Introduction

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become increasingly important and necessary to conduct research and teaching activities online. While many universities quickly started the transition to online teaching, most in-person research activities were typically postponed. However, in order to not significantly delay research, researchers are increasingly seeking to conduct activities, such as workshops, in a virtual setting. Following this initial period of disruption, it is expected that many online or hybrid activities will continue to be used and, in some cases, may replace in-person interactions due to cost, time, convenience, and environmental concerns after the COVID-19 crisis has passed. Researchers and/or stakeholders are often geographically dispersed, which independently motivates the use of online or hybrid workshop activities.

Different types of online activities and tools related to system dynamics have existed for some time. They include interactive simulation environments such as Climate Interactive's widely used C-ROADS and En-ROADS models (e.g. Rooney-Varga et al., 2020) as well as purpose-built solutions for single workshops (e.g. Eker et al., 2018). There is online system dynamics training (https://www.systemdynamics.org/online-course-catalog) and programmes (Pavlov et al., 2014), and researchers have reported about online peer mentoring groups (Richardson et al., 2015; Suprun et al., 2020). The 2020 International Conference of the System Dynamics Society ran online and included a workshop by Michael Bean on delivering online simulations, particularly in teaching contexts. In addition, fuelled by the effects of COVID-19, the idea of online system dynamics workshops is gaining prominence. Virtual delivery of workshops has been reported sparsely in the areas of problem-structuring methods and group-support systems (Yearworth and White, 2017, 2019), and there is a single recent contribution in the area of system dynamics (Wilkerson et al., 2020). It is time to further discuss the practicalities of moving workshops online and make some recommendations for effective online workshop delivery.

Here, we report on three cases of conducting system dynamics workshops online: first, confirmatory/disconfirmatory workshops that included online participants because of an internationally diverse project team; second, an En-ROADS Climate Workshop that was part of an online system dynamics lecture; and third, group model building (GMB) and project prioritisation workshops moved online in response to social-distancing restrictions during the COVID-19 lockdown. We describe these three cases and insights derived from them for online system dynamics workshop delivery and then discuss implications and future research avenues.

中文翻译：

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在线迁移：在虚拟环境中进行系统动力学研讨会的反思

介绍

由于COVID-19大流行，在线开展研究和教学活动变得越来越重要和必要。尽管许多大学迅速开始了向在线教学的过渡，但大多数面对面的研究活动通常都被推迟了。但是，为了不显着延迟研究，研究人员越来越多地寻求在虚拟环境中开展活动，例如研讨会。在此中断的最初阶段之后，预计将继续使用许多在线或混合活动，并且在某些情况下，由于成本，时间，便利性和环境方面的担忧，在COVID-19危机后可能会取代亲身互动。已通过。研究人员和/或利益相关者通常在地理位置上分散，这独立地激发了在线或混合研讨会活动的使用。

与系统动态相关的各种类型的在线活动和工具已经存在了一段时间。它们包括交互式仿真环境，例如Climate Interactive广泛使用的C-ROADS和En-ROADS模型（例如Rooney-Varga等，  2020），以及针对单个车间的专用解决方案（例如Eker等，  2018）。有在线系统动力学培训（https://www.systemdynamics.org/online-course-catalog）和程序（Pavlov等，  2014），研究人员报告了有关在线同伴指导小组的信息（Richardson等，  2015）。 ; Suprun等人，  2020年）。2020年系统动力学学会国际会议在线运行，并包括迈克尔·宾德（Michael Bean）举办的关于提供在线仿真（特别是在教学环境中）的研讨会。此外，在COVID-19的影响下，在线系统动力学研讨会的想法正日益受到重视。在问题的解决方法和小组支持系统领域，稀少地报告了讲习班的虚拟交付情况（Yearworth和White，  2017年，2019年），并且最近在系统动力学方面做出了一个贡献（Wilkerson等人，  2020年）。现在是时候进一步讨论在线移动研讨会的实用性，并为有效的在线研讨会交付提出一些建议了。

在这里，我们报告了在线进行系统动力学研讨会的三种情况：首先，由于国际项目团队的参与，确认性/不确定性研讨会包括了在线参与者。其次，是En-ROADS气候研讨会，这是在线系统动力学讲座的一部分；第三，为了响应COVID-19锁定期间的社会距离限制，小组模型构建（GMB）和项目优先级研讨会在网上转移。我们描述了这三种情况以及从中得出的关于在线系统动力学研讨会交付的见解，然后讨论了影响和未来的研究途径。