DEVELOPING INTERACTIVE COMPUTER-BASED SIMULATIONS - AN OBJECT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT METHODOLOGY ENHANCES COMPUTER-ASSISTED-INSTRUCTION

The purpose of this research was to investigate the application of obj ect-oriented technology and AI techniques to enhance development of co mputer-based training simulations. Towards that end, a comprehensive c omputer-assisted instructional unit was developed to teach the skills and concepts of window-based applications, the OS/2 desktop, and the u se of a patient care information system. By taking advantage of sophis ticated computer graphics for the visual representation of objects and the behavioral modeling capabilities of the object-oriented language, domain knowledge modeling and human-computer interactions were implem ented without complex natural language processing techniques. The resu lts of this research indicate that nurses and physicians are able to l earn the basic skills and concepts of computer systems and how to quer y for patient information. The new methodology described for building these computer-assisted instructional simulations significantly eased the training and teaching of large numbers of nurses and physicians an d simplified their transition to a complex, computer-based hospital in formation system environment.