As the trend toward online and distance learning courses in higher education continues, educators and instructional designers continually struggle with efforts to engage and motivate learners located in electronically distributed, asynchronous environments. Studies in the professional literature point to active and problem based learning strategies as possible ways to successfully involve students while raising achievement levels, yet importing such methodologies to the online environment is challenging. Emerging technologies offer hope for the integration of active/problem-based learning with the online instructional environment. One of the most promising of these technologies includes interactive simulation software applications.