Authoring systems for laboratory experiment simulators

Laboratory experiment simulation represents one of the most important future application areas of computing in science and engineering education. The development and application of this type of simulation has progressed slowly due to the substantial efforts and costs which are required. This situation continues because of the extensive need for source code programming. Existing authoring systems, which may eliminate the need for most programming in simple computer-based instruction, do not have the features that are necessary or desirable for laboratory simulator development. This paper briefly describes a typical simulator and reviews the features of current commercial authoring systems. This leads to a description of the desired features that should be included in advanced authoring systems so that they can be utilized in the creation of simulators involving laboratory experiments. The creation of these features for new authoring systems appears to be quite feasible and is warranted by the potential educational benefits of the simulators.