Main technical features and functionalities
visNetwork is an R package based on the vis.js: A dynamic, browser based visualization library. (see other review)
The visNetwork can be used as a package in R for designing networks with interactions. Once the network is designed it can be migrated to the R Shiny Graphical User Interface for manipulation of selected data by students.

To use visNetwork it is recommended to have R Studio installed on the computer. R Studio is freely available and with a huge user community for support. Within R Studio it is possible to program indifferent modes, from terminal, from the R console or by using scripts.

VisNetwork is easy to use for anyone with basic programming skills. The functions and variables are easy to understand, both from the programmers view and from the system theorists´. ´With these basic skills it easy and quick to create networks with nodes of different types and edges with different significance for the system functioning.

VisNetwork as such is mainly a visualization tool, but put in the context of R programming it is possible to connect elements and edges to other functions available in R. This makes visNetwork highly versatile.

visNetwork would not be easy to use for students without any previous acquaintance with R. For students with previous knowledge there would be a certain learning period, but which would be possible to overcome depending the complexity of their system task. The user guide is easy to follow with well organized examples showing the functions. There is also an extensive documentation for anyone who wish to dig deeper into the opportunities.

A possible wider use of the package would be for lecturers who endure the learning period to create examples of systems within their disciplinary domain. These examples could then be migrated R Shiny and used as learning examples where the students may interact with the constructed system, manipulate certain variables and even functions, do simulations and print out results to include in reports.

Examples on how to use them to analyse Complex Systems
visNetwork is one of many tools that can be used to visualize networks and their properties. It can display key elements of different types and their interlinkages, type and strengths of relationships, structural properties, communities, diffusion patterns and network evolution. This is done by assigning color, size, position and shape of the visual elements representing the network constitutents. Within each of these visual properties choices can be made to assign more detailed properties to the visual elements to represent different characteristics of the elements and relations in the networked system.
To the non-programmer this may seem as overwhelming, but in reality it is just another way of describing and codifying the components of a system than the narratives used in social sciences.
The package is very much a multi-purpose too for any kind of network visualization. There are plenty of tutorials and manuals available for the potential user.
As said above, it can be used both to play around with in the work of construction of system models and it can be used to expose students to constructed system models in which they can test the outcome of redefining certain properties through simulations.
The value of such simulations depend of course the capability of the system constructer to frame systems and to define the types of relationships in the system.
The following references show how the package can be used to design networks in systems
https://mran.microsoft.com/snapshot/2018-08-24/web/packages/visNetwork/vignettes/Introduction-to-visNetwork.html<br /> https://towardsdatascience.com/from-igraph-to-visnetwork-7bc5a76fdeec<br /> https://kateto.net/polnet2017<br />