Educational simulations for teaching, skills development, and evaluation for universities, corporations, and nonprofit organizations.

Fascination Lab in partnership with UCLA, USC, Stanford University and Johns Hopkins University approached the Bureau Of Small Projects to develop a ed-tech app with multiparty and asynchronous simulation modules that could be scaled from as few as ten participants and up to three hundred, spanning as few as several hours all the way through full semester-length experiences. These simulations blend in-person and online aspects for a total experience.

Each participant is provided access to the simulation dashboard, accessible on the internet from any device with a modern web browser. From there, participants are provided instructions, tools, and initial resources required to begin the simulation. The dashboard allows participants to create collaborative documents, presentations, and other materials for both assessment and game-playing purposes. The instructor/facilitator will have the ability to engage with all participants, upload and edit materials and resources, as well as enjoy a full ‘overview’ of the simulation (participants, roles, groups, parameters, etc.).

An engaging feature of thses simulation experiences is the ability for participants to communicate through instant ‘chats’ with other players. These discussions often occur outside of class, and allow for students to collaborate within teams and engage other groups. The chat conversations open up creative opportunities for the instructor/facilitator to not only interact with participants, but also “push” updates, assignments, and other important information instantly. Furthermore, the chat functionality allows for rich data collection and analytics opportunities, which dramatically assist and improve the assessment process and grading.