Not even the most brilliant conceptual model would be of any use if no one could understand it. A basic precondition for a models’ usefulness in practice is that it is comprehensible. In this keynote, I will give an overview on the vibrant stream of cognitive research on conceptual modeling and summarize empirical evidence on how to develop useful and understandable (visual) conceptual models. More precisely, I will present a systematic summary of empirical and theoretical work on the sources of cognitive effort in comprehending visual conceptual models. Such insights can be a valuable enhancement to any modeling course!

Kathrin Figl (Vienna University of Economics and Business)

Dr. Kathrin Figl is an Assistant Professor in the Institute for Information Systems and New Media at the Vienna University of Economics (WU). She received her Doctoral (awarded with the Dr. Maria Schaumayer Award) and two Master’s in Information Systems and Psychology, both with honours, from the University of Vienna. Her research focuses on human-centric development and design of information systems and she has published in journals such as the Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Decision Support Systems, Information & Management, Requirements Engineering, the AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction and the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. In 2017, she published the state-of-the-art article “Comprehension of Procedural Visual Business Process Models – A Literature Review” in the journal Business & Information Systems Engineering (open access link: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12599-016-0460-2).

Using case–based learning when teaching enterprise modeling could provide the realism needed for students to understand the complexity of a real modeling situation. This realism could be enhanced further by having case material presented in the form similar to what is found in modeling practice, such as recorded interviews and internal and external documents. However, creating this kind of material may be costly, thus there is an interest in reusing case material in several courses. In this paper, the issue of reusing case material is examined from two angles. Firstly, a feasibility study has been completed based on an example where existing multi-media material created for one course, potentially, could be reused in other courses. In the feasibility study interviews with teachers has been carried out, resulting in a set of identified opportunities and challenges for reusing case material. Secondly, these challenges and opportunities were compared and discussed in the light of actual experience where case material has been reused in three different courses.

Martin Henkel, Ilia Bider, Erik Perjons, Filip Mårtensson and Martin Zainali

Conceptual modeling is an essential activity in the development of any information system. But at the same time, it is a difficult one which may discourage some professionals that may be tempted to skip it altogether in favor of more code-oriented tasks. In recent years, gamification has emerged as a new approach to increase learner engagement and has been successfully applied to a wide range of training and educational scenarios. We believe gamification can play a key supportive role in teaching and learning conceptual modeling, an area where gamification has not been really applied so far. In this sense, this paper presents a model-based approach for gamifying scenarios for learning modeling. Our approach includes a new language for modeling the gamification process itself and an environment where this new language can be embedded in current modeling tools to allow instructors and students design and use gaming scenarios all within a full modeling infrastructure.

Valerio Consentino, Sébastien Gérard, Jordi Cabot

Software reuse is the practice of using artifacts from existing systems to build new ones. It has been shown effective for improving quality and maintainability and for reducing cost and development time. Human factors have been identified as significant barriers to a wider adoption of reuse practices in industry. In this paper we consider a tool-supported approach for systematic reuse of object-oriented programs (written in Java) based on polymorphism-inspired mechanisms. The suggested tool gets as input implementations of multiple products, and produces a visual representation of the similarities and variabilities between their classes in terms of exhibits behaviors, as well as presents possible reuse options. We discuss the suitability of this approach for educational and training settings, and specifically for supporting reuse decisions of novice developers.

Anna Zamansky and Iris Reinhartz-Berger