Key Information
About the content
Learn how to use systems and complexity thinking to address a variety of social, managerial and policy problems.
Systems thinking provides theory and practical tools for seeking solutions to messy social and organisational problems at local, regional and global levels.
A system’s behaviour emerges from interactions between its elements. Systems thinking starts with qualitative diagrams but as the number of elements, relations and feedback loops increases we need the computational approach of complex systems science.
Using real-world examples the course provides methods and tools for your own examples, enabling you to apply systems and complexity thinking in your personal and professional life.
Syllabus
By the end of the course, you'll be able to...
- Apply systems thinking to a wide variety of social and technical systems
- Apply the method of drawing systems diagrams to represent systems and their dynamics
- Apply the Formal Systems Model to practical situations
- Apply knowledge of feedback loops and their likely impact on system behaviours
- Apply the concepts of Complex Systems System to understand why systems are unpredicatble
- Collaborate with others analysing and improving systems
Instructors
Jeffrey Johnson
Professor of Complexity Science and Design at the Open University & Deputy President of the UNESCO UniTwin Complex Systems Digital Campus.
Content Designer
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN).
Its purpose is to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science, and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and human rights along with fundamental freedom proclaimed in the United Nations Charter.
It is the heir of the League of Nations' International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation.
Platform
FutureLearn is a massive open online course (MOOC) learning platform founded in December 2012.
It is a company launched and wholly owned by The Open University in Milton Keynes, England. It is the first UK-led massive open online course learning platform, and as of March 2015 included 54 UK and international University partners and unlike similar platforms includes four non-university partners: the British Museum, the British Council, the British Library and the National Film and Television School.
