M.A. Mariela Castro Kohler, Prof. Dr.

Tobias Hagen
MKWI 2016, TU Ilmenau
Ilmenau, 9.Mrz 2016

IT via ERP: Teaching IT Fundamentals to

Business Administration Students
Background

Objectives

The lack of motivation from first year Business

Administration Students about taking IT courses in
general.
They perceive IT courses in general as too technical, too
difficult or sometimes irrelevant.
IT is seen as a key qualification for business
administrators in a time of digitization and disruptive
innovation in the world economy.
There is an increased trend towards modern learning
paradigms such as E-, B- and M-Learning and digital
Examinations, specially in the entrepreneurial milieu.

Handle IT from the perspective of business users and future

decision-makers.
Acquire the relevant IT knowledge and skills in a collaborative,
integrated and practical business context.
Increase the motivation and genuine interest of students in IT.
Promote life-long, independent, formal and informal learning
among the Students.
Eliminate the learning-by-heart, exam-oriented approach to
learning.
Adapt the teaching and learning methodologies to modern
pedagogical and didactical paradigms.

The IT via ERP Approach

The IT via ERP Framework

Didactical Approach

Flipped Classroom Methodology

E-Examination

An ERP implementation project is used as a learning scenario to work through the basic IT concepts.
Encompasses the integration of various methodologies: B-learning, Gamification, Flipped Classroom, Case Studies and
Online Exams.
Applies the three stages of learning of the inverted classroom: preparation, application and follow-up/extension.
The framework is supported by Moodle-LMS as B-Learning platform and odoo" as the ERP system.
Students solve the case studies in groups. Each group represents an instance of the fictitious company "AutoCrash AG".
They receive a badge after successful completion of the case studies and its quiz at the end of each topic.
The case-based E-examination runs in Moodle under "Safe Exam Browser" as safe testing environment.
The exam consists of a variety of automatically graded questions though sketches need to be corrected manually.

Results and Conclusions

The IT via ERP framework was successfully implemented and applied:
The IT Fundamentals course was the most active Moodle course with an activity completion rate of 92% and
a passing rate of 95.7% in WS15/16.
95% - 100% of the students have regularly actively participated in the classroom sessions.
Students were highly motivated by the group work, gamification badges and quizzes.
Through group work we also addressed the issue of heterogeneity and developed social skills work.
The applied nature of the E-Exam was very well received by students and saved a lot of marking time.
This model requires a significant effort in the initial development of the resources and dedicated time devoted
to the mentoring in class. However, the change in the students attitude towards IT and their improved
performance in class and in the examinations justify these efforts.