Advancing Conceptual Modeling Education Towards a Generalized Model Value Proposition

This paper proposes a teaching method and artifact for Conceptual Modeling education, motivated by a challenge in the authors’ university of bridging the gap between bachelor-level studies and research work on topics related to Conceptual Modeling. At bachelor-level, Conceptual Modeling is subordinated to Software Engineering or Business Process Management topics, making extensive use of available standards for graphical documentation purposes. However, at doctoral level and in project-based work, modeling methods must be scientifically framed within wider-scoped paradigms – e.g. Knowledge Management, Enterprise Modeling – or tailored for domain-specific scenarios. The teaching artifact presented in this paper is an example of an “agile modeling method” that can be iteratively evolved together with students through a metamodeling approach in support of a course flow that argues for a generalized model value proposition and modeling languages acting as “schema” that can be tailored and migrated to accommodate explicit requirements from any application domain.