Proceedings of the 35th International Academic Conference, Barcelona

IMPROVING TEACHING EPC DIAGRAMS USING SCREENCASTS

RAKESH KAWATRA

Abstract:

In recent years, many undergraduate programs in business have added a course on Business process analysis in the curriculum. In this course students learn skills to design, manage, and improve business processes. One of the tools used for designing and documenting business processes is EPC diagrams. The textbooks covering this tool/technique provide a description of the tool including its purpose and one or more EPC diagrams for sample processes. The textbooks however do not provide logic used at each step of the solution development process making it almost impossible for a student to learn the tool by simply reading the book. An instructor may create an EPC diagram in class for a sample process and while developing it may explain the logic used at each step. Even though a student may understand how to use the tool when it is explained in class, the student may forget it after some time and other than their class notes there is no repository for them to go to after class. Furthermore, it would difficult for a student to draw EPC diagram with the instructor and take notes also about the logic used. And students, who miss the class for some reason, have no place to go to find detailed information about it. We present use of screencasts in explaining how to develop an EPC diagram. This audio-visual presentation can help students learn at their own pace and since it is made available in the repository, students who miss class or are not good at taking notes or tend to have relatively short memory can play it later just before doing a related assignment or exam to refresh the concepts.

Keywords: Screencasts, teaching improvement, EPC diagrams

DOI: 10.20472/IAC.2018.935.024

PDF: Download