Systems Thinking about MOOC interactions

[John Graves]

isee systems, "the world leader in Systems Thinking software," has a
software product called STELLA.

With this software, you can build interactive simulation models which
can be shared on the web using the companion software product, netSIM.
They have a gallery of examples at
http://www.iseesystems.com/community/downloads/NetsimModels.aspx
(see the second section on "Education & Research")

The ideas behind this software are explained in a series of white papers
/ chapters at
http://www.iseesystems.com/Resources/Whitepapers.aspx

Chapter 1,
http://www.iseesystems.com/resources/Articles/STELLA%20IST%20-%20Chapter%201.pdf
says:

"Why do we continue to make so little
progress in addressing our many, very pressing social concerns?
My answer is that the way we think, communicate, and learn is
outdated. As a result, the way we act creates problems. And then,
we’re ill-equipped to address them because of the way we’ve been
taught to think, communicate and learn. This is a pretty sweeping
indictment of some very fundamental human skills, all of which our
school systems are charged with developing! However, it is the
premise of this Chapter (and Systems Thinking) that it is possible to
evolve our thinking, communicating and learning capacities. As we
do, we will be able to make progress in addressing the compelling
slate of issues that challenge our viability. But in order to achieve
this
evolution, we must overcome some formidable obstacles. Primary
among these are the entrenched paradigms governing what and how
students are taught. We do have the power to evolve these paradigms.
It is now time to exercise this power! "

The chapter goes on to propose models for thinking, communicating and
learning.
Please read the chapter and post responses to these questions:

What do you think of this approach?

If you have a working knowledge of STELLA and/or netSIM, how could the
models proposed by isee be adapted to model the MOOC learning
environment?

John Graves
john....@aut.ac.nz
+64 21 213 8367 (mobile)
http://bit.ly/JohnGravesLinkedIn

[Jose I. Icaza]

Nice defense of dynamic systems thinking and all the cognitive benefits of having students learn it.

I think figure 1-16 precisely models ideal learning in a MOOC: you have there selection of what to learn, gradually building mental models, self reflection, sharing, other people's learning and so on. Since the MOOC is very asynchronous and people participate at random times of various days, more delays would have to be inserted at several of the arrows. 

Missing is the dynamics of registration and participation. I don't have STELLA on hand, but a parallel diagram would feature a stock of people who have registered, which gets divided into 2 flows to other 2 stocks: lurkers and active participants, both leading to an exit flow; also, some of the lurkers at some point decide to become active, so there would be an extra flow between these two stocks.

Am I missing anything else? I use VENSIM, similar to STELLA, in my Sustainability graduate course.

Thanks for sharing this interesting paper.=)

--jose

[Mary Jean]

Students spend most of their time acquiring/assimilating knowledge -
well, uh, yes! Where else are they going to get it if not in school?
Jay Leno's man on the street - questions asked of people passing never
fails to bring laughter. It is obvious, there are many who have failed
even that simple task in school. The students' being tested being a
direct reflection of the teacher's drill/memorize with successful
results= keep your job/raise the schools % and money for education- no
hostile take over by corporations thinking they can do a better job.
Boy howdy, have we come a long way to promote what you are trying to
propose as the direction all schools need to take.

Jean

On Jul 2, 12:38 am, "John Graves" <john.gra...@aut.ac.nz> wrote:
> isee systems, "the world leader in Systems Thinking software," has a
> software product called STELLA.
>
> With this software, you can build interactive simulation models which
> can be shared on the web using the companion software product, netSIM.

> They have a gallery of examples athttp://www.iseesystems.com/community/downloads/NetsimModels.aspx

> (see the second section on "Education & Research")
>
> The ideas behind this software are explained in a series of white papers
> / chapters athttp://www.iseesystems.com/Resources/Whitepapers.aspx
>

> Chapter 1,http://www.iseesystems.com/resources/Articles/STELLA%20IST%20-%20Chap...

> john.gra...@aut.ac.nz
> +64 21 213 8367 (mobile)http://bit.ly/JohnGravesLinkedIn