Whenever I tackle anything new, especially if it's big and new, I like to examine what I know and what I don't know. What the givens, are and what remain variables. In a way, it's like sorting the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, where the edge pieces are the givens, and everything else is a variable.

Here are some of the ideas that we consider givens in simulation design:

• We use simulations to provide safe practice in making critical decisions (with our clients, mostly soft skills, but sims are excellent for mechanical or other processes, too)
  
  
• We use avatars to make soft skill simulations more social and engaging (this social sensibility also gains us trust and credibility with learners)
  
  
• Avatars can demonstrate, coach or role play with the learner (all are valid roles, depending on the learning objectives and social setting)
  
  
• The more real-world we can make the simulation, the better results we will get (something to remember here is that the real world may not be simple or predictable, so neither should sims be)
  
  
• In a simulation, if learners don't have a good opportunity to fail, they also don't have a good opportunity to learn (the real advantage to building in failure is that you can help learners discriminate between small, but important, concepts and options)
  
  
• The simpler, more streamline we can construct the simulation, the more learning time will be available (when there's value in it, people will go through a sim more than once...so don't use up more time than necessary; this gives them more time to practice)
  
  
• The construction of the simulation should give the learner the same sort of options, process, flow as the real situations (even while designing in failures and demanding critical thought, you don't want to trick the learner) 

Do you have any other givens, to add to our list? Let me know!