Thanks to Pauline Roberts, this new course from the OU - see below for Ray Ison’s commnets
Mastering systems thinking in practice
Free statement of participation on completion
Are you thinking about studying Systems Thinking at postgraduate level and want to become equipped with the knowledge and skills to do so successfully? Do you want to develop new ways of thinking about and approaching situations that cross multiple discipline and skills boundaries? Do you want to learn to think more holistically about complex and messy situations, understand the roles other people play, taking account of the interconnectedness of all the components making up the problem situations and working more collaboratively? If so, then this free badged course, Mastering systems thinking in practice, is for you.
Enrolling on the course will give you the opportunity to earn an Open University digital badge. Badges are not accredited by The Open University but they’re a great way to demonstrate your interest in the subject and commitment to your career, and to provide evidence of continuing professional development.
Once you are signed in, you can manage your digital badges online from My OpenLearn. In addition, you can download and print your OpenLearn statement of participation - which also displays your Open University badge.
After studying this course, you should be able to: challenge systematic thinking and systematic approaches to understanding and working with complex situations explain how and why different systems of interest can be defined and described within complex situations recognise that each person brings with them their own perspective on a situation and to work with those multiple perspectives relate key ideas, techniques and approaches in systems thinking to professional practice when working with complex situations plan how to take the study of systems thinking in practice further for professional development.
At his blog at https://rayison.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/free-course-mastering-systems-thinking.html, OU Professor Ray Ison says:
Ray Ison, Professor in Systems at the UK Open University since 1994, is a member of the Applied Systems Thinking in Practice Group. From 2008-15 he also developed and ran the Systemic Governance Research Program at Monash University, Melbourne. In this blog he reflects on contemporary issues from a systemic perspective. Friday, November 10, 2017 Free course: Mastering systems thinking in practice The Open University through its platform OpenLearn has a series of free courses called BOCs (Badged Open Courses). Obtaining the badge when successfully completed, this short can be put to a range of purposes: gaining prior credit; continuing professional development etc.
My OU colleague Andy Lane has led the development of a new BOC, now available, called Mastering systems thinking in practice. It is ideally suited to those who think our OU STiP programme (postgraduate awards in Systems Thinking in Practice) may be relevant but wish to have a taster before committing to full-blown OU study/modules.