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SimQuest 6.4 help |
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Introduction
SimQuest is an authoring system for creating computer simulations embedded in an instructional environment. SimQuest consists of a learning environment and an authoring environment. A typical SimQuest Learning Environment allows learners to engage in an activity of inquiry learning with a simulation, supported by instructional measures from within the environment. Some of these instructional measures adapt themselves to the interaction of the learner with the simulation. The SimQuest Authoring Environment allows the author to create various kinds of instructional support for the learner.
SimQuest Learning Environment SimQuest is especially designed for creating guided inquiry learning environments. This means that students explore the domain by themselves, rather than that they are ‘told’ what to do and what to look for. The inquiry process is supported by instructional measures: assignments provide the learner with short term goals for the learning process, explanations offer additional information, a monitoring tool allows the learner to record and replay experiments, and, moreover, the domain can be arranged according to different levels of model progression. Other support tools are a hypothesis scratchpad, intelligent feedback, a modeling tool and facilities for collaborative learning in SimQuest.
SimQuest Authoring Environment The SimQuest Authoring Environment allows you to easily create your own interactive learning applications. Such an application consists of simulation interfaces with animations, backed up with appropriate assignments and explanations. Various media, such as sound, video and web pages can be added to create a fully interactive application. The SimQuest Authoring Environment supports the full process of authoring simulation based learning environments, from creating the simulation model to defining the instructional interaction of the learning environment with the learner. Authoring a SimQuest learning environment is done in an object oriented way. You simply select templates from the SimQuest library to create building blocks of the learning environment, which you can then edited to match your requirements. The SimQuest architecture, with a simulation context as central element takes care of the interaction between the various building blocks. You are supported by the contents of the library, on-line help, on-line pedagogical advice and a wizard that automates parts of the authoring process. The program was mainly developed at the University of Twente, The Netherlands, and consists of an authoring environment and a separate learner environment. Its applications are numerous: practically any field, e.g. physics, chemistry, biology or geography, can benefit from interactive content created with SimQuest.
SimQuest help This documentation helps you to create fully interactive simulations with the SimQuest Authoring Environment. It provides the necessary information to create a SimQuest simulation, complete with interfaces, animations, assignments and explanations. The documentation is been structured according to the SimQuest library, so you can easily retrieve the required information.
Getting started For first time users, it is recommended to start with the tutorial in the Getting Started section. There you can also find a description of all Basic Operations.
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