Engineering education development – a business modelling approach

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to promote an innovative approach to education development projects by the application of business modelling tools and methods. Design/methodology/approach – The proposed method is based on tools and methods from the business modelling area, such as stakeholder mapping, SWOT analysis, business modelling canvas and scenario analysis. The applicability of the approach is illustrated by a case study conducted on an engineering programme, where qualitative and quantitative data were gathered through interviews, surveys and workshops. Findings – Utilising business modelling tools for development projects in higher education gives several benefits: (1) knowledge-informed decision making; the methods require good understanding of the current situation as well as possible strategies to be applied, that is data gathering is necessary before decision making; (2) structured decision making by applying a step-by-step approach for the development project; (3) including different stakeholder's perspectives in order to gain a holistic understanding and avoid sub optimisation. Originality/value – The approach promotes innovation and action driven development rather than a bureaucratic and metric based improvement process. Tools and models from the business area have previously been applied for educational development. However, a holistic business modelling approach for educational development has not yet been applied.

Keywords

• Action research
• Stakeholder analysis
• Business modelling
• Education development projects
• Engineering education development
• Qualitative and quantitative data gathering