Features of Simulation-Based Educational Programs: Example of Transport Education and Training
The introduction of high technology results in growing demand for practical skills that constitute inherent part of employees' qualifications acquired through on-the-job training as well as during education period. New information and computer-based technology enhances possibility and extends fields of simulation-based training, allowing to integrate elements of virtual reality into the learning process. Effectively the use of simulators has become widespread in education degree programs of high vocational and higher education, as well as in professional training and retraining of the employees in most economic sectors. Regardless of wide expansion of simulation-based training it meets problems of insufficient legal regulation regarding its application in some fields of economic activity. The objective of the paper was to explore approaches to legal regulation of core terms and definitions referred to simulation-based learning in different education fields and sectors of the economy. The suggested analysis of key clauses of Russian national laws is followed by the selected examples of best practices of integration of simulation-based learning into staff training in Russia and other countries. The transport education and training in Russia is now the field where simulators are used in most systematic way, and that is proved by the set of existing national laws and technical regulations, by the consistent implementation of international conventions governing the use of simulators, and by relevant practices. The research allowed to reveal the fields where legal regulations still need to be developed, and to suggest spheres of further development of concepts and differentiation of definitions regarding simulation-based training considering introduction of new computer-based technology.