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What is the case method? How can the case method be used to engage learners? What are some strategies for getting started? This guide helps instructors answer these questions by providing an overview of the case method while highlighting learner-centered and digitally-enhanced approaches to teaching with the case method.
Case method teachers learn to balance planning and spontaneity. In practice, they pursue opportunities and "teachable moments" that emerge throughout the discussion, and deftly guide students toward discovery and learning on multiple levels.
Case method is a powerful student-centered teaching strategy that can impart students with critical thinking, communication, and interpersonal skills. Having students work through complex, ambiguous, real world problems engages students with
To assist both experienced and new case-method teachers, each case has its own teaching plan: a flexible road-map for the instructor that suggests specific questions, strategies for eliciting key insights, and ideas for organizing student responses visually on a blackboard.
Whether to use a simple scenario-type case or a complex detailed one depends on your course objectives. Most case assignments require students to answer an open-ended question or develop a solution to an open-ended problem with multiple potential solutions.
This article from the Stanford Center for Teaching and Learning describes the rationale for using case studies, the process for choosing appropriate cases, and tips for how to implement them in college courses.
The case method is an effective way to increase student engagement and challenge students to integrate and apply skills to real-world problems. In these videos, Using the Case Method to Teach Public Policy, you'll find invaluable insights into the art of case teaching from one of HKS’s most respected professors, Jose A. Gomez-Ibanez.
