Teaching Case Studies
From ElateWiki
"Teaching case studies" are built around stories with educational messages and intentions. Some teaching cases are fictional or theoretical. They posit some basic premises in order to provide a situation for learners to share ideas. Others are based on real-world experiences and real people.
Different cohorts of learners may engage with teaching case studies and emerge with different conclusions.
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[edit] The Pedagogical Rationale
Teaching case studies build on the oral storytelling tradition.
The use of "teaching case studies" indicate a departure from more traditional learning approaches. These add value to online learning because they often raise student interest. They bring in real-world experiences to develop learners' senses of the professional world and lived experiences. They offer opportunities for discussions around practices, ethics, policies, and decision-making. They also provide ample opportunities for problem-solving. They may be designed to be open-ended or more directed and close-ended. Ideally, teaching case studies promote higher order critical thinking skills.
The challenge to case studies is that they are singularities or unique cases. Based on traditional logic, the lessons from a limited case are not particularly transferable or generalizable. Rather, there may be "replication logic, not sampling logic," according to some thinkers. Others suggest that cases are generalizable to "theoretical propositions" but not populations. Others suggest that there is "exemplification logic" or the power of examples.
Teaching case studies are experiential and discussion-based.
[edit] Types of Teaching Case Studies
Teaching case studies are used in numerous fields: business, ethics, education, medicine, law, and engineering. Some are exploratory and descriptive. Some highlight dilemmas. Others are "interrupted cases" with progressive disclosure of information. Each new phase of an interrupted case offers more twists and insights.
[edit] Online Teaching Case Studies
Web-based teaching cases emerged in the 1990s. Many subject-based repositories based around different case studies have sprung up in the ensuing years.
In e-learning, these "teaching case studies" are conveyed through richer channels, with audio, visuals, and video. These may also be enhanced by role plays where students take on different roles in a simulation or scenario. These situations allow students to negotiate, mediate, collaborate, lead, make decisions, and manage conflict. The inclusion of digital learning objects may result in richer types of learning, with facilitators and instructors being able to select the elements they want to include in the teaching cases.
[edit] Teaching Case Study Competencies
Teaching case studies may involve learning on the knowledge, attitudinal and skills levels. These competence may relate to learning in a subject matter field, in strategies, in social interactions, and in self-growth.
[edit] Instructional Demands
Using teaching case studies may require more sophistication in teaching.
[edit] Quality Case Standards
Cases should be relevant. Cases must be complete. They need to follow rules for the collection of evidence and must provide sufficient evidence for a variety of analytical stances. They must incorporate alternative perspectives. They must be engaging to learners. They must be complex, without any clear right answer--so learners must think critically and analytically. The research must be clearly provenanced and cited.
All basic rules of publication--intellectual property rights releases, privacy rights, copyright laws, protections against libel and slander and defamation--apply. Basic rules of good taste and ethics, such as avoiding stereotypical depictions, also apply.
[edit] See Also
The Higher Education Academy Case Studies: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/casestudies
The National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science: http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/cases/case.html
The Evergreen State College's Enduring Legacies Native Cases: http://www.evergreen.edu/tribal/cases/
University of San Diego's Ethics Case Studies: http://ethics.sandiego.edu/resources/cases/HomeOverview.asp
Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship: http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/centers/case/knowledge/casestudies/index.html
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Epidemiological Case Studies): http://www2a.cdc.gov/epicasestudies/classroom/instguide.htm