Case-Based Learning
by Mery Molenaar

November 30, 2000

Introduction
In case-based learning, students are presented with a real-life situation (the case) which is directly related to their field of study. Cases come in many formats and may include written narrative by real or fictional characters, photographs, audio, video, or digital animation. Text-based cases are the most common and they can be one paragraph or many pages long.

After investigating the initial description, students analyze the case, individually or in groups, collect information to identify key issues, and bit-by-bit unravel the problem. Next they present and discuss the case with one another and their instructor.

Cases may or may not include a stated question or problem. Case studies are often used in problem-based learning (PBL) where students are presented with a problem before learning something new. But this is not always true for case-based learning. Many times, the case is a story on its own without a specific problem. Students then use previous knowledge to analyze the case and develop their own questions or investigations.

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Purpose and Objectives of Case-Based Learning
Effective cases need to be realistic and, like in real life, complex and ambiguous. Students are challenged to use prior knowledge to interpret and resolve a multi-dimensional problem and identify effective solutions to the problem.
Often, case studies are approached in teams, where students together brainstorm, find patterns, discuss possible solutions, and present their conclusion.

The major purpose of case-based learning is:

• To motivate students by developing learning situations that are of interest of the students.
• To allow students to be in control of their learning by making their own decisions.
• To serve as a first step to student-designed investigations.
• To improve students' communication and other interpersonal skills by encouraging team collaboration.
• To enhance a sense of realism and connection to practical skills that are useful when entering the field. Learning in the context of a real-life situation also tends to store the knowledge in memory patterns that facilitate later recall for solving of similar problems.

As a result of case-based Learning, students will attain the following educational objectives:

• Develop or change their perceptions of skills needed for their professional practice.
• Draw connections between previous knowledge and the complex demands of actual practice.
• Improve their decision making and reasoning skills by negotiating, arguing, or attempting to convince others of alternative approaches to solve problems.
• Improve their oral, written, and interpersonal communication skills by sharing their experiences with other students.
• Use strategies to organizing the given information, select resources beyond text materials, and acquire information within the problem space.
• Improve their presentation skills when presenting their conclusions, evidence to support their conclusions, and further questions as a result of the case.

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Implications of Case-Based Learning for the Student
During case discussions, students are actively engaged in interpreting the case, proposing problems and possible solutions, brainstorming, and using resources. Waterman (no date) observes in her course that 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.

As the students become more independent, the role of instructors changes dramatically as well. In case-based learning, instructors serve a great role in providing and locating additional resources that support student learning, such as books, computer access to the Internet, computer software, etc.

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Implications of Case-Based Learning for the Instructor
If self-directed, student-centered case-based learning is so great for learning, why isn't everyone using it?
Probably because of fear of the unknown and resources. Using a case-based approach requires that instructors change their role from being the center of attention and the source of all knowledge to being the coach and facilitator of the acquisition of that knowledge. The learning becomes student-centered, not instructor-centered. The instructor becomes a guide to the students rather than the major information source.
Ideally, if working in groups, each group of students includes an instructor/tutor who guides the discussion, helps students explore their thinking and reasoning without leading them, and helps with group dynamics (i.e. break up conflicts!). This is resource intensive if you have large classes of 30-200 students.

The solution is to empower the student groups to be autonomous and accountable, with the instructor's role being to monitor and hold the individuals and groups accountable for their learning. To prepare them to work together as a team, instructors could start the group project with a team-building activity, followed by a debriefing or a discussion of the group dynamics that surface during the exercise. These activities help students to recognize each other's strengths and work styles, and make them more aware of the internal resources their group might draw on for a more serious project (Enerson, 1997) .

The case-based learning method has another significant limitation. According to Bieron (no date), it is not an effective approach for the teaching of large amounts of factual information. This limits its use as the primary mode of instruction in information-intensive science courses. As with any 'hands-on' approach, case-based studies are much more time consuming than traditional lecture-type education. Since effective use of case studies requires a solid knowledge background, this approach could work particularly well as a culminating activity at the end of a course unit.

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Examples of Case-Based Learning
Case-based learning has been used for decades in the professions of law, business, and medicine, but have recently gained popularity in fields of engineering, nursing, teacher education, and even science (Bieron, no date). Julian (1999) implies that the growing interest in this method of instruction suggests that knowledge and skills are best learned in contexts that reflect the way they will be useful in real life.

Cases for the traditional classroom:

• Fleaing Louisiana (http://bioquest.org/flea.html) is a sample case developed by BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium under a Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant. The narrative describes a phone conversation between Ella Cardinale-Jones, a resident of Louisiana, and Moses Anders, an intern with the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service. Ms. Cardinale-Jones complains that, even though it is only January, her house is already infested with all kinds of nasty insects and asks Mr. Anders how to get rid of them.
  After reading the story, students are encouraged to brainstorm and find patterns, pose specific questions, search for additional information, design and conduct an investigation or initiate a debate, and present conclusions.
  This site also includes guidelines for the teacher.
  
• Sickle Cell Anemia (http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/cases/sickle_cell1.html) is just one of a collection of case studies in science put together by the State University of New York at Buffalo.
  Each of the cases presented in this web site is accompanied by a number of study questions for the students as well as a teaching notes. The cases are free to be used in undergraduate level science courses.
• Animal Use Case Studies (http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEPC/WWC/1992/animal_use.html) is a collection of cases by Sharon Radford from the 1992 Woodrow Wilson Biology Institute with questions and teaching notes.
  The purpose of these case studies is to help students to consider the broader ethical aspects of the issue and to alert students that there are significant standards which must be maintained when animals are used in research. There are several strategies for using the case studies. Radford suggests groups of three or four for the initial discussion in the form of 'role play'. During the discussion, the instructor assigns roles from the scenario to each student.

Cases for an online environment:

• The Case of Grandpa's Painting - A. Pintura, Art Detective (http://www.eduweb.com/pintura/). The case, developed by Educational Web Adventures, takes place in the office of A. Pintura, the art detective. Miss Fiona Featherduster is meeting A. Pintura in his office to find out if a painting of hers is worth anything. According to her story, her grandfather has just died and left her the dusty painting. Later one will find out otherwise!
  This is an example of problem-based learning using a case-based approach.
  Student-content interaction involves navigation of the site through many links. Unraveling of the problem occurs when following the narrative between Pintura and Miss Featherduster and making the right decisions.
• The Chronicles of RocketBoy (http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/ITcases/Chronicles/) is a case study developed for the 1998 IT Case Event, an annual competition in Web-based instructional design cases at the Curry School of Education, University of Virginia(Julian, 1999). The case is written through the eyes of Jason, a instructional designer, who is hired by a digital animation company to improve productivity of the production line and increase the company's profit. Navigation through the fictional narrative, including photos, charts, letters, and interviews with the characters, helps Jason to get a clear picture of the company.
• The London Natural History Museum Science Case Book (http://www.nhm.ac.uk/sc/) has a collection of web-based interactive case studies that explore the museum's scientific work. Cases include Jurassic Park's quest to extract DNA from insects preserved in amber, the discovery of 'the cosmic football', a very unusual micrometeorite, by a scientist at the Natural History Museum, and the story of how the museum tracked down fabled Beast of Bodmin Moor.
  The stories include interactive questions that need to be answered correctly in order to continue the mystery.
  

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References

Bieron, Joseph F., Dinan, Frank J. (No date), Case Studies Across a Science Curriculum [Online]. Department of Chemistry, Canisius College, Buffalo. Available: http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/cases/curriculum.html [2000, November 26]

Enerson, Diane M., et.al.(1997), The Penn State Teacher II: Learning to Teach; Teaching to Learn, Commonly Asked Questions about Teaching Collaborative Activities [Online]. Available: http://www.psu.edu/celt/PST/collab2.html [2000, November 30]

Internet Guided Learning [Online]. Available: http://www.internetguides.com/index.html [2000, November 28]

Julian, Marti F., Larsen, V. A., and Kinzie, M. K. (1999), Compelling Case Experiences: Challenges for Emerging Instructional Designers [Online]. University of Virginia. Available: http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/ITcases/AECT99/ [2000, November 28]

Waterman, M. A., and Stanzie, E. D. (No date), Investigative Case-Based Learning [Online]. BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium, Beloit Collage. Available: http://bioquest.org/case99.html [2000, November 28]

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November 2000

URL: http://www.geocities.com/mery_molenaar/case_based_learning