Using simulation to explore reciprocal help seeking in a lifelong learning context

Abstract

In one form or another, every institution participates in business process management practices to constantly improve the delivery of their services. But, as the processes change, so must the employees who have to adapt their knowledge to the changed circumstances by learning from their peers. But whom should an employee ask for help? We propose using simulation as a means of exploring the interactions between help seeking and help giving, to explore the importance of reciprocity, and to understand the impact of incorporating a reciprocal recommender system. We describe SimGrad, a process-based design framework for a simulated graduate school (our 'institution'), as a focused context for studying LLL issues. We use agent-based simulation to model lifelong learners, and discrete event simulation to model their interactions in the help seeking process. While the simulation has not been implemented, the promise of this approach is illustrated through a scenario and example.