ABSTRACT
Virtual Environment (VE) technologies provide unprecedented opportunities to train skill sets in highly relevant and highly realistic environments. Unfortunately, if not utilized appropriately, VEs can have negligible or even negative effects on training. This chapter will summarize the advantages of using VEs to train, optimal use strategies and techniques, issues which can emerge if not used appropriately, and how to effectively minimize these issues. Simulators offer an ecologically valid training platform, one that approximates real-life situations that can facilitate perception and interaction in a relatively unconstrained situated learning paradigm that supports consolidated knowledge acquisition. To ensure a simulated training system can meet its intended objectives, it is necessary to identify training goals early in the training system design cycle. Simulated training systems should be used in combination with other instructional media to optimize learning, and are best inserted into the training curriculum after classroom training.
