Using Formative Assessment and Feedback to Train Novice Modelers in Business Process Modeling

Process models play a vital role in modern businesses, specifically in the software development lifecycle to (re)design and (re)engineer business processes. There exists a large body of research on classifying errors in business process modeling (BPM) and on the importance of higher-quality process models in the early design stages. Some works have defined quality frameworks and listed guidelines for modeling to help modelers achieve higher-quality diagrams. But there is no established way in which BPM should be taught, and there is a research gap in connecting instructional design and BPM. The current study addresses this gap by presenting a teaching module on BPM at a higher education institute in blended learning contexts. To improve the skill sets of novice modelers it is crucial to teach them how to interpret and integrate quality into BPM by giving them feedback on errors they make. We achieve this by leveraging pedagogy, incorporating formative assessments and an error typology.