Making each other smarter: assessing peer mentoring groups as a way to support learning system dynamics

Abstract

This note reports on the experiences of members of these groups, leaders of the nine groups, and senior faculty members i who volunteered to work with some of the groups. Many PMG members were PhD students, while others worked in academia but not as PhD students or in industry and consultancy.Forming new group cohorts started at the International Conference of the System Dynamics Society in Delft, the Netherlands, in 2016 and continued in the following years. This effort was led by Larry Gottschamer, then President of the Student Chapter, and Professor Laura Black, who was serving as an informal adviser to the Student Chapter. The groups were formed based on either mutual research interests or geographic location. While some PMGs fell apart soon after their formation, five of the nine groups were still regularly meeting at the moment of their participation in this survey.A typical PMG meeting followed the following format:• Meetings for 1 hour via online tools (e.g. Zoom, Google Hangouts, WebEx, Skype) on a biweekly or monthly basis. • 4 to 10 participants.• 5 minutes for informal group updates, then 55 minutes for one participant's presentation, and feedback from other participants.