Students in the Biochemical and Chemical Engineering programs at TU Dortmund University often struggle to connect knowledge from individual courses into a coherent understanding. These challenges can be derived from limited constructive alignment and high informational load. For example, the first-semester course Introduction to Biochemical

and Chemical Engineering, which provides an overview of the curriculum, illustrates how integrating content from multiple courses can lead to students feeling overwhelmed. To support constructive alignment, the course has been redesigned with clear intended learning outcomes and active learning strategies, including student-generated exam questions and one-minute papers. Complementing this, ChemSPARK, a virtual reality model of a chemical plant representing an industrial process, provides an immersive, process-oriented framework. By contextualizing content in a realistic industrial setting, it is intended to foster cognitive map development, engagement, and long-term knowledge retention.