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McCormack and Jones identify five major components that bear on the construction of a Web-based classroom. They are:

1. Outside factors.
2. The subject matter.
3. The teachers.
4. The students.
5. The technology.

Consider the components in terms of the behavioral environment of the learning process -- i.e., the social setting in which the learning takes place.

You can think of the outside factors as the background environment of the educational setting. These are the broader factors that determine general attitudes regarding study, personal growth, jobs, and the like -- the culture. They set the social parameters for the settings and include the school, university or commercial company that employs the teachers, enrolls the students, and pays the bills, and the society in which the classroom operates -- the culture, government, and geographical location.

The course itself is the academic program in which the students enroll, and includes content, field of knowledge, mode of delivery, and other academic characteristics. The subject type refers to matters like the field of study, the way the material is taught, the level of difficulty of the subject, and the aim of the subject. Think of the course as the game being played, drawing on an analogy with baseball, say. In music, on the other hand, it would be like a concert, for instance. See Simulations for Skills Training for more details.

Educators are the people responsible for creating and teaching the subject. Their influence is felt through their background, age, teaching style, experience, and personality. They would be some of the players in the game. To be considered in the classroom design are the teacher's ability in the subject, how many teachers there will be, how long they've been teaching their subject, what skills they bring to the classroom, and what amount of time they devote to the effort, among other things.

The students are the central players in the game. They are different from each other, and may adapt differently to teaching styles or technologies not encountered before. The language they use, their prior education, physical abilities and disabilities, their motivation, preferred learning styles, communication skills, their tolerance to change, and their willingness to use the technology of the Internet, all have to be given serious consideration. To know what's happening in the setting, we have to examine each student's age, background, culture, language, and preferred style of learning. The students are the obvious targets of learning -- the customers, to be blunt.

The technology can be seen as the foreground environment of the learning context -- the tools or instruments close at hand in the classroom. The elements include computers, software, networks, medium, and technical support, plus the training required to implement the Web-based classroom.

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Where would simulation fit into the educational system? What part would it play in the Web-based classroom? How would it relate?

One way that simulation would relate would be to use the method to conduct optimization studies of the classroom situation. Were we to use a computer to do the study -- say to learn about an actual system, like the way it acquires and uses information -- we might simulate the whole setting and do What if...? diagnostics to learn what might happen to a teaching program under different settings. Such a study would fit into the general plan this Web site, but would be a bit far afield from the use to which simulation would be put in the classroom itself.

As a component of the educational system, simulation would be a way technology could be used in a live classroom. As a supplement to traditional instructional techniques, it might be used (in the manner just discussed re the classroom) to conduct studies of the subject matter being taught. This could be like doing laboratory experiments, except you would now devise models of the experimental situation and let the testing be done on a computer.

Simulation could be used as a means for the students to practice what's being taught. Here, too, models would be constructed, and the computer would be the most likely candidate for housing the simulation. You would work out representative situations in which the practice would occur and depict the situations in computer terms. As part of the simulation you would also provide What if...? conditions for the practice sessions. This would put to the test the student's knowledge of the material being taught. It would aim to convert knowing about a subject to knowing how to engage in it.

Here's what McCormack and Jones have to say about the training:

They go on to say:

Finally, simulation might be used as a component of a Web-based classroom, and could include both study and practice. In this context, the simulation would supplement instructional material. We would then have the makings of what I outlined as a diagnostics package.

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