Mini Case 1: Case Study Learning in the Classroom
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HOME MINI CASE 1: CASE STUDY LEARNING IN THE
CLASSROOM MINI CASE 1: CASE STUDY LEARNING IN
THE CLASSROOM
MSC began by producing and piloting case studies in classrooms round the University of
Michigan campus. One early adopter, Professor Jeremiah Johnson at the college of
Natural Resources and Environment, developed two of MSC’s first case studies with
students from his class. The narrative that follows describes the training and
assessment that passed with those cases, as Professor Johnson attempts to answer the
question “Can student work promote classroom learning for other students and
contribute to school scholarship?”
Professor Jeremiah Johnson clicked “Save” on the syllabus for his Winter 2016 class,
NRE 615: Renewable Electricity and also the Grid. He hesitated a flash before closing
the document, reflecting on the adjustments he had just made to the course. like most
school, the bread and butter of his courses was lectures. Lately, though, he had begun
to feel dissatisfied with relying so heavily on this one pedagogics. the matter with
lectures, as he saw it, was that it encouraged far an excessive amount of passivity
among students. What he really wanted was for them to be engaged within
the learning process, to require a more active role in both acquiring and creating
knowledge. He wasn’t entirely sure the way to do that, but he had just signed his name
onto a proposal for the reworking Learning for a 3rd Century (TLTC) initiative during
which the college of the college were throwing their weight behind a trial to form case
studies for sustainability education. The initiators of the proposal had chosen case
studies because they need been shown to reinforce student learning (Srinivasan et al.,
2007; Herreid, 2011). within the spirit of the proposal, Professor Johnson planned to
possess his students create their own case studies because the major project for the
course. Running such experiments within the classroom was always risky, he knew.
Would the scholars understand the assignment and be ready to deliver suitably highquality work? Would the assignment enhance their learning and motivate them to be
more active learners? Or, would their distaste for the assignment lead to poor course
evaluations for him? And lastly, could he use the students’ case studies in future
semesters to market classroom learning while contributing to his own scholarship?
It was April, and therefore the end of the educational year was finally near. Professor
Johnson settled into a rotating seat within the auditorium-style classroom, pen and
rubric in hand. This week, the scholars were giving presentations about the case
studies they'd been acting on all semester. supported the written work the scholars had
turned in, they'd risen to the occasion with some truly excellent case studies. Several
representatives from MSC had also joined class to scout for the simplest ideas to
potentially fund and be converted into complete, multimedia-enriched cases. Professor
Johnson knew which groups he would recommend, and he was curious to determine if
the MSC representatives agreed with him. Later that month, Professor Johnson found
himself in MSC’s first curricular advisors meeting, reviewing proposals with other faculty
from around campus. the area buzzed with excited energy because the advisors sorted
the proposals by theme, location, and competencies addressed, seeking diversity for a
future case library. By the tip of the two-hour meeting, 27 proposals had been accepted
and would become the very first MSCs, including two proposals from his students in
NRE 615. Professor Johnson was especially inquisitive about these case studies because
they fit well into his existing syllabus, and he could use them to show future students.
And, having the scholars write the case studies supported their classroom work gave
the impression to be an efficient way of making new teaching materials. He hoped the
scholar case authors would get the maximum amount out of the method as he
was entering into new teaching materials. He thought they might, supported what he
knew about the research on the advantages of project-based learning (Wiek et al.,
2014).
summer came and went far too quickly. the coed case authors had put in a very lot of
labor over the past few months to remodel their classroom assignments into complete
case studies. one in all the case studies, “Distributed Energy Storage” (Kraus et al.,
2016), about an innovative partnership between Tesla and atiny low electric utility in
Vermont called Green Mountain Power, was slightly further along within the production
process and would likely finish soon. The team had worked especially quickly only
if they'd chosen to try to to the bulk of the podcast production themselves. Most teams
that Professor Johnson knew of worked with MSC to conceptualize the podcast and
conduct interviews, and MSC provided the assembly and engineering. one amongst the
scholar case authors, Andrea Kraus, had some experience in audio production, and she
or he was using this chance to flex and strengthen her media muscles. The podcast was
shaping up to be a wonderful addition to the case study, both as a complementary
mode of learning (Serva & Fuller, 2004) and as a connection to the practitioner for the
case, Josh Castonguay of Green Mountain Power. Mr. Castonguay had been able
to provide an insider’s perspective on the partnership Green Mountain Power had
undertaken, and as a result the case study linked theory to practice in an
exceedingly way that a textbook couldn't. Professor Johnson had high hopes for the
positive impact the case would wear his teaching when he piloted it next Winter term.
However, he still had to determine a way to assess the impact of the case on the
students’ learning. How could he get useful feedback in an exceedingly way that
may also help build his own scholarly portfolio?
Resolution: In January 2017, Professor Johnson launched “Distributed Energy Storage”
in NRE 615 by giving his students a quiz. He had a keen interest in assessing the case,
or, in other words, looking for whether using the case study produced positive student
learning outcomes. Although MSC was rapidly developing its own set of assessment
tools for its cases, Professor Johnson had a solid idea of the approach he wanted to
require, so he had ventured out on his own and was now passing out contentrelated questions about the case. the scholars would see these same questions on the
ultimate exam in April, and he planned to match scores between the 2 tests. Professor
Johnson was also looking forward to the annual meeting for the Association of
Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP) that, conveniently, would
be held in metropolis in June. He was already preparing his abstract, certain that his
results would interest other environmental engineering professors looking to
enhance their own teaching.
At the conference that summer, a large crowd gathered to listen to Professor
Johnson’s speak about his experience using “Distributed Energy Storage.” Although
many of the audience members were dependent on teaching, he was unsure what
number were using case studies. He knew that case studies, although they'd some
research supporting their efficacy (e.g., Anderson et al., 2017; Dochy et al., 2003; Dori
et al., 2003), weren't universally loved. Many instructors believed that case studies were
an inferior method of teaching course-related content, as an example. Often,
appropriate case studies were unavailable, requiring an educator to make his or her
own case study from the bottom up, which consumed precious time. Faculty were
also accustomed lecturing and infrequently not trained in facilitating the types
of classroom discussions related to case studies (https://www.hbs.edu/teaching/casemethod/Pages/default.aspx). MSC aimed to beat a number of these barriers with its
case library and teaching workshops, but changing habits and minds would take time.
Professor Johnson’s assessment results were encouraging: Most students showed
improvement from pre- to post-test, including international and first-generation college
students. His class comprised students primarily from three different schools:
Engineering, Business, and SEAS. Interestingly, the Engineering students showed the
most important score gains, followed by the SEAS and Business students (Figure 1).
Overall, Professor Johnson told the audience, he had observed great value in having
students write a teaching case. He also found that supplementing lectures with cases
helped to tie disparate concepts together for the scholars.
The audience clapped enthusiastically after Professor Johnson concluded his
presentation. A barrage of questions followed, such a large amount of that the
moderator had to finish the discussion to let the subsequent speaker take stage.
Professor Johnson returned to his seat, beaming. He wasn’t sure what
percentage converts to case-based teaching he had made, but he suspected it had
been a minimum of some. The case studies had, in the end, been a successful
experiment in co-production, and he intended to use the student-produced material in
his class for a protracted time to return