Session 1.4�Teaching with Cases

George Kester, Washington & Lee University

Ben Nunnally, UNC – Charlotte

Helen Saar, Dixie State University�Tim Michael, UH – Clear Lake

Survey for this session

• Experience? A mix. Students? More interest in undergrads.
• What topics are of interest?
• The cases I’ve looked at appear to be beyond my students’ abilities. Also, it seems that preparing cases would be very time consuming.
• How do you grade class participation? What % of course grade should it be? How do you handle grading participation of international students who, for cultural or other reasons are reluctant to actively participate in class?
• Growth from using cases:
• It has helped me develop multiple approaches to explaining financial concepts and calculations
• I used cases as a grad student, and now I want my students to have that.
• Depending and relying on students to come to class prepared.
• Cases are useful for giving students a real world context for concepts, theories and analytical tools of finance. They have also helped me better appreciate the application (and difficulties in applying) the concepts, theories and tools

Survey for this session (cont)

• Student reactions?
• They seem to enjoy the “real world” application of finance in cases
• The issue is getting them to speak up in class
• They love it, regardless of how well I thought the class went
• Students greatly appreciate them even when frustrating because they are unstructured problems that have no correct answers. Their appreciation has grown as I have become more adept at teaching cases

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• Most surprising at the start?
• How much more work it takes to teach (well) using cases.
• The more prep you do the better but it goes well even when not as well prepared

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Survey for this session (cont)

• Most important or key element for learning with cases?
• Finding balance between challenging and confounding the students. I’ve found that some struggle on the students’ part is healthy but too much is discouraging and counterproductive
• I want to bring theory with cases together.
• Experiential learning is crucial; students like to talk (especially older/MBA)
• Ask lots of open-ended questions. Don’t view cases as simply a convenient illustration for delivering one-sided lectures. If you do, you’ve missed the point of the case method.
• References?
• Harvard’s prep materials
• I had lots of teachers who were case method role models that I’ve tried to emulate over the years

A few basic questions

• How is the case method different?
• What audience works best?
• What subject matter works best?
• What are the biggest challenges as a case teacher?
• What are the rewards?
• Some suggestions for starting out

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