Presimulation Preparation: What is it?

As discussed earlier, it is important to follow a sound pedagogical process that includes a prebrief, enactment and debrief.  There is also a step educators are advised to take before prebriefing learners: presimulation preparation.

It is important to differentiate between the presimulation preparation required to complete the virtual gaming simulations and the prebrief. These two areas are distinct components of the simulation process. Presimulation preparation ensures student have the knowledge needed to play the game, while the prebrief prepares learners for their roles and clarifies expectations for the simulation experience (INACSL Standards Committee, McDermott, et al. 2021).

Presimulation preparation is the action of making preparatory course materials available to the learner in advance of the virtual gaming simulation to ensure they are equipped to play the simulation. These materials provide content and background to the virtual gaming simulation and include book chapters, lectures, videos and journal articles. In addition, knowledge tests or assessments related to the learning objectives can be provided so that learners can assess their understanding of the content before playing the virtual gaming simulations. This is helpful because, as noted earlier, it is important for learners to understand content before applying it in a virtual gaming simulation, In general, the virtual simulation is not the place to be learning new content. In contrast, the prebrief sets the stage for the virtual gaming simulations experience by preparing learners for their roles and outlining expectations for the simulation (see Chapter 4: Prebriefing for virtual gaming simulation).

Examples in Action: Presimulation Preparation

When we assign our learners to play the prenatal virtual gaming simulation, we ask them to watch a video on prenatal care and complete a self-test on prenatal nursing care as part of the presimulation preparation.