The present study investigates the potential of the author’s Introduction, Simulation, Scenario, Debriefing (ISSD) model in developing computer-based simulation environments conducive to knowledge creation. The model is elaborated and tested in the context of TETRAsim®, a simulation designed to teach nursing students how to use TETRA, a hand-held device facilitating communication among medical professionals in emergencies. The research draws on qualitative as well as quantitative methodologies to address the principal research question: What kind of theoretical and conceptual frameworks and models form a computer-based simulation environment? This study based on five different sub-studies and the data were collected on 124 participants, most of whom were undergraduate nursing students, some of whom qualified social workers. The principal results of this thesis are the insights into how the ISSD model accords with the trialogical approach to learning and how simulation environments such as that studied support knowledge creation from tacit to explicit in terms of the socialization, externalization, combination and internalization (SECI) learning process. I argue that if a computer-based simulation environment has been developed in collaboration with end-users, it will be meaningful and will constitute a knowledge-creation environment that provides collective benefits. The study offers new knowledge to developers, educators and trainers on how computer-based simulation might best be developed if it is to meet the requirements of learning and knowledge distribution. The insights gained in the research are a resource which facilitators may tap when trainees need more support to achieve learning aims and outcomes.

Poikela, P. (2017). Re-thinking computer-based simulation: concepts and models. Acta Universitatis Lapponiensis (344). Rovaniemi: University of Lapland.