Constructing2Learn
Computer-based modelling is playing an increasingly important role in scientific topics as diverse as ecology, epidemiology, economics, sociology, animal behaviour, and climate. There is a growing awareness that university students in these fields need to learn how models are built and how they work, and yet they do not typically have computer programming skills. We attempted to remedy this by developing a tool that enables students to build models by composing high-level pre-built components, by integrating the tool with a learning activity management system, and by creating and trialling a few computer model construction learning designs.
Executive Summary
We developed a modelling tool called the BehaviourComposer that students without prior computer programming experience could use to build, execute, and analyse serious models in their subject of study. The novel idea underlying the BehaviourComposer is that students can browse, modify, and compose small units of behaviour at a higher-level of interaction than otherwise possible. This made the tool appealing to academics because students can quickly be productive without first mastering the complex technical skill of programming. We integrated the tool with LAMS 2.0 so that learning designs that included use of the BehaviourComposer could be authored, executed, and monitored. We built a few LAMS sequences and two detailed activity designs that were used by students on the MBA and MSc Management Research programmes at Oxford’s Said Business School and by third year biology students in the Department of Zoology at Oxford University.
We constructed a library of micro-behaviours that support the construction of models of collective animal decision making, a relative agreement model in sociology of how extremism can prevail, models of disease propagation and prevention, a model of an artificial economy, and a predator prey model from ecology. We built and disseminated several sample models using this library.
We first trialled the software and an associated LAMS activity sequence with about 20 Oxford MBA students in April and May 2007. In a single session, using pre-built behaviours and a step-by-step guide, they built an artificial society based upon the book Growing Artificial Societies by Joshua M. Epstein and Robert Axtell (1996). Later, in October 2007 about 30 Oxford Zoology undergraduates used our software and learning designs to build models of how a disease might spread differently depending upon the structure of the social relationships of the population.
The scientific modelling and simulation research community has been very receptive to our research, accepting two papers for publication. We also made over thirty presentations to individual researchers, research groups and conferences. The recently started Modelling4All project is building directly upon the work done in the Constructing2Learn project, as are the ReMath and MiGen projects at the London Knowledge Lab.