Process simulators are powerful supporting tools employed at all educational levels of engineering education. Meanwhile, digitalization is obliging the educational systems to adapt. In this new era marked by the Industry 4.0 movement, the formulation and implementation of models are fundamental for process digitalization; therefore, students and new trainees must be familiar with process models, simulators and programming. In this work, a computer-aided framework for the development of process simulators is proposed (P2Si). This framework integrates the following aspects: (i) the use, reuse, and explanation of process models; (ii) a tailored learning design; (iii) game elements; and, (iv) the use of students as co-designers through participatory design to improve the human-computer interaction. Through the application of a series of hierarchical steps, the framework’s workflow aims to arrive at a promising candidate to facilitate the teaching of processes. Furthermore, a proof of concept is developed for the teaching and training of undergraduate students, where the case of an aerobic microbial conversion process at industrial scale is explored. By applying this framework, we obtained the conceptual design of a pedagogical process simulator, which was then implemented as a prototype software platform, BioVL (www.biovl.com), for further development and testing. The main output of this work is the conceptual design of pedagogical process simulators integrating gamification and the use of process models as educational tools. In conclusion, the proposed framework has shown its merit when designing a computer-aided tool suited to support the transition towards the increased industrial digitalization as well as to address current educational challenges.

过程模拟器是在工程教育的所有教育水平上使用的强大支持工具。同时，数字化迫使教育系统适应。在这个以工业4.0运动为标志的新时代，模型的制定和实施对于过程数字化至关重要。因此，学生和新学员必须熟悉过程模型，模拟器和编程。在这项工作中，提出了一种用于过程仿真器开发的计算机辅助框架（P2Si）。该框架集成了以下方面：（i）流程模型的使用，重用和说明；（ii）量身定制的学习设计；（iii）游戏元素；（iv）通过参与式设计使学生成为合作设计师，以改善人机交互。通过应用一系列分层步骤，框架的工作流程旨在找到一个有前途的候选人，以促进过程的教学。此外，为本科生的教学和培训开发了概念证明，其中探讨了工业规模的好氧微生物转化过程的案例。通过应用此框架，我们获得了教学过程仿真器的概念设计，然后将该仿真器实现为原型软件平台，BioVL（www.biovl.com），用于进一步的开发和测试。这项工作的主要输出是整合了游戏化和使用过程模型作为教育工具的教学过程模拟器的概念设计。总之，当设计一种计算机辅助工具时，该框架已显示出其优点，该工具适合于向日益增长的工业数字化过渡以及应对当前的教育挑战。