Information system professionals strive to determine requirements by interviewing clients, observing activities at the client's site, and studying existing system documentation. Still this often leads to vague and inaccurate requirements documentation. When teaching the skills needed to determine requirements, it is important to recreate a…

System stability is a basic concept in courses on dynamic system analysis and control for undergraduate students with computer science backgrounds. Typically, this was taught using a simple simulation example of an inverted pendulum. Unfortunately, many difficult issues arise in the learning and understanding of the concepts of stability,…

INS, the Integrated Network Simulation language, puts simulation modeling into a network framework and automatically performs such programming activities as placing the problem into a next event structure, coding events, collecting statistics, monitoring status, and formatting reports. To do this, INS provides a set of symbols (nodes and branches)…

Computer simulation is recognized as a valuable systems analysis research tool which enables the detailed examination, evaluation, and manipulation, under stated conditions, of a system without direct action on the system. This technique provides management with quantitative data on system performance and capabilities which can be used to compare…

Any effort to change a complex social system should begin by constructing models and simulations of the problem and its social context. These will increase the likelihood of long-term success, decrease the chance of unexpected negative side effects, and help conserve scarce national resources. Models may be of three types: (1) prose models--which…

This paper describes a paradigm for tutorial systems capable of automatically providing feedback and hints in a game environment. The paradigm is illustrated by a tutoring system for the PLATO game "How the West Was Won." The system uses a computer-based "Expert" player to evaluate a student's moves and construct a "differential model" of the…

This report presents a program that derived a compliance test procedure for school buses with a gross vehicle weight of 10,000 pounds or greater. The objective of this program was to evaluate Fuel System Integrity (FMVSS 301) in relation to school buses, conduct a limited state-of-the-art survey and run full-scale dynamic tests to produce an…

This study explores some of the links between the physical education system and its socioeconomic environment. Suggestions are made for designing programs that attempt to accommodate needs at all levels of the system. (CJ)

After identifying the components of a community college financial system as enrollment, costs, revenues and tuition, this paper addresses the need for a system dynamics analysis of a California community college district. This systems approach would assess the possible effects of alternative policies on the characteristic behavior modes of the…

In its most general sense, a system is a group of components integrated to accomplish a purpose. The heart of an educational system is the instructional system. An instructional system is an integrated set of media, equipment, methods, and personnel performing efficiently those functions required to accomplish one or more learning objectives. An…

The Structured Analysis and Design Technique (SADT) analyzes a problem through building a model of the problem on paper which is top-down, modular, hierarchic, and structured. It is a communications vehicle using an iterative author-commenter cycle which focuses attention on defined topics, increases management control, creates a systematic work…

The Educational Simulation Model (ESM), developed by UNESCO, is designed for use at the national level for long range simulation of educational system fluctuations. The model is a set of equations which describe an educational program and the changes and flows in student enrollment in all the courses of an educational system. Thus the model is…

The development of a mathematical model of the Illinois Library and Information Network (ILLINET) is described. Based on queueing network theory, the model predicts the probability of a request being satisfied, the average time from the initiation of a request to the receipt of the desired resources, the costs, and the processing loads. Using a…

The intent of this document is to describe approximately 30 management science and organizational behavioral techniques with practical applications in school business management. Each technique is described by the mechanics of using the technique, specific applications of the technique, and requirements and constraints in the use of the technique.…