A case study is the use of a scenario or case and people’s previous life experiences to solve a real-world problem. They can be used to teach people on a new topic that they have never learned before, or a concept they are unfamiliar with. Case studies focus on a problem, dramatize real life, are designed to fit the learner and the mode of delivery, they must have support materials, and it must be complete, so that students can understand it, but isn’t too simple. They allow the learner to really think about a concept and allow it to be applied to their own lives. Case studies are best done in groups, so that students can collaborate on the problems and solutions that are involved in the scenario. Case studies involve thinking critical about an applicable or relatable situation. Having a time limit could make the situation life-like because they have to decide things quickly, or it could have more time taken, so that students understand it more thoroughly. Case studies can be used to teach any topic and in any format depending on the goal of the teaching learning interaction.
Application:In my Finance in Higher Education course the textbook utilizes case studies and we have done one as a class as well. At the end of most chapters, there is a case study about Alpha University that has you think about as a budget manager how would you solve the issue. These are useful to actually apply what we have read about and see how we would react. In one evening in class we had to read a case of a budget issue in a university. We all then had to discuss how we would approach the situation if we were in that scenario. I enjoyed this activity because I got to hear everyone else’s ideas and compare how I felt about the situation.
Assessment: Quick Write (Barkley & Major, 2016 pp. 105-110)The formative assessment for this could have been a quick write. We could have written down how we felt about the situation and what we learned about ourselves when making those decisions.