“The most valuable part of a simulation may begin when the simulation ends.”
Much has been written about the value of simulations as a way to practice before the stakes are real. They allow learners to step into authentic situations, make difficult decisions, experience the consequences of those decisions, and build confidence through experience.
But over time, we’ve come to believe that the simulation itself is only part of the learning.
The greatest opportunity often comes immediately afterward.
A Key Moment in Time
When a learner completes a simulation, they are in a unique moment. The decisions they made are still fresh. The uncertainty they experienced is still real. The emotions, trade-offs, and consequences have not yet faded into memory. Educational psychologists have long argued that experience alone does not produce learning. It is the reflection on that experience that transforms it into deeper understanding.
This idea is reinforced by recent research on simulations in leadership preparation. In one study, aspiring school leaders who completed structured debriefs after simulations demonstrated meaningful reflection, connected their experiences to prior practice, identified broader leadership lessons, and considered how they would respond differently in future situations. Even in fully asynchronous courses, carefully designed debriefs helped move learners through the complete experiential learning cycle (See Experiential learning through simulations in fully online asynchronous courses: Exploring the role of self-debriefing, by David De Jong and Sara Dexter).
Our own work has consistently pointed in the same direction. Whether simulations are used in leadership preparation, teacher development, induction, or professional learning, the conversations that follow the experience are often where the most meaningful growth occurs. Faculty, mentors, and district leaders report that simulations provide a shared experience that makes professional thinking visible and creates a rich foundation for coaching and discussion.
Coaching With Context
This raises an important question.
What if every simulation ended with a coach?
Not a coach that simply tells learners whether they made the “right” decision.
A coach that asks better questions.
- What assumptions influenced your thinking?
- Which stakeholders received the most attention?
- What information did you overlook?
- How did uncertainty affect your decisions?
- If you encountered a similar situation tomorrow, what would you do differently?
These are coaching questions, not grading questions. They encourage learners to examine not only what they decided, but how they arrived there.
Technology Takes us Deeper
Advances in artificial intelligence create an opportunity to make this kind of coaching available after every simulation. Rather than replacing instructors, mentors, or instructional coaches, AI can provide an immediate first conversation while the experience is still fresh. It can draw upon every decision the learner made, every consequence they experienced, and every reflection they shared to personalize the discussion in ways that have not previously been practical at scale.
We believe this represents a different way of thinking about AI coaching.
Instead of beginning with a blank conversation, the coaching begins with a rich, shared experience.
The simulation becomes a coachable moment by design.
When learners repeatedly move through cycles of practice, reflection, coaching, and application, they do more than improve individual decisions. They strengthen professional judgment, build self-efficacy, and develop what we have previously described as grounded hope – the earned confidence that comes from having practiced difficult situations before facing them in real life.
This is the beginning of a new chapter in simulation-based learning. Not because artificial intelligence changes how people learn, but because it has the potential to ensure that every meaningful practice experience is followed by an equally meaningful coaching conversation.
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