Meta-Simulating. Designing E-Learning Simulations For Instructional Designers

Today e-learning increasingly requires, even at an International level, highly competent professionals of learning design. For this reason, the role of traditional academic institutions becomes fundamental in conveying those abilities, knowledge and skills which can be immediately put to use in an e-learning working context. This request of instructional designer training is responded by the innovative formula of the IeLM Master Degree organized by La Sapienza University of Rome and Nova Southeastern University of Miami. The IeLM Master aims at the acquisition of both theoretical knowledge and practical skills for the design of distance courses. With the purpose of ensuring the passage from the acquisition of theoretical notions to complex long-lasting behavioral schemes, the IeLM Master has introduced the activity discussed in the present paper: the design of an e-learning simulation meant for future instructional designers by the members of the 2007-2008 Master’s edition. This educational path was organized in five phases: (1) the definition of the workflow of instructional design; (2) the creation of a matrix of skills; (3) the definition of the calculation model which underlies the simulation; (4) the development of the “perfect story” of the simulation; (5) the writing of the storyboard of the simulation. The main results of this activity have been the possibility for learners to apply the theories and techniques acquired during the learning process and the start of a meta-cognitive reflection on the role of the instructional designer.