Disciplines: Conceptualizing a Simulation
Health Sciences
Learning outcomes in the health sciences often aim to develop students’ skills in teamwork and problem solving by incorporating realistic career-focused scenarios. This article discusses the design and integration of a collaborative simulation between students in Nursing and Medical programs. This multi-disciplinary approach to simulation learning is a strategic approach to expose students to real-world team scenarios and encourage collaborative learning experiences (Reese et al., 2010).
Natural Sciences
Many virtual simulations are available to provide students in the natural sciences with an equivalent of “hands-on” experience for lab experiments, instrument usage, and conceptualizing complex ideas or discoveries. These activities can be tailored to an individual course and can include background information, summary questions, and highlighted points throughout to provide context and support comprehension.  These experiences can give students opportunities that cannot be obtained in a normal classroom. This article discusses the conceptual development of one example of technology that has been designed and integrated into astronomy education (Zhang et al., 2014).
Social Sciences
When conducting simulations in the humanities, the complexity and depth at which the activities are carried out is up to the discretion of the educator based on the desired learning outcomes. It is important to understand the purpose of simulation learning before you integrate it into your classroom. This article discusses the value of simulations from a context of learning outcomes and design for history and political science (McCarthy & Anderson, 2000).