Case Study
Using case studies can be an engaging way to get students to think critically, apply what they are learning in class to practical settings, and provide an opportunity to work in groups to see varying perspectives. They have been used in business schools to give students better preparation for the real world (Farashahi & Tajeddin, 2018), in biology to improve student performance on test questions (Bonney, 2015; Nasr, 2012), and in nursing education to improve critical thinking skills (Popil, 2011).
Designing a Case Study
There are lots of ways to approach the development of a useful case study, especially when taking the field of study into consideration. The following is a list of basic steps with an example carried throughout in the boxes below each step. The example is from The University of British Columbia and is titled “Tipping Point—ChatGPT and Assessment.” It was designed for a teacher preparation program.
1. Identify the Learning Outcomes
Having a goal in mind of what students will be able to do when they are done working through the case. Write it down. When looking for cases it can be easy to get distracted by something that is in a “ready to go” package. If you have previously written down what you intend to have students learn from the experience, you can make a better judgement about whether the scenario fits the need.
In the Tipping Point example, no learning outcomes are identified. (Namba & Hamilton, n.d.) If we were to use this in a teacher preparation course, we would likely identify the outcome as: Teacher preparation students will be able to create an assessment strategy for their content area that is mindful of current technology including Generative AI.
2. Find a Case
Identify a situation or set of circumstances that might cause a problem for a professional in your field of study. If you can tie the details to current events, make it relevant (McFarlane, 2015), or connect it with your personal experience you can make it more interesting for students. However, finding a case study authored by another instructor may be effective (Bonney, 2015). This is a difficult task because writing cases can be challenging and may use proprietary data that isn’t made publicly available. However, there may be prepared case studies available through a textbook publisher or open education resource. Keep in mind that solutions for the “out of the box” cases may have been posted by other students, so you may want to modify them.
There should not be one obvious answer to the problem. It is best if the knowledge students will learn from the case study can be transferable to other situations they might run into in the real world (McFarlane, 2015). The “Tipping Point” example by Namba & Hamilton (n.d.) was found through a Google search for “university case study examples” then looking for open education resource option that is creative commons licensed for reuse and looking for one that might be interesting to faculty at USU. The case was also selected to highlight some best practices and some things to avoid.
3. Present the Problem
Write up the specifics of the situation in enough detail that students will be able to compare the circumstances of the case with things they have learned in class or can tie to their life experiences. Clarify the problem, provide pertinent details leading to the problem, and types of evidence that could be gathered to support or refute a potential hypothesis for resolution. How many details are provided to students before the case is presented and how many details are provided with the case presentation is a learning design decision that should be based on the learning objectives (Barrows, 1986).
In the Tipping Point example, there is a good problem statement in the introduction.
Introduction
Like many tools before it, the introduction of publicly available Generative Artificial Intelligence models incited panic, outrage, and reflection in the world of education. It forced many educators to revaluate their assessment methods to account for a tool that can fluently provide an answer to any question, generate written material on any subject, and do so with such convincing quality that it is indiscernible from human output.
This revaluation was particularly evident in higher education, where term papers and take-home assignments are commonplace. Teachers throughout the world were abruptly forced to grapple with a tool that completely upended their current assessment approach, as it rendered academic integrity essentially unenforceable. Thus, this case study delves into the introduction of Chat-GPT and its characteristics as a “tipping point” in higher education assessment practices. We will provide an explanation of the tool’s functionality and capability, an analysis of educators’ response to its release, and a discussion of the future implications its existence will hold.
(Namba & Hamilton, n.d.)
In the example case, additional detail is provided.
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The Tipping Point The introduction of ChatGPT caused a marked disruption to higher education, particularly assessment and academic integrity. Kassorla (2023) presents an in-depth personal account of the tipping-point that occurred in assessment following the public release of ChatGPT, from the perspective of an English professor at a university. Kassorla’s anecdotes are poignant, and illustrate the air of uncertainty which permeated higher education proceeding ChatGPT’s release: “I remember grading final essays in our last week of classes at Georgia State and noticing that my non-native speakers were suddenly fluent, my basic writers were capable of beautiful phrasing, and my competent writers did not make even the smallest grammatical error.” On November 30th, 2022, ChatGPT was made publicly and freely accessible via an intuitive web-interface. Its transformer-based architecture, trained on 45TB of compressed text scraped from the internet, provided users with the ability to engage in seamless dialogue with the tool (Brown et. al, 2020). Users simply had to create an account before they could immediately begin prompting ChatGPT to generate any form of text for them, be it a recipe, a poem, a joke, or even an entire essay. With these seemingly endless capabilities suddenly available to every student in the world, there is no doubt that some immediately began plagiarizing directly from ChatGPT (CBC, 2023). Immediately, the mere existence of the tool caused a sense of doubt and distrust to seep into assessors’ perspectives (Kassorla, 2023). Given the tool’s ability to generate novel text indiscernible from original human writing, every take-home assignment was now a potential artifact of machine-driven academic misconduct. Traditional methods of plagiarism detection were now ineffective, as ChatGPTs ability to dynamically generate novel text content made it impossible for tools to compare the text to previous works (Perkins, 2023). (Namba & Hamilton, n.d.) |
New detection tools emerged, with the aim to automatically identify text produced by ChatGPT. Though these tools provided some utility, they generally could not exceed 80% accuracy (Habibzadeh, 2023). This margin for error significantly reduced their effectiveness in pursuing the maintenance of academic integrity in assessment, as accusations of misconduct are extremely serious and difficult to make without clear proof (Klein, 2023). The very nature of these detectors and ChatGPT is that it is an ever-moving target – ChatGPT is continually improving and refining, and the better it becomes at generating human-like text, the more difficult it is for it to be detected.
(Namba & Hamilton, n.d.)
Then, the case provides recommendations. This section should have been omitted. A case study should not provide students with solutions. This is an indicator—along with the fact that it appears in a bulleted list with bolded sub-headings—that the individual(s) who wrote this case study used Generative AI, which they credit in the citations and at the bottom of the page.
Recommendations
Although the introduction of ChatGPT has disrupted the way traditional assessment works, it gave an opportunity for educators to introduce innovative assessment strategies (Rudolph et al., 2023) There are several solutions that one can take when creating assessments:
· Ask students to engage with current affairs or events: Generative AI, such as ChatGPT, relies on the content with which it has been pre-trained (Perkins, 2023). Thus, generative AI is unable to answer questions related to recent events. For instance, when I asked ChatGPT-4 on March 10, 2024, using the prompt, “What is the latest date up to which you can provide information on events?” I received a response saying, “The latest date up to which I can provide information on events is April 2023” (ChatGPT, 2024). Therefore, one strategy could involve asking students to engage with current affairs or events through assessments. An example of this could be writing a reflection on a current news event. Such assessments can also offer opportunities for students to reflect and think critically about their relationship with current affairs. (Kingsbury, 2021)
· Assessment that requires personal opinion or experience: This is a tip suggested by Kassorla (2023). Another approach is to create an assessment that requires personal opinion or experience. AI tools such as ChatGPT are dependent on data that are pre-trained, thus the tool is unable to generate the response (Perkins, 2023).
· Proctored environment for assessment: One approach is to create a proctored environment to prevent students from using AI during assessments. However, a proctored environment can stress students, which Choo and Tan (2008) identified as one of the triangulation factors increasing the likelihood of academic misconduct. Therefore, educators must be cautious when deciding to proctor an assessment. For fully online courses, proctored online assessments can pose accessibility challenges for students, such as differences in time zones and limitations in computer bandwidth.
· Communicate with students regarding AI and Academic Integrity policy: The definition of academic integrity can be very broad, making it challenging to draw a line between academic misconduct and the legitimate use of AI (Perkins, 2023). Therefore, it is best to communicate with students beforehand on what the guidelines of using AI tools are, what is permitted and not permitted in the assignment.
(Namba & Hamilton, n.d.)
4. Establish Expectations
Let students know what they will be expected to submit as part of their solution. This might include evidence gathered to support the solution, the solution, and how their solution will be submitted or presented to the class. This could vary depending on the topic, skill level of students, time available to complete the case, and learning objectives.
This section was left out of the example case.
5. Facilitate Discussion
If students present their solutions in class, be prepared to facilitate the discussion by “questioning, clarifying, challenging, encouraging analysis and problem solving, and testing the validity of generalizations.” (McKeachie & Svinicki, 2006, p. 225) Encourage students to make notes of findings that can be compared with findings of other student groups on a whiteboard or digital presentation.
Considerations
There are some considerations to keep in mind for students and for the instructor. Case studies that are too long or are overused can be de-motivating for students (McFarlane, 2015). Students who are underprepared might also find participation in the case study overly difficult. (Popil, 2011)
Instructors must take care to carefully craft theoretical concepts from class with practical application contained in the case (McFarlane, 2015). Developing case studies can be time consuming (Popil, 2011). Use caution in selecting the case to ensure it matches the purposes of the class. If all considerations are checked, reusing a case that has already been written by someone else may be considered.
Variations
One variation is to have students develop the case studies by providing them a set of guidelines and allowing them to take ownership of their learning. This strategy has been shown to increase student confidence, allow students to gain a deeper understanding of class material, and encourage additional critical thinking (Yurco, 2014).
Adaptations for Connect Classes
Using case studies in Connect classes can be quite fun because students can be grouped up who have a variety of backgrounds and life experiences. Use Zoom breakout rooms to break the class up into smaller groups and let them work away. Be sure to give them plenty of information about what they are supposed to achieve in their group and what they need to have by what deadline. Joining various groups and encouraging them to use the option to ask for help can be a great way to help them stay on task and feel supported in their learning.
Adaptations for Online Classes
Using the case study method in online courses can be a bit tricky, particularly because students don’t necessarily have a set time that they are planning on devoting to class activities. To work around this challenge, you might consider having students work on the case individually or in pairs to reduce potential scheduling issues by involving more people.
References
Barkley, E. F. (2010). Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty (First Edition). Jossey-Bass.
Barrows, H. S. (1986). A taxonomy of problem-based learning methods. Medical Education, 20(6), 481–486. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2923.1986.tb01386.x
Bonney, K. M. (2015). Case Study Teaching Method Improves Student Performance and Perceptions of Learning Gains. Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education, 16(1), 21–28. https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v16i1.846
Farashahi, M., & Tajeddin, M. (2018). Effectiveness of teaching methods in business education: A comparison study on the learning outcomes of lectures, case studies and simulations. The International Journal of Management Education, 16(1), 131–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2018.01.003
McFarlane, D. A. (2015). Guidelines for Using Case Studies in the Teaching-Learning Process. College Quarterly, 18(1), 4–4.
McKeachie, W. J., & Svinicki, M. (2006). McKeachie’s Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers (Twelfth Edition). Houghton Mifflin Company.
Namba, R., & Hamilton, D. (n.d.). Tipping Point—ChatGPT and Assessment. Retrieved May 3, 2024, from https://cases.open.ubc.ca/tipping-point-chatgpt-and-assessment/
Nasr, P. (2012). A Report on Case Study Application in an Undergraduate Anatomy and Physiology Course. AURCO Journal, 18, 123–139. Education Source.
Popil, I. (2011). Promotion of critical thinking by using case studies as teaching method. Nurse Education Today, 31(2), 204–207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2010.06.002
Yurco, P. (2014). Student-Generated Cases: Giving Students More Ownership in the Learning Process. Journal of College Science Teaching, 43(3), 54–58. Education Source.