This guide is intended for use in teaching a course in human and product transportation systems. The purpose of the course is twofold. First, students are introduced to the design process and the steps used to analyze various solutions to basic problems. Second, the course focuses on the application of the design and evaluation process to review a…

A General Policy Systems Theory is outlined and its application at a university in regard to governance in the face of retrenchment is described. The way that this model of nonrigorous but holistic research supports the Purpose, Target, Results (PTR) strategy and is in turn more useful than either operations research/management or science/systems…

This monograph concentrates on the processes of change in a specific social system, the school, and presents specific strategies for promoting system change. It is addressed to school psychologists, counselors, social workers, and pupil personnel workers. The monograph, divided into five chapters, describes both the theoretical and practical…

The existing crises in the schools show a need for some systematic method of planning that leaves little to chance or opinion and which rests more on the scientific techniques of problem solving. Although the use of a systems approach in public programs is just beginning, it seems to hold considerable promise for education. Hence, the Nevada State…

This text is of a series of three handbooks, each intended to provide busy educational executives with a brief, practical overview of one major issue or movement. This book aims at providing both the theoretical base of the management by objectives and results (MBO/R) system of management and suggestions for its practical application. The author…

These proceedings include four articles intended to familiarize librarians with many facets of operations research and how they might be applied to their institutions. The first paper provides a brief definition of operations research. The second presentation, by Ralph Shoffner, relates, in the form of concrete examples, the questions one asks…

A guide for community leaders, extension staff, and community or rural development practitioners outlines the evolution of a regional training model for community-based problem solving in rural areas experiencing economic decline. The paper discusses the model's underlying concepts and implementation process and includes descriptions of four…

A demand for more and better education has driven educators to seek the help of systems analysis in the process of decision making. Basic to the entire systems notion is the concept of a model, a simplified but controllable version of the real world. The systems approach, once the problem is defined, is to specify the subfunctions and…

Argues that impending and inevitable changes to geography fieldwork can be better understood through an appreciation of the systemic nature of fieldwork. This appreciation can help in integrating changes into fieldwork. Discusses various management system models and approaches. (MJP)

Research was conducted to develop and gather evidence of validity for a normative process model to be used by community adult education councils in establishing priority among community-level needs. The study design was based on a five-stage problem solving, systems model involving exploration, model building, design and development, validation,…

The educational applications of computers for instruction, administration, and vocational guidance are herein reviewed. Reports on recent trends in computer-assisted instruction and computer-managed instruction toward forming behavioral objectives and reducing learning time and implementation costs provide an introduction for a description of the…

Contemporary approaches to research and practice in the administration of organizational change tend to emphasize systematic aspects of the process, focusing on the orderly sequencing of such activities as goal-setting, planning, and execution. This emphasis has given rise to efforts to identify and describe overall strategies of organizational…

Discusses the use of artificial intelligence systems in process engineering. Describes a new program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which attempts to advance process engineering through technological advances in the areas of artificial intelligence and computers. Identifies the program's hardware facilities, software support,…

Describes a course on artificial intelligence (AI) in process engineering taught at Columbia University to chemical engineering students, using an AI methodology known as Knowledge-Based Expert Systems (KBES). Provides a description of the course, the lecture topics, and a synopsis of some of the student projects. (TW)

From a system dynamics perspective, distinctions between organizations and their environments are not objective givens, but hypothetical formulations. Wherever a reciprocal effect of variables is hypothesized, these variables are considered to be inside a single problem system. Everything outside this model system is the environment. To…