Impact of Simulations on the Mental Models of Students in the Online Learning of Science Concepts.

A simulation is a representation or model of a real or imagined specific object, system or phenomenon (Merrill, Vincent, Reynolds, Christensen and Tolman, 1996). The professional flight trainer is a good example of a highfidelity simulation that comes with hydraulic arms to move the pilot trainee around, functional 'surround cockpits' with mock-up controls and instrument panels and videographic pictures of the terrain. Operating within such a simulated environment the pilot trainee feels that s/he is really flying in an airplane or space shuttle and are not required to spend too much of time in the real cockpit (Zhou, Martin, Brouwer & Austen, 2000).