Exploratory Study on Students' Understanding of Multi-perspective Modelling

Computer Science education programs often include courses on both UML and BPMN to teach students the methodology and the principles behind information systems development. While these modelling languages are typically taught in separate courses or course sections, in practice, the UML Class diagram and the BPMN process model provide different perspectives of the same information system. Therefore, students should be taught how to differentiate between these perspectives and maintain consistency between them. The goal of this exploratory study is to determine the effect that actively modelling both the UML Class diagram and the BPMN process model for a same case has on the students' understanding of multi-perspective modelling. This is done by means of an observational study with 6 students. The students were asked to think out loud while first creating a UML class diagram and then creating a BPMN process model for a given case. At the end of the study, the students filled in a questionnaire about their experience. The most important result from this experiment is that there is a potential correlation between the understanding of multi-perspective modeling and overall model quality. The study highlights points of consideration for future studies, such as time constraints and modelling experience of the participants, and prompts new research questions for further research.