Objetivo Purpose Nowadays the importance of simulations is widely appreciated. In many working areas they are used to support decisions by experimenting with different scenarios. Governments assess the implications of proposed policies to select the most suitable one. Chemical plants use simulations to perform a thorough risk analysis in order to design the production process. In each case it is impossible for the decision maker involved to try out all alternatives in the real world, because such a practice may be too expensive, too dangerous or too time consuming. For similar reasons also in education simulations are getting more and more popular for acquiring knowledge and skills in an active way. The current development of multi-media allows for a realistic and appealing front-end and gives the possibility to represent information in the most appropriate way. At the same time however it is realised that simulations need to be embedded in an instructional environment providing additional support in order to fulfill an instructive role in a satisfactory manner. At the moment a number of advanced applications exist, which use a simulation in learning environment. Mostly they are produced from scratch and in an ad hoc manner. At the same time there is a wide range of products which cover different parts of the development such as dedicated simulation environments, multi-media editors, hypertext and computer based training (CBT) tools, no tools are yet available for supporting the development of intelligent multi-media simulations with an instructional intention in an integrated way. A specification of the SAM Development and the SAM Learner Environments has been produced. The SAM Environment controller software has been developed, as well as four SAM demonstrators, two on Mac and two on PC with feedback from users at the project workshops.Approach The aim of the SAM project is to specify and develop a modeling, authoring and learning framework based on state-of-the art software tools. The framework will be completed with specific tools supporting the learner, the author and the modeller. The framework will support a fully modular approach, that allows the latest and best tools for modeling, authoring and multi-media to be incorporated as these are developed. The solution we propose is to create a framework in which a set of existing tools can be used simultaneously to create advanced simulation-learning environments. This framework is envisaged as a basic structure with various 'ports' where different modules can be 'plugged in'. These software modules communicate at run-time. Each of the major operating systems at the moment supports some form of multitasking and 'Dynamic Data Exchange' (DDE); which makes our approach feasible on a wide variety of hardware platforms. When based solely on existing software the resulting development environment would not be complete. The project will concentrate on the monitoring and controlling aspects of a simulation, thus facilitating the creation of guidance and explanation facilities for the learner. In summary the SAM project aims at creating an environment in which: authors, together with modellers, can create or tune simulations to support instruction authors can create guidance and explanation facilities for the learner learners will have at their disposal a rich exploratory, multi-media environment containing features such as a multi-media notebook, what-if support and output analysers. Output and Impact The SAM project will be carried out in three partly overlapping phases. So far in the first phase the instructional simulation framework and additionally needed software have been defined. Examples of additions are tools to support the integration of various packages, tools to support the creation of Instructional Simulations Objects and for the learner a multi-media notebook. Together with this a methodology will be defined that covers the whole design and production process, facilitates the communication between different actors and provides a coherent view on the rich set of development tools that make up the SAM modeling and authoring environment. The output of this first phase will be the first version of SAM. The second phase consists of an evaluation of the first version of SAM. Both the modeling and authoring environment and the learning environment will be evaluated by constructing and using simulations in two different domains. The SAM (Simulation And Multi-media) DELTA project D2010 model in the socio-economic domain describes the impact of climatic change on the socio-economic and socio-ecological systems of small island states in the Wider Caribbean. The engineering model is a simulation of a spacecraft equipment rack cooling system with a number of experiments in an onboard rack. Two hardware platforms will be used: PCs and Macintoshes. Moreover evaluations will be carried out within the context of a postgraduate course in Interactive Training Systems. In the third phase the results emerging from the work on the Common Training Architecture and the experience of using two different hardware platforms will be used to focus on standards and portability. The formative nature of the evaluation techniques used in phase two will support an incremental approach to further development in this phase. SAM will be enhanced by elaborating on results from the evaluation. Finally recommendations for further work will be made. The outcome of the SAM projects seems of to be of particular importance for two groups, i.e. Universities and Industry. Universities tend to have knowledge available both on authoring and on modeling. SAM will support the integration of the work of both actors at limited expenses by allowing them to a large extent to use existing software. Industry uses already simulations for production oriented processes. SAM will enable them to integrate these or similar simulations in an educational setting. Ámbito científico engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringaerospace engineeringastronautical engineeringspacecraftnatural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftwaresoftware applicationssystem softwareoperating systemsengineering and technologymechanical engineeringthermodynamic engineeringnatural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdata sciencedata exchangenatural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes Programa(s) FP3-DELTA 2 - Specific programme of research and technological development (EEC) in the field of telematic systems in areas of general interest - Flexible and distance learning (DELTA) -, 1990-1994 Tema(s) Data not available Convocatoria de propuestas Data not available Régimen de financiación Data not available Coordinador Research Institute for Knowledge Systems (Riks) Aportación de la UE Sin datos Dirección Tongersestraat 6 6200 AL Maastricht Países Bajos Ver en el mapa Coste total Sin datos
