Choosing the right case for a class is a vital element of a teacher's preparation. Here we provide some tips to get you started.
What's important?
When choosing a case for a class there are a variety of factors that will play a part in your decision.
The session
- What are your learning objectives?
- Are there any theories or tools that you'd like to teach?
- Is there a particular industry, company or product that you'd like to focus on?
The programme
- Where does this class sit in your programme? At the beginning? Towards the end? This will inform how familiar your students are with cases, and can affect the complexity of the case you choose.
- What cases are being used throughout the programme? It's important to know which cases other instructors on the course are teaching to avoid repetition of cases, companies etc.
Your students
- What is the level of experience and knowledge of your group?
- Know the makeup of your class: ethnicity, genders, home country etc. Students want to see themselves represented in the cases and protagonists they discuss during the course, so make sure you have a good mix that reflects your cohort.
- What is the previous work experience of your class? If you have a student who has worked in the industry or company featured in a case it's useful to know before class, and it can really add to the learning experience.
Thinking through these factors will help you in the search for your perfect case.
How do I find a case?
Once you've thought about the case you'd like to find it's time to begin your search.
Online search
Our product search facility is a powerful and versatile tool designed to help you pinpoint which of our cases suit your requirements best. You can search on your own keywords, and narrow the search by a range of criteria (e.g. topic, length, date of publication). You can then refine your results using our easy-to-use filters.
From your search results you can see information about each product at a glance, and clicking its title gives you more information. If a case has been bought from us before, educators can view its product usage stats.
Online preview copies are provided free for educators and trainers to assess the suitability of a case. Many instructor materials (teaching notes, presentations etc) are also available for educators and trainers to view free online.
Tried and tested
It's always great to know that a case works well in class before you use it. Colleagues in your subject area may be able to recommend a case to you.
We also share which cases are being used by the worldwide case community. Why not discover our:
Keeping an eye out for new cases
If you're planning to use cases in your classes in the future it's worth staying up to date with what's new in your areas of interest.
Depending on how you prefer to receive details of new cases we have the perfect option for you:
- browse our list of new cases that were added last month
- sign up to receive a monthly update direct to your inbox, select from 12 categories
- create your own customised search alerts to be notified the day that a new product becomes available on a topic that you're interested in.
We can help
Our brilliant Customer Services Team can help you narrow down your search. Simply send us an email and we'll do our very best to help.
What if my perfect case doesn't exist?
Although there are over 75,000 cases in our collection, sometimes you just can't find the perfect case for your class.
If this happens, why not consider writing your own case? We have lots of resources and support to help you get started. Once you've written and taught your case don't forget to send it to us for distribution, there might be other educators out there who need your case to fill a space in their programme too!
