What If…? Measuring Impacts of Policy Decisions on Technical Resources

This ECAR research bulletin discusses how systems dynamics is being applied to higher education administration. It offers a case study for modeling growth in usage of a learning management system (LMS). This model was used to identify the current capacity of the system-wide LMS at the University System of Georgia and forecast the impact of the rapidly increasing faculty and student demands on the system. The LMS Capacity Planning Model offered administrators an overview of the entire operating environment, including hardware, application, database, network, and personnel, and it enabled them to evaluate the impact of policy decisions and operational rules over time on technical capabilities and resources.