Personally, I believe the more hands-on experience, the better the learning experience. Being able to touch and move things around involve more of the senses and more activity from the student, increasing the possibility of retaining more from the experience. I don't believe that computer-based simulators are the answer. Such simulators are cost effective and that's the only benefit that might be derived from using them. However, put someone in the laboratory that has been trained entirely on simulators and that person will be lost. I believe that TIMS and computer-based simulators have complementary roles. As computers get less expensive and simulation software becomes cheap also, I would like to assign students homework that uses a simulator as preparatory work for using the TIMS equipment in the laboratory. Then I would have the best of both worlds.
