39.pdf : This article is based on work to develop an interactive documentary learning game called HEALTHSIMNET,
which is intended for improving practice in a health care network. The authors look briefly at past
work done to develop interactive narratives using structural artificial knowledge representation techniques.
They illustrate a method for collection and analysis of documentary data acquired during semistructured
interviews with participants of a network of health practitioners in the HIV field. The article
reviews the expansive theory of learning and explains how the technique can yield interactive narrative.
They discuss the design implications of this work for their interprofessional learning game. They end with
a description of the game and a discussion of the extent to which games developed using this method can
be said to sustain the kind of learning described by activity theory.
This article argues that the merger of simulations and problem-based learning (PBL) can enhance both
active-learning strategies. Simulations benefit by using aPBL framework to promote student-directed learning
and problem-solving skills to explain a simulated dilemma with multiple solutions. PBL benefits because
simulations structure the information students receive to focus learning on the intended curriculum and
increase the strategy’s effectiveness in a wider variety of venues. A combined strategy—a PBL simulation—
places its simulation at the forefront of learning and helps students and teachers sift through the overwhelming
complexity that can arise in a more pure PBL. The authors illustrate the strength of a PBL simulation
with an economics unit on trade, titled THE GREAT AWAKENING.
