01
Make reasoning visible
Do not automate away the thinking students are expected to learn. Expose structure, equations, assumptions, and meaningful errors where they support understanding.
Open tools for system dynamics education
Software should help students learn to model.
Systemika is an initiative to develop open, pedagogically informed tools for teaching and learning system dynamics—designed around the reasoning learners need to develop, not only the models they need to produce.
An evolving community initiative, not a single finished product.
Learning is the design criterion.
Most system dynamics software is built to help experienced modelers work efficiently. Education poses a different problem. Beginners are developing causal reasoning, understanding accumulation and delays, learning formulation, making mistakes, and connecting structure to behavior. The software environment shapes all of that.
02
Let pedagogy shape the tool
Educators should be able to decide which capabilities appear, when assistance is introduced, and how feedback and representations align with learning objectives.
03
Keep learning open
Students should be able to continue using, inspecting, adapting, and sharing their tools and models beyond a particular course, institution, or license.
Eight design considerations.
The Systemika research agenda frames educational modeling software as a pedagogical environment. These eight considerations guide how tools can support competence as it develops.
ConfigurabilityLet educators sequence capabilities, support, and feedback around learners and objectives.
OpennessMake the environment inspectable, modifiable, extendable, and continuously accessible.
TransparencyKeep important structure and reasoning explicit until abstraction becomes productive.
LegibilityRepresent feedback, accumulation, delays, equations, and behavior so core ideas are easier to perceive.
FeedbackTurn errors and weak formulations into opportunities for diagnosis, explanation, and revision.
TraceabilityPreserve the modeling process—not only the final model—so learning and revision remain visible.
SociabilitySupport discussion, peer feedback, mentoring, review, and collaboration directly around models.
AppealReduce interface-induced frustration and create an environment students want to keep working in.
Systemika StudioThe first tool in the Systemika ecosystem.
Open sourceEducational focusSystem dynamics modeling
A focused modeling and simulation workspace.
Systemika Studio provides the core environment students need to construct, run, inspect, and compare system dynamics models while leaving room for the educational capabilities described by the wider Systemika agenda.
S
Build modelsStocks, flows, variables, links, equations, and visual annotations.
▶
Simulate and inspect behaviorRun or advance simulations, use time and XY plots, and compare model runs.
↺
Keep experiments organizedName, save, revisit, and compare simulation runs as part of model exploration.
⌘
Use it across platformsThe project supports browser-based use and desktop packaging for major operating systems.
More than one application.
Systemika is intended to grow as an ecosystem of focused educational tools. A single package does not need to solve every learning problem; individual tools can stay simple while sharing models, data, and instructional ideas through open standards.
Systemika Studio
Core model construction, simulation, visualization, and run comparison.
Reference modes
Focused practice in recognizing and describing patterns of behavior over time.
Stock–flow reasoning
Purpose-built activities for accumulation, rates, and stock–flow identification.
Formulation practice
Exercises for equations, units, assumptions, and connections between structure and behavior.
Grounded in a research agenda.
Systemika grew from a broader question: if system dynamics treats modeling as a process of learning, how should the environments used to learn modeling be designed?
Manuscript
Design Considerations for Educational System Dynamics Software: A Case for Pedagogical Autonomy
Saeed P. Langarudi · Shahin Ashkiani · Filipe Medeiros · Millie Selvig-Larsen · Raafat Zaini
Under reviewSystem Dynamics Review
People behind the current work.
The initiative brings together system dynamics education, modeling, economics, design, data science, public policy, and technology. The current conceptual work has been developed collaboratively by the authors of the Systemika paper.
SL
Saeed Langarudi
System Dynamics Group
University of Bergen
University of Bergen
System dynamics modeling and pedagogy, model-based policy analysis, computational modeling in education and sustainability.
SA
Shahin Ashkiani
Data & Statistics
Bank of England
Bank of England
System dynamics, heterodox economics, data science, educational software, and open education.
FM
Filipe Medeiros
Political Economy
ISCTE-IUL
ISCTE-IUL
Ecological economics, political economy, and simulation modeling for complex societal problems.
ML
Millie Selvig-Larsen
System Dynamics Group
University of Bergen
University of Bergen
System dynamics education, human-centered design, design theory, public policy, and public health.
MM
Marian Megally
System Dynamics Group
University of Bergen
University of Bergen
System dynamics education, software development, modeling social phenomena.
RZ
Raafat Zaini
Integrated Science & Technology
James Madison University
James Madison University
Systems thinking, simulation, AI, innovation, organizational design, immersive learning, and accessibility.
Help shape better environments for learning system dynamics.
Systemika is intended as a collaborative effort. Educators, students, researchers, designers, and developers can contribute ideas, test educational approaches, improve existing tools, or build new ones.