How to schedule limited "live" classroom time to support the use of longer simulations

I have noticed in the last few months, across different types of organizations (academic, military, and corporate) and even in different countries, there has been a common question of how to schedule limited "live" classroom time to support the use of longer simulations. Here's a framework that my clients have found useful:

When deploying longer simulations (multiple hour) in formal learning environments, the instructor has to figure out how to "chunk" the simulation. For example, over the course of a 15 hour simulation, how should "live," synchronous events be allocated and best used?

The most important context is that students in simulations go through cycles of frustration and resolution. In the "lows," students are most prone to quitting the sim, but they are also on the verge of coming to a "resolution" which results in new mental muscles being formed (see the squiggly line on this chart).

Given that, the waves of highs and lows can be fairly predictable. There are typically lows around installing or accessing the sim for the first time, there can be a low around using the interface, there are lows around every major new concept, and there may be a low when a student is challenged to create a strategy to apply the content to real life.

Thus, synchronous events such as classrooms (face to face or virtual, represented as the rectangles in this chart) should be used first to launch the simulation, and then a little bit after each major frustration point as an after action review, and then finally to tie the sim back to real life.

In class, after review the activity; collectively all the learning objectives should be bought out by the students. If they aren't, then review the sim/scenario. Not every student may identify all the learning outcomes, but each should get most, with the gaps caught by the collective. Most importantly do it again, they haven't "learned" if they can't demonstrate a change in behavior/attitude. - Robert Carpenter,
Land Warfare Development Centre

One more note. There needs to be a delay between the time that students first try to install or otherwise access the sim and the time of their first play, best if at least 24 hours. This can be accomplished by either having a free-standing technical session, or having students first access a sim at the end of a previous class.