The University of South Florida is exploring the use of authentic, open cases in STEM subjects in a capstone course for an undergraduate MIS program. In addition to developing and teaching the course itself, the project entails: 1) the creation of roughly 12 new case studies involving technological decision situations written at a level appropriate for undergraduates, 2) a faculty workshop on case method facilitation and case writing, 3) publication of a book specifically designed to support the workshop, available both in print form and electronically downloadable at no cost through a Creative Commons license, and 4) publication of the cases produced under the grant in a peer-reviewed outlet that offers free access to STEM educators.
This project explores how effectively the case method, as delivered using complex, authentic cases, can be adapted to STEM situations. Triangulated techniques will be used to assess student learning. At the same time the categories of STEM problems most suited to the pedagogy will be identified. The project not only focuses on a subset of the IT-related student population that includes a large percentage of women (around 33%) but also includes an investigation of the hypothesis that matching the characteristics (e.g., gender, race, ethnic origin) of the main protagonist in a case to the characteristics of a particular student will increase the educational effectiveness of that case. That this effect exists is frequently assumed--but it has never been rigorously tested.
" (Award 1043919) involved creating a case method version of the capstone course in the Management Information Systems (MIS) undergraduate major at the University of South Florida (USF). The project involved: 1) developing case studies for use in the class, 2) testing the materials and pedagogy in the undergraduate class and evaluating learning, 3) training faculty members in case study development and facilitation, 4) developing materials for faculty training workshops. The impacts in each area are now covered, followed by a summary of some largely unanticipated broader impacts. 1) Developing case studies Over the course of the project, 14 case studies were developed specifically for the course (with another 4 in the final stages of development as of the end of the project). All but one of these case has been published in a new journal, the Journal of IT Education: Discussion Cases. In addition, as a result of a faculty workshop conducted in Orlando in 2012, another 8 case studies were developed and published by faculty members of RMIT Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City. One of these cases was discussed online by the USF students in Spring 2013, with the local authors contributing to the discussion. 2) Testing materials in undergraduate class Over the course of the project, the class was delivered to three sections of Ism4300 (approximately 130 undegraduates) with a fourth section using them in Fall 2013. These sections had uniformly high course evaluations (using USF's standard instrument). They also showed a highly positive reaction to an instrument based on the Student Assessment of Learning Gains, shown in "SALG Results for Spring 2012". Subsequent semesters produced results that were virtually identical. A pre-test/post-test developed for the grant showed highly positive results for Spring 2012, as shown in the primary figure. Attempts to modify the instrument to better measure learning were not successful and, indeed, failed to show any signficant changes pre- and post- course in Fall 2012 and Spring 2013. In Fall 2013, a replication of the original protocol was underway, conducted to determine if the original results were replicable. 3) Training faculty members in case development and facilitation An unfunded workshop on the case method was conducted in May 2011 after the grant recieved preliminary approval but before funding was released. The PI then mentored faculty and a doctoral student in case development and facilitation. In addiiton to the PI, 6 participants authored or co-authored cases used in the course, or scheduled for use in Fall 2013. Four 2-4 hour case method "mini-workshops" were conducted in conjunction with the IREPS Conference in Orlando (Spring, Summer, Fall 2012 and Summer 2013). Approximately 140 faculty members from a wide range of STEM disciplines attended. A similar workshop was delivered in the NST TUES PI Conference in January 2013 and in Ho Chi Minh City in May 2013. A 4-day faculty workshop, funded by the grant, was delivered at USF in July 2013. 24 faculty members and doctoral students attended, from USF and a variety of other U.S. institutions. One observer from the UN Staff College in Turin also attended (at his own expense). On the anonymous web-based evaluations sent out after the workshop, of 17 applicable responses, 82% reported that the workshop would make them much more likely to use case studies in their course, and 18% indicated that it would make them somewhat more likely. Their overall assessment of the workshop structure and associated materials was also highly positive, as shown in the figure. 4) Materials developed for training faculty members The principal training material developed for the project was the 551 page "Informing with the Case Method" by T. Grandon Gill. The book was given a postive review by the ECCH (now known as "The Case Center") and was distributed at each of the USF and IREPS faculty workshops. Broader Impacts The project and its deliverables have already demonstrated impact signficantly broader than those indicated in the original project goals. Among these: The addition of the "Special Track on Case Study Methodologies" to the Orlando Multiconferences managed by the International Institute of Informatics and Systemics (IIIS). The United Nations Staff College, located in Turin, Italy, offered a workshop to Training Managers in June 2013, facilitated by the PI. Subsequently, they began formulating plans to expand their use of case studies. The journal Informing Science: The International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline, initiated a special series on the broader informing impacts of using the case method (see figure illistrating these flows). The journal Management Decision initiated a call for papers that specifically referred to the project's book "Informing with the Case Method" as its inspiration. As a result of attending the Orlando workshops, information technology faculty at RMIT Vietnam launched their own case writing initiative.
