Comparison of Required Competences and Task Material in Modeling Education

The reform of the European academic landscape with the introduction of bachelor\u27s and master\u27s degree programs has brought about several profound changes for teaching and assessment in higher education. With regard to the examination system, the shift towards output-oriented teaching is still one of the most significant challenges. Assessments have to be integrated into the teaching and learning arrangements and consistently aligned towards the intended learning outcomes. In particular, assessments should provide valid evidence that learners have acquired competences that are relevant for a specific domain. However, it seems that this didactic goal has not yet been fully achieved in modeling education in computer science. The aim of this study is to investigate whether typical task material used in exercises and exams in modeling education at selected German universities covers relevant competences required for graphical modeling. For this purpose, typical tasks in the field of modeling are first identified by means of a content-analytical procedure. Subsequently, it is determined which competence facets relevant for graphical modeling are addressed by the task types. By contrasting a competence model for modeling with the competences addressed by the tasks, a gap was identified between the required competences and the task material analyzed. In particular, the gap analysis shows the neglect of transversal competence facets as well as those related to the analysis and evaluation of models. The result of this paper is a classification of task types for modeling education and a specification of the competence facets addressed by these tasks. Recommendations for developing and assessing student\u27s competences comprehensively are given

Platform Architecture for the Diagram Assessment Domain

Using e-learning and e-assessment environments in higher education bears considerable potential for both students and teachers. In this contribution we present an architecture for a comprehensive e-assessment platform for the modeling domain. The platform – currently developed in the KEA-Mod project – features a micro-service architecture and is based on different inter-operable components. Based on this idea, the KEA-Mod platform will provide e-assessment capabilities for various graph-based modeling languages such as Unified Modeling Language (UML), EntityRelationship diagrams (ERD), Petri Nets, Event-driven Process Chains (EPC) and the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) and their respective diagram types

Piloteinsatz einer E-Assessment-Plattform für die grafische Modellierung

Die KEA-Mod-Plattform ermöglicht es, Modellierungsaufgaben mit verschiedenen Modellierungssprachen wie z.B. UML, Petri-Netzen, EPK oder BPMN durch Dozierende zu erstellen und von Studierenden bearbeiten zu lassen. Die Plattform kam in einer großen Lehrveranstaltung mit ca. 250 Studierenden zum Piloteinsatz. Die Studierenden konnten mit Hilfe der Plattform und des integrierten Modellierungswerkzeugs eine Aufgabenreihe mit Modellierungsaufgaben zu Petri-Netzen bearbeiten und einreichen. Anschließend erhielten die Studierenden automatisiert generiertes Feedback. Das Poster beschreibt die Evaluation dieses Piloteinsatzes aus der Perspektive der Studierenden und bietet erste Ergebnisse in Bezug auf die Plattform-Usability und zur wahrgenommenen Lernförderlichkeit des Feedbacks

Kompetenzorientiertes E-Assessment für die grafische, konzeptuelle Modellierung = Competence-oriented E‑assessment of Graphical, Conceptual Modelling

In vielen Bereichen der Wirtschaftsinformatik spielt die Erstellung konzeptueller Modelle unter Verwendung grafischer Modellierungssprachen eine wichtige Rolle. Entsprechend wichtig ist eine fundierte Grundausbildung, die sich an den benötigten Modellierungskompetenzen orientiert und daher neben theoretischen auch praktische Aspekte der konzeptuellen Modellierung in den Blick nimmt. Der vorliegende Beitrag stellt erste Ergebnisse aus dem KEA-Mod-Projekt vor, das sich mit der Erstellung eines „digitalen Fachkonzepts“ im Bereich der grafischen, konzeptuellen Modellierung befasst. Kernstück dieses Fachkonzepts ist die Unterstützung der Grundausbildung in der grafischen, konzeptuellen Modellierung durch eine kompetenzorientierte E‑Assessment-Plattform mit automatisierten und individuellen Bewertungs- und Feedbackmöglichkeiten

Repository Platform for Motivating Education

Despite market demand, there is a lack of university graduates, especially in Information Systems (IS) (Granger et al., 2007). To attract both prospective and first-year students to pursue an academic education, universities have to provide a motivating study environment. A recent study reports a dropout rate of 35% for German university Bachelor programs and identifies lack of motivation as one of the main reasons (Heublein et al., 2010). To investigate the effect of showing the practical relevance of theoretical knowledge to students we provided a one-day lab with a fictitious but realistic use-case at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Caporale et al., 2013a). The general lab setting focused on Business Process Management (BPM) and students got the objective to model and improve the business processes of a fictitious company. As the evaluation of the lab showed, many students perceived the lab as a factor contributing to a better understanding of the connection between practical and theoretical aspects of BPM. To extend the lab we propose an integrated teaching concept which does not only consider theoretical foundations as defined in the curriculum (Learn), but also embraces the fields of science (Research) and professional practice (Apply) (Caporale et al., 2013b). To this avail, the fictitious company setting was developed further to provide a generic framework to derive appropriate use cases in order to enable a problem-oriented and holistic learning approach. This way, students directly experience the relevance and applicability of theoretical knowledge which in turn raises motivation.The paradigm shift towards student-centered learning documented in the trend report prepared for the UNESCO 2009 World Conference on Higher Education by Altbach et al. (2009) emphasizes the need to involve students actively in the learning process. According to the authors, there is a trend towards imparting functional knowledge (e.g. the knowledge how to apply theory to practical situations) rather than solely teaching declarative knowledge which has to be memorized and regurgitated. This philosophy is exactly in line with our concept.We are currently developing a platform to support the modeling and instantiation of modern university courses according to our concept. Essential part of this platform is a repository layer, which includes three main repositories: (i) a service repository, which offers functionality for collaboration and communication between participants as well as other course-supporting software like document management; (ii) a course administration repository, which provides general course management tools like course evaluation and user subscriptions and (iii) a didactic repository, which is the most important part as it contains didactical and methodical components as well as an examination toolbox, the fictitious company and the learning content itself. The four components (method, exam, learning content and use case) can be combined to learning items which are also stored in the didactic repository.Above the repository layer, there is the course layer that contains the course modeler. With the help of the course modeler, lecturers can combine and orchestrate the desired repository elements from the repository layer to generate a course instance. Based on the platform integration, the selected elements can be evaluated during each instantiation to allow cyclic and continuous improvement.As technical foundation the platform has a data layer, which consists of a database and a file server. Additionally a platform administration layer includes access control, user management and repository management features

Unleashing the power of NK cells in anticancer immunotherapy

Due to their physiological role in removing damaged cells, natural killer (NK) cells represent ideal candidates for cellular immunotherapy in the treatment of cancer. Thereby, the cytotoxicity of NK cells is regulated by signals on both, the NK cells as well as the targeted tumor cells, and the interplay and balance of these signals determine the killing capacity of NK cells. One promising avenue in cancer treatment is therefore the combination of NK cell therapy with agents that either help to increase the killing capacity of NK cells or sensitize tumor cells to an NK cell-mediated attack. In this mini-review, we present different strategies that can be explored to unleash the potential of NK cell immunotherapy. In particular, we summarize how modulation of apoptosis signaling within tumor cells can be exploited to sensitize tumor cells to NK cell-mediated cytotoxicity