• In case-based instruction, students are given a realistic case relevant to the course (medicine, management, etc).
• Typically outside of class, and decide what should be done to. solve the problem or deal with the issue
• Meet with the class and discuss the case with one another and the teacher.

• The description can be 2-50 pages and can sometimes include a video etc.
• The students elaborate on what to do in this case or how to solve this problem.
• After that they meet with the class and discuss the case with one another and the teacher.

The case method has been used at Harvard University and many other universities for more than 50 years

• Recognizing potential issues
• Brainstorming connections & to define problem space
• Identifying material to be learned
• Posing specific questions
• Defining and specifying focus
• Defining problems further by peer consultation

• Obtaining additional references/sources
• Managing information
• Defining problem further (share views/info.)
• Designing and conducting investigations with simulation
• Modeling
• With field/laboratory methods
• With new resources (further references, interviews, etc.)

Peer Persuasion

• Presenting conclusions of investigations
• Developing analyses or reports to persuade peers
• Conducting debate/opposite views or outcomes
• Producing other materials that show understanding of the conclusions.

BioQUEST, Cases and the 3Ps: Collaborative, Open-Ended, In-Depth Investigation (Woodruff, P., L. Weinland, K. Klyczek, J. Fischer, K. Grimnes, M. Howse, and M. Waterman, 1996)

1. The learning goals and objectives of the course

• What is the case about?
• What are some of the potential learning issues?
• Are these central enough to the case for me to use this case? Can I modify the case?
• How difficult or obscure are the issues in the case?
• Will there be issues my students will care about?
• Is the case open-ended enough for students to go beyond fact finding?
• What do I see as possible areas for investigation?
• What product might I ask students to produce?
• Is the case too short or too long for the time I have available?
• What sorts of learning resources might be needed for this case? Are they accessible?
• If I use this case, what lectures/labs/discussions might I want to change, add or eliminate?

2. The course structure - a not entirely logistical consideration

• Using cases can lead to changing a course syllabus to delete, rearrange, change or add other components like lectures or labs.
• Another consideration is the temporal structure of the course, and the space available for teaching.
• When does the course meet?
• How often? How long?
• For what purposes?
• When would you fit in cases?

• In very large classes, it may work best to do case learning in lab or recitation time, when groups are smaller.
• Additional teaching staff can be faculty working in teams, graduate students (if available) and advanced undergraduate teaching assistants.
• It is possible to break up large classes into smaller groups
• Some faculty have established electronic communications

• Most college students are ill-prepared for collaborative group work,
• Faculty need to recognize that they will have to teach students how to work together.
• They will also have to teach them how to use case study approaches.
• Students also need guidelines for how to act during discussions
• Having printed guidelines can help

• To begin, the authors are asked to write down a topic they would like to teach, and one big "take home" message on this topic.
• Next, individuals are asked to think of two or three settings or scenarios useful for leading students to explore that topic.
• Working in pairs, each member explains their topic and possible scenarios, with the intent of convincing the partner of the utility of at least one of the scenarios.
• Next, each individual drafts a brief paragraph or two describing the scenario/situation as though writing to a friend.
• New partnerships form, and each author reads his or her case aloud with the partner responding by telling what he or she thinks the case is about.

• The case author reads their case out loud to the group.
• The other members of the group offer suggestions (preferably in the form of questions that the case stimulates for them) as to what the case is about.
• The author then shares what he or she intended the case to be about.
• Sometimes there is great congruence often there is some incongruity.
• When there is much incongruity, it's time to think about recasting the case, perhaps in a new scenario.

• Analyzing each paragraph to see what it might stimulate for the students

• It also means deciding where the story should be split up into parts for the students to work on a bit at a time.

• Keep the parts short. They will contain much more learning material than you anticipate.

• A list of resources - you may wish to supply a starting list of readings, web sites, etc.
• List of learning goals (these may or may not be given to the students).
• It is important, however, to delay giving this to them until after they have worked on the case for some time.
• Instructor's guide - this is important if you are teaching a course with multiple instructors or if you are planning on publishing the case.
• The instructor's guide lists the objectives and the main anticipated learning issues.
• It may also have information about resources, related learning activities, possible student projects, suggested products students could create related to this case.
• Visuals, simulations, web sites.

• Their participation and contribution to work in groups
• The kinds of issues they identify
• The questions they develop
• The investigations they propose
• Where and how they locate resources
• How they conduct investigations
• The presentations they make

• actively acquiring information about a topic within this problem space?
• re-organizing this information?
• using strategies to select resources beyond text materials?
• using a problem-oriented approach? (Is there a question for investigation?)
• collaborating with other individuals in problem posing or problem solving?
• choosing among alternative approaches to solve problems?
• negotiating, arguing, or attempting to convince others?
• generating graphs, tables, charts, or other graphics?
• presenting conclusions?
• presenting evidence to support their conclusions?
• generating further questions as a result of this activity

• observations of students at work
• evaluations of the products they create
• case-based exams (in which students individually analyze a case and generate questions)
• peer evaluations of presentations
• group self-evaluations

A very good resource for assessment tools and rubrics is The Handbook of Engaged Learning, a compilation of projects that use technology for teaching science.

• How well does the casework as a learning tool with students?
• What were stumbling blocks for the students?
• Were the students led "down the wrong path" by anything in the case?
• Was the time allotted for case study adequate?
• Were the students able to generate questions that they could investigate? Was there a problem with the case in this regard (too vague, difficult, long)
• Did student discussion generally address the objectives of the case? Were there any other important objectives that should be included?
• Were the students able to locate useful additional resources? Were the resource materials and readings useful?
• How well did the case study fit with other elements of the course (lectures, labs, discussions, recitations)?
• What worked especially well?

Find more information and case databases.
http://sfswww.georgetown.edu/sfs/programs/isd/files/pub.htm
Hutchings, Pat (1993). Using Cases to improve College teaching. Washington, DC: American Association of Higher Education. AAHE Teaching Initiative. (Fax: 202/293-0073. 17 USD for nonmembers.)

Silverman, Rita and William Welty. "Eleven Faculty Development Cases." from Pace University Center for Case Studies in Education. October 12, 1992.

Silverman, Rita and William Welty. "Case Studies for Faculty Development." from Pace University Center for Case Studies in Education, November 1993.

McGregor, Jean & Case Writing Group (1993) Washington Center casebook on collaborative teaching and learning. Olympia, WA.

Cases can be used free. Evergreen State College Bookstore sells for 10 USD, tax, shipping & handling included. Further information from Jean MacGregor (FAX 206-866-6794, email: macgjean@elwha.evergreen.edu).

See this short, biology sample case:  Fleaing Louisiana
(http://www.bioquest.org/lifelines/flea.html#end)

The investigative case based learning approach is a method of learning and teaching that gives students opportunities to direct their own learning as they explore the science underlying realistically complex situations.

Investigative case-based learning is student-centered. Students identify issues and frame questions of interest to themselves and in the process they also learn to:

• locate and manage information;
• develop reasonable answers to the questions;
• provide support for their conclusions, and;
• work on decision-making abilities.

Students structure their own learning, using the "story" of the case as a focus. Although the case defines the general area of biology under investigation, students generate the questions that will define their own topic of study. These cases are useful for lifelong learning because they are open-ended and draw from a broad range of situations in which biology and scientific reasoning can be applied. Open-ended cases necessarily shift the focus of student learning beyond the facts of science to include using scientific knowledge to frame questions and to answer them.

Investigative case-based approaches to biology encourage problem posing, problem solving, and persuasion.

Instructors as well as the students are collaborators in this process. As students pose problems, try to solve them, and present conclusions that represent their own findings to others, both the instructor and other students may serve as resources for methods and for aid in defining potential strengths and weaknesses in the design of the problem statement and the investigation. The resolution(or clarification) of the problem and its presentation to other students as well as to the instructor extend opportunities for student practice in utilizing and evaluating scientific approaches to problem solving.

The use of cases is as old as storytelling itself. It is instruction by the use of narratives - stories - about individuals facing decisions or dilemmas. Learners engage with the characters and circumstances of the story. They work to identify problems and to connect the meaning of the story to their own lives. The instructor encourages exploration of the case and consideration of the characters' actions in light of their own decisions.

The case study approach builds on these principles and formalizes them, with variations to suit the subject matter (Boehrer and Linsky, 1990). Cases have traditionally been used to teach decision making skills in professional education, as exemplified in the Harvard Business School case approach (Christensen and Hansen, 1987). More recently, cases are being used for learning medical science (Wilkinson and Feletti, 1989, Tosteson, et al., 1994) in a model called problem-based learning or PBL (Barrows and Tamblyn, 1980). The medical school use of cases differs from that in other professional schools in that PBL focuses on medical subject matter content more so than on decision-making.

What is unique about the BioQUEST cases and the ICBL (investigative case-based learning) approach for science learning?

As in all case-based learning, the problem space is defined by the case. However, students are not asked only to learn new material, but to pose a question, develop accountable approaches to investigate the question and present methodology and conclusions to the class that support a reasonable answer to their question. What sets this approach and cases featured here apart from previous case work is an emphasis on research-like environments for learning biology.

Our approach to case study grew out of experience with medical case-based PBL. Some elements of that approach are extremely useful and are retained in the investigative case study approach..

1. Cases are based on realistic and meaningful problems, they are multidisciplinary

In the case study approach students learn in the context of realistic situations. They have practice using information to investigate and come to resolution on complex problems. Since learning occurs around a particular realistic problem, there is greater likelihood that the learned material will be better retained and more easily applied to similar situations (Brown et al., 1989, Schmidt, 1983). In their lives they may never face the exact problems they study, however, they will have experienced using knowledge and thinking to work out reasonable solutions.

In case-based PBL, the problem is used in a different fashion than problems are traditionally used for science learning. In PBL the case defines a problem space that learners will investigate. In case-based PBL, the case problem comes first in the instructional sequence. This is a reversal of the usual use of problems in science teaching.

By putting the case early in the instructional sequence, the learners use the case to brainstorm a set of questions they will try to answer. They thus become more directed in their reading and more motivated in subsequent lectures, labs, and discussions. In fact, they are learning in just the way most of us learn-- because they have a problem or question of their own to work on.

Ben Brown seemed lost as he approached the emergency room at General Hospital with a young boy. "You looking for the hospital's homeless shelter?" the security guard asked. "No. My dad's sick" said the boy as Ben coughed violently, spitting out bloody mucus. The guard jumped aside "Hey, watch it! Don't get that on me! Yeah, alright. Go on in." Case Author: Margaret Waterman, 1997

Faculty members choose cases or write their own, and so draw the boundaries on the problem space. The case defines a problem space in much the same way that the lines on a soccer field define a playing space. As in soccer, the case sets some limits on the area of subject matter to be explored. And as in soccer, once the game has begun, the players move over the playing field moving in general directions, and with goals, but not in a prescribed linear manner. Unlike soccer, it's ok to go out of bounds for a while with a case, as long as the general direction and goals are attained.

Students make decisions about their learning, and

Some phases of case study are best done collaboratively

Commonly in the medical case-based PBL approach, students work in-groups of 8-10 with a "tutor," meeting to discuss a case based on a real patient or situation (Fig. 2). Students read part of the case out loud, then discuss the elements presented thus far in the case. They generate hypotheses, list their outstanding questions, and develop a learning agenda -- issues they agree to pursue before their next meeting. This phase of case study is one in which students are actively engaged and working together to brainstorm issues, share what they know, and develop their plans for learning.

Some possible learning issues from the Ben Brown case: Access to health care, causes of coughs, parts of the body involved in breathing and coughing, the blood supply of the lungs, homelessness, and universal precautions.

The faculty member becomes more of a guide to methodology than an information source.

As you consider case-based learning in the classroom, think about what a case discussion might look like with a small group. The "instructor" has several roles (though to the student eye it may seem he does little): facilitates discussion, helps students explore their thinking and reasoning without leading them, and helps with group dynamics. During case discussions, students are actively engaged in interpreting the case, proposing problems and possible solutions, brainstorming, and using resources. At Harvard Medical School the faculty and students agree that the chalkboard belongs to the student during case discussions. Students take on roles we commonly think of as teacher roles:  deciding what to focus on, developing questions, leading the discussion, using the board to keep notes, make drawings, or list learning issues. Resources to support student learning are frequently in the room - books, images, computer access to the Internet, computer simulations, models, etc.

Faculty wanting further information about any of these topics are encouraged to contact Terry Doyle at doylet@ferris.edu

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