Facilitators' experiences with virtual simulation and their impact on learning.

Background: Increasingly, virtual simulations are being integrated into higher education. A successful experience goes far beyond simply offering learners access to a virtual simulation; it requires a facilitator who understands the learners' needs and course objectives, choses the right virtual simulation for the learner, creates a welcoming space that promotes learning, and evaluates the experience.

Methods: Facilitators from three different healthcare programs and six educational institutions and students from two different healthcare programs were included in this exploratory qualitative research study.

Virtual simulation in healthcare education: a multi-professional, pan-Canadian evaluation.

Background: As we experience a shortage of healthcare providers in Canada, it has become increasingly challenging for healthcare educators to secure quality clinical placements. We evaluated the impact of virtual simulations created for the virtual work-integrated learning (Virtu-WIL) program, a pan-Canadian project designed to develop, test, and offer virtual simulations to enrich healthcare clinical education in Canada. Evaluation was important since the virtual simulations are freely available through creative commons licensing, to the global healthcare community.