Teaching with Technology

This is a synopsis and review of the article “The Narrative Case Study Meets Hypertext: Case Studies in the Digital Age” appearing in the Journal of Online Learning and Teaching. The article contrasts traditional case study pedagogy with new modalities made possible by the internet, and identifies features of the latter that alter the nature of the learning experience and appear to enhance certain learning opportunities.

The “case method” of instruction was introduced in Harvard in the 1920’s and has since been widely adopted as a method for teaching business students. Traditional or “cooked” case studies are designed to provide a form of “real world” experience to students by presenting partial information about actual situations and guiding students through the process of evaluating and synthesizing these data. The typical traditional case consists of many pages of narrative describing the circumstances surrounding a set of management, policy or business decisions. Working in teams, students examine and discuss various perspectives on the case. The faculty member is normally equipped with superior knowledge of the actual outcomes of the case and guides discussion around the seemingly disconnected pieces of information provided in the narrative. In their preparations students examine data underlying the parameters set forth in the case narrative. Ultimately students are guided through the process of making judgments and learn from both the experience and the actual success or failure of events that transpired in the real world case.

The digital case method described in this article provides “raw” information resources to students, typically consisting of numerous links that provide information about the case. Those links in turn typically lead to other data resources, making the digital case study an expansive, associative process of relating increasing amounts of information. The hypertext environment, layered with inter-related links, is conducive to the nuanced study of diverse perspectives on cases as well as collaboration in the evaluation and assessment of large quantities of information. Utilizing digital sources, students reviewed many times the amount of information as provided in traditional cases. Finally, in the “raw” real world digital case studies students may discover information not known to the faculty member and so during discussion of the case the faculty member becomes a co-learner in the digital case study.

Though this article does not describe them as such, there are “hybrid” forms of the “cooked” and “raw” case studies whereby a predefined and limited set of hypertext links are provided, within a controlled environment, or date limitations established on a specific case to disallow the introduction of information beyond the point of relevance to the instructional purpose of the case. While the “raw” case seems to better reflect the complexity and inter-relatedness of real world business situations, and so to equip students with the tools needed to work effectively in a digital world, it is not yet known whether this approach yields more efficacious business and management decision-making than the traditional case method.

Source: Meghan Griffin, “The Narrative Case Student Meets Hypertext: Case Studies in the Digital Age,” MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, Vol. 5, No. 4 (December 2009): 703-708.