SDU UP: Newsletter
Integrating practice into teaching through case-based learning
It is a key strategic objective for SDU to ensure the integration of practice into all study programmes. This can be achieved in several ways, but in this newsletter, we highlight the potential of case-based teaching.
SDU’s website about education quality states that, it is a key strategic objective for SDU to educate sought-after and value-creating graduates by strengthening the integration of research into study programmes and fostering students’ concurrent understanding of relevance through the integration of practice. The same page also presents SDU’s Model for Research and Practice Integration (see Figure 1 – in Danish).
As shown in the model, a distinction is made between two overall approaches to practice integration in teaching: Practice activities with/in the surrounding society and Practice integrated into teaching.
Choosing the right practice-based activity
Concrete examples of practice-relevant teaching activities can also be found on SDU’s website for example, invited presentions by external organisations as part of teaching, guest lectures delivered by relevant external stakeholders, visits to practice-relevant organisations, or the use of case-based teaching methods.
One of the most practice-relevant teaching activities, however, is the inclusion of internships as part of the study programme. Internships offer individual students optimal opportunities to work towards learning outcomes categorised as Competences, as these require learning in authentic, complex or unpredictable work or development related situations, according to the Danish Qualifications Framework for Higher Education. At the same time, internships also enable individual students to establish more personal and direct connections with potential future employers.
However, the most appropriate practice integration activity will always depend on the specific learning objectives within a given teaching context. If, for example, a course’s learning objectives primarily fall within the category of Knowledge, it may be relevant to include invited talks by external stakeholders or to organise visits to organisations in industry and related fields. If the learning objectives also place emphasis on cognitive Skills, case-based teaching may be a far more suitable approach—particularly where students are expected to apply theory in practice-oriented contexts, analyse or evaluate information, solve problems, develop their argumentation skills, make decisions, or propose creative or context-sensitive solutions.
Cases
Case-based teaching is centered around students’ work with authentic cases—that is, cases grounded in or inspired by real (rather than hypothetical) events, problems or challenges. Cases can be designed in a variety of ways. The ‘classic’ case is often referred to as a dilemma case or decision case. Its purpose is to support students’ development of skills related to decision-making, critical thinking, argumentation, and creative or innovative problem-solving.
Such cases typically include:
- a description of an authentic, relevant and often current problem involving a protagonist who could realistically be the student themselves in a future professional role;
- a set of questions for students to reflect upon when preparing the case prior to class (so-called guiding questions);
- a range of supporting materials providing relevant background information (for example, video lectures by the teacher, references, data, graphs, tables, letters, documents, or links to TED Talks or YouTube clips). Students are expected to engage with, analyse, prioritise and critically evaluate these materials.
Case-based learning is therefore particularly well suited to enable students to practise working with ambiguous problems and, and to learn how to navigate the complexity and uncertainty of real-world situations in a protected learning environment—in vitro—before encountering the realities of working life or an internship.
Often, university teachers from more professionally oriented programmes—as well as university teachers who have one foot in industry (e.g. external lecturers)—have more immediate access to relevant and authentic cases, which they can easily design and adapt to their own teaching contexts.
For other teachers, support is fortunately available through SDU RIO should there be a need for assistance in establishing direct collaborations with companies and other external organisations for the development of real-world cases.
The box outlines a current project (the CaseLib project), in which teachers from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology work together with SDU RIO and SDU CTL to support the implementation of case-based teaching for the benefit of integrating practice into teaching.
CaseLib: From knowledge to competence
By Eva Bang Harvald & Christine Hugger Jørgensen.
The CaseLib initiative (From knowledge to competence - Embedding practice in academic learning) is a 3-year project at Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, SDU, funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, with a total budget of approx. 2 million DKK. The project aims to strengthen educational quality by systematically integrating practice-based, authentic cases from the industry, hospital, etc. into teaching.
At its core, CaseLib develops and implements a scalable model for case-based learning (CBL), where students work with authentic challenges and data from companies and the healthcare sector. This approach helps bridge the gap between theory and practice, increasing student engagement, motivation, and awareness of how their competencies apply in authentic contexts.
A central outcome is the development of CaseLib, a digital case library offering ready-to-use cases, templates, and teaching resources that make it easy for educators to adopt case-based methods across disciplines. The project is carried out in close collaboration between SDU UP, SDU RIO, and industry partners via Life Science Fyn, and is organized around four work packages covering case development, faculty supporting seminars and course integration, development of the Case Library, and evaluation and dissemination.
Case-based teaching methods
SDU CTL can support groups of teachers in developing their competencies related to teaching methods that are well suited to case-based teaching. Students can work with cases in many different ways. For example, as take-home assignments, or as longer-term project work submitted for assessment.
They can also engage actively with cases during face-to-face teaching sessions, which provides the teacher with an excellent opportunity to facilitate disciplinary ways of reasoning by adopting the role of moderator and questioner. Table 1 outlines three well-established and extensively documented teaching methods that are built around students’ work with cases in face-to-face teaching.
Table 1: Three established case-based teaching methods
All three methods require the teacher (or instructor) to adopt the role of facilitator, and interestingly, two of the methods (CBL and TBL) can be implemented in auditorium contexts with very large classes (100+ students). For example, the Medicine programme at SDU runs TBL in very large classes in U300.
Case-based learning
(ad modum Harvard)
|
Problem-based learning
(ad modem McMaster) |
Team-based learning
(Parmelee et al., 2012) |
|
Purpose |
To integrate theory and practice; to manage (sort, prioritise) complex and incomplete information; to reason, argue, solve problems and make decisions | As for CBL, plus a focus on promoting active participation, self-regulated and lifelong learning, and collaboration | As for CBL, plus a focus on promoting active participation, collaboration and accountability, and on illustrating the value of diversity and interdisciplinarity in problem-solving |
Student preparation |
Students prepare a more extensive case (1–40 pages) and guiding questions prior to class | No preparation before the case is introduced in class for the first time (discovery approach) | Students prepare a syllabus before class. A shorter case (1–3 pages) with predefined answer options is distributed and discussed in class |
Activities |
Orchestrated case discussions among students in plenum. The teacher facilitates discussion around prioritised themes through targeted questions and summarises student contributions on the blackboard. Duration: 2–3 hours |
Students work in small groups (5–6 students) with a facilitator. Based on the case, te group 1) defines learning objectives, 2) prepares knowledge individually, 3) discusses in group, 4) repeats as needed, 5) synthesise solution. Duration: 2–3 group meetings over one week |
1) Individual readiness assurance test*, 2) group discussion and voting on the same test*, 3) short clarifying lecture by the teacher, 4) case discussions within the team, 5) inter-team discussions in plenary, 6) appeals. Duration: 2–3 hours |
Teacher’s role |
Moderator and facilitator of students’ plenary discussions | Facilitator of students’ problem-solving processes, with minimal intervention | Both subject expert (during the clarifying lecture) and facilitator of students’ plenary discussions |
Number of teachers |
One teacher | One facilitator/instructor per group | One teacher |
Physical setting |
Auditorium | Multiple group rooms | Auditorium |
*The results of both the individual and group readiness tests can be included in the final course grade, should there be a desire to further encourage attendance and collaboration.
Responsible for this month's newsletter
Lotte O’Neill
Associate Professor, Centre for Teaching and Learning
