Teaching with Simulation: An Instructor Course Certificate Program (Nov 09 - 13, 2026)

Teaching with Simulation: An Instructor Course Certificate Program is organized by Penn State University (PSU) College of Medicine Continuing Education and will be held from Nov 09 - 13, 2026 at Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States of America.

Overview:
Simulation is increasingly being integrated into almost every curriculum in institutions worldwide, and the need for qualified instructors continues to grow. Since most instructors who use traditional teaching methodologies need specific instruction in using simulation effectively, this course facilitates such training that has been, until now, costly, distant and time-consuming.

Using simulation effectively is part science, part art, part experience and a large part practice after reflective instruction. Faculty development impacts the effectiveness of any program but has special significance for simulation programs that are now being realized and validated everywhere.

This course offering, revised in accordance with requests from previous course participant feedback, will help to meet the need for additional simulation instructors and has been designed to develop professional staff to teach effectively using simulation. This will be evident throughout active engagement, reflection, discussion, checklists and written evaluations throughout the week. While the course is oriented toward clinical simulations, the skill set learned is transferable to other learning situations that require feedback, facilitation and course development.

Topics:
This course includes didactic and experiential learning, practice and reflective feedback. Each participant will have the opportunity to assume the various roles of the simulation process, including simulated learner, simulated instructor and simulated meta-instructor.

• Simulation fundamentals, philosophy and scope
• A sample simulation with debriefing
• Learner focus – taking risks, building the logic, owning the learning
• Simulation and education theory
• Curriculum design
• Feedback and coaching in skills acquisition
• Design, implementation and debriefing simulations, and practice, lots of practice
• Asking questions effectively
• Creating high-level learning outcomes, objectives and activities
• Team training and how to create scenarios for learning
• Simulation strategies – tips, controversies and the challenging participant/challenging debrief
• Incorporating simulation into a curriculum – when to use simulation or not
• Using human-standardized patients
• Advanced debriefing techniques
• Combining different types of simulation modalities – in situ simulation and gaming
• Incorporating interprofessional education into simulation
• An introduction to various technological tools – virtual reality, 3D printer
• Simulation theory and education research
• Fidelity and other simulation controversies and philosophies
• The simulation community, center accreditation and individual certification
• Program and session evaluation
• Faculty development
• OSTE and OSCE
• Moulage