Motivating Course Concept: Using Active Labs For BPM Education

While there is a need for business process management professionals in economy, enrolment in IS programs is declining. The resulting gap is even widened by early terminations of students due to various reasons. Missing motivation, as one of these reasons, is tackled by the Active Lab course concept presented in this paper. Such Active Labs are inspired by Social BPM Labs, which represent course units for experiencing business process modelling in a collaborative environment. First feedback related to Social BPM Labs indicated a positive effect on students’ motivation. To leverage this outcome, during an Active Lab theoretical contents are combined with practical application and current research topics. Furthermore, the usage of active learning techniques like problem-based learning or role-play simulations is proposed to foster students’ engagement with the ultimate goal to raise their motivation and thus reduce drop-out rates. Additionally, functionalities of a software platform are sketched that will support the planning, preparation, execution and evaluation of Active Labs. This concept is currently under development at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), hence the presented results are still subject to change.