Welcome to the website of the OpenSim project

a free and open-source collaborative System Dynamics modeling framework

source is now located at dev.laptop.org

Collaboration is central to learner-centered learning, but current System Dynamics modeling software does not support it. It is through collaboration that learners interact as both teachers and students and it happens whenever people work together on a model. Research has shown that collaboration supports a range of learning styles, encourages interaction with the computer software, and enables group members to explain concepts to each other (Reimann et al. 2007). Until now collaboration learners needed to be in the same room at the same computer, which effectively limited collaboration to the classroom.

Model building is a way to develop a feedback perspective, improve people's mental models, and develop dynamic thinking (Sterman 2000). The relevant question is: does the lack of collaboration in model building hinder the development of a feedback perspective in students? Research has shown that collaboration in other parts of the modeling process, including conceptualizing the problem and presenting the results have had positive effects (Thomson & Reimann 2007, Singhanayok & Hooper 1998, Reimann et al. 2007). OpenSim is the next step. OpenSim is free and open-source software released under the GPL. We currently (June 2008) have a basic simulation engine working that can be run through a command-line program. The graphical modeling tool is being designed for the XO laptop from OLPC, but will eventually be ported to standard Linux, Windows and Mac systems. More information on OpenSim in general and the OLPC work in particular can be found on the page Model on the OLPC wiki.

What OpenSim is

  • focused on collaboration
  • free and open-source
  • developed with education in mind
  • targeted for beginners, but (currently) only ready for developers

What OpenSim is NOT

  • a replacement for Vensim or any other commercial solution
  • complete ;)

To be clear, OpenSim is designed for use in education, especially for use when students (especially in primary and secondary schools) are first learning SD. It is not designed, or anticipated, to be a replacement for commercial software. For things like policy optimization, monte-carlo simulations, and anything beyond basic modeling you are still better off with the commercial software. Eventually if you want to do this more advanced modeling and analysis you will be able to save a model in OpenSim in a format that you can read in a commercial program, or you can contribute and add the missing features you want to the OpenSim project.

Enjoy!
Bobby Powers

Opensim Starting Points

For a complete list of local wiki pages, see TitleIndex.