives of businesses that have conducted job fairs in Second Life to understand the concept of virtual recruiting. The findings provide a better understanding of virtual job fairs from the perspective of recruiters.

An Integrated Framework for Avatar Data Collection from the Virtual World: A Case Study in Second Life

Hundreds of thousands of people from different physical locations can join virtual worlds whenever they want to interact with each other and create objects in a computer-based simulated environment, typically in an interactive 3D format. The rich social media data generated in virtual worlds has important implications for business, education, social science, and society at large. However, how to collect such social media data is a relatively unexplored topic and remains an issue. In this study, we developed an integrated framework combining both bot-based and spider-based approaches to collect avatar behavioral and profile data. Following the proposed framework, we conducted a case study to examine avatar action differences between the two genders as well as between young-aged and old-aged avatars. The results of the case study indicated that in general male avatars tended to perform more active physical actions than female avatars, and young-aged avatars tended to perform more active physical actions than old-aged avatars.

Assessing Decision Making Quality in Face-to-Face Teams versus Virtual Teams in a Virtual World

Virtual teams use communication technologies to interact and accomplish work without physical presence. Prior research has shown that virtual teams can encounter difficulties in making decision. However, never ICTs have enabled computer-based simulated environments that look real and in which avatars can interact with each other. In comparison with research on decision making in face-to-face teams, literature on virtual teams in virtual worlds is just emerging. Our objective is to investigate how virtual world technology impacts team decision making, and to compare with face-to-face teams. We collected data on teams operating in both environments and used an analytical hierarchy process model to compare their decision quality. Virtual teams in the virtual world took longer to reach a decision, but their decision accuracy was better than face-to-face teams. The results were surprising and suggest that virtual world technology can be an effective team operating environment.

Opportunities for People with Disabilities in the Virtual World of Second Life

The virtual world of Second Life (SL) offers people with disabilities a chance to explore new worlds without being limited by their disabilities. Many people with disabilities use SL for information, support, and entertainment. SL is a computer-based simulated environment in which participants are represented by a human-like avatar. The avatar can move through the environment, manipulate objects, and participate in day-to-day activities that most people take for granted, such as walking, dancing, and communicating. In this article, the authors focus on the benefits that information, socialization, and community membership can offer people with disabilities and some of the resources that are available for them in SL. SL communities, groups, and activities also help increase self-worth and empower people with disabilities. Participating in a virtual world enriches the overall quality of life of people with disabilities and may enhance their physical, emotional, and social adjustment.

Simulation in Neurosurgery: A Review of Computer-Based Simulation Environments and Their Surgical Applications

Computer-based surgical simulators create a no-risk virtual environment where surgeons can develop and refine skills through harmless repetition. These applications may be of particular benefit to neurosurgeons, as the vulnerability of nervous tissue limits the margin for error. The rapid progression of computer-processing capabilities in recent years has led to the development of more sophisticated and realistic neurosurgery simulators. To catalogue the most salient of these advances and characterize our current effort to create a spine surgery simulator. An extensive search of the databases Ovid-MEDLINE, PubMed, and Google Scholar was conducted. Search terms included, but were not limited to: neurosurgery combined with simulation, virtual reality, haptics, and 3-dimensional imaging. A survey of the literature reveals that surgical simulators are evolving from platforms used for preoperative planning and anatomic education into programs that aim to simulate essential components of key neurosurgical procedures. This evolution is predicated upon the advancement of 3 main components of simulation: graphics/volume rendering, model behavior/tissue deformation, and haptic feedback. The computational burden created by the integration of these complex components often limits the fluidity of real-time interactive simulators. Although haptic interfaces have become increasingly sophisticated, the production of realistic tactile sensory feedback remains a formidable and costly challenge. The rate of future progress may be contingent upon international collaboration between research groups and the establishment of common simulation platforms. Given current limitations, the most potential for growth lies in the innovative design of models that expand the procedural applications of neurosurgery simulation environments.

Disruption from the Virtual World

This review discusses the concept of virtual world and its increasing implementation in the engineering domain. Current virtual worlds are computer-based simulated environments accessed by numerous users through an online interface. Virtual world applications cover a broad spectrum of activities. Globally distributed engineering teams can use virtual worlds as immersive and interactive platforms for concurrent product design, for virtual prototyping and manufacturing, and for workforce training. Virtual worlds are making a paradigm shift in new product development and are becoming an integral part of computer-aided engineering. Virtual worlds provide an opportunity for businesses to reduce production cycle time and increase user input earlier in the development process. NASA is using simulations of remote landscapes in virtual worlds to evaluate extra-terrestrial transportation options and operators. The review also highlights that virtual worlds have the potential of transforming the 2D Internet into a 360° multisensory 3D immersive experience, with all the richness, depth, and extendibility that it implies.

Exploring Perceptions Toward Education in 3-D Virtual Environments: An Introduction to “Second Life”

ABSTRACT If educational institutions want to effectively prepare the 21st century community that works with colleagues globally and across time zones, they need to start teaching the students using the next-generation technology tools. One of the tools available today is “Second Life.” It is a computer-based simulated virtual environment that allows users to interact in real time. The tool has also gained attention from educators worldwide as a medium to offer all or some of their course activities to students in Second Life. This study explores students' perceptions of using Second Life as an instructional tool in teaching online or blended tourism and hospitality courses in the future. Multiple regressions are used to test the technology acceptance model (TAM) for measuring the research objective. Findings suggest that the students have high and positive perceptions of using virtual environments such as second life as teaching tools for future tourism and hospitality courses.

A36 Inducing the Intention Phenomenon in a Computer Based Simulation Environment

Targeting is a skill that is used in many sports and other activities. The electroencephalogram (EEG) has previously been used to measure target sports [1-4]. The intention phenomenon is indicated by the pre-shot alpha in the EEG [1]. This paper details the design of a computer based simulation to induce the intention phenomenon. The simulation consisted of a targeting task under three different targeting conditions - no bias, constant bias, and variable bias. Twelve participants were involved in the study and their EEG was measured during the targeting tasks. The results indicated that intention could be induced using a computer based simulation.

Evolution of neural controllers for competitive game playing with teams of mobile robots

In this work, we describe the evolutionary training of artificial neural network controllers for competitive team game playing behaviors by teams of real mobile robots. This research emphasized the development of methods to automate the production of behavioral robot controllers. We seek methods that do not require a human designer to define specific intermediate behaviors for a complex robot task. The work made use of a real mobile robot colony (EVolutionary roBOTs) and a closely coupled computer-based simulated training environment. The acquisition of behavior in an evolutionary robotics system was demonstrated using a robotic version of the game Capture the Flag. In this game, played by two teams of competing robots, each team tries to defend its own goal while trying to ‘attack’ another goal defended by the other team. Robot neural controllers relied entirely on processed video data for sensing of their environment. Robot controllers were evolved in a simulated environment using evolutionary training algorithms. In the evolutionary process, each generation consisted of a competitive tournament of games played between the controllers in an evolving population. Robot controllers were selected based on whether they won or lost games in the course of a tournament. Following a tournament, the neural controllers were ranked competitively according to how many games they won and the population was propagated using a mutation and replacement strategy. After several hundred generations, the best performing controllers were transferred to teams of real mobile robots, where they exhibited behaviors similar to those seen in simulation including basic navigation, the ability to distinguish between different types of objects, and goal tending behaviors.

An interactive computer-based simulation environment for supporting and developing complex decision-making skills

Many managerial contexts in the public services and industry utilise large-scale information systems and require effective decision-making at strategic and tactical levels. Developing such skills presents problems because of the complexities of the decision-making and because conventional training techniques are usually difficult to manage and are limited in their scale and objectives. Computer-based simulations should have the potential to overcome some of these difficulties through interactive multimedia facilities, their range of feedback displays and networking and record-keeping, which enable collaborative engagement and reflective debriefing. Under an activity theory framework, this paper discusses the design and formative evaluation of an interactive simulation environment (CACTUS) for supporting and developing decision-making in the management of large-scale incidents relating to public order. The project was a collaboration with the London Metropolitan Police and a principal focus was the way the system facilities and its interface evolved to accommodate and support the varying roles of trainers/facilitators and trainees so that they and CACTUS, formed an interactive collaborative system.