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eLearning Scenario: Case Study & Self-Analysis

Introduction

Keywords: Vista, Scenario, Case Study

This page describes a very effective case study learning scenario and gives you access to a demo of such a Case Study Scenario. For a step by step instruction to implement such a scenario go to Creating & Evaluating a Case Study Exercise.

Table of Contents

Description of the Scenario

Aim: Supporting students that acquire a technique for analyzing case studies in a technical environment.
Pre-condition: Students have a theoretical knowledge of the analysis technique and it's rational.
Five phases:
  1. Presentation of the case study and task.
  2. Formulation and sending in of students' analysis.
  3. Confrontation of students' answers with the teacher's sample answer.
  4. Formulation and sending in of students' comparative self-analysis.
  5. Teachers' feedback to students learning process.
 Students Actions

Example case

The example following below has been constructed to give you a condensed view of this elearning scenario based on a humoristic subject, the cooking of a fondue.



 A more serious but also more complex version is been provided by the original creators of the scenario, the FE-Transfer Group. Project Icon

Phase 1:

A ruined 'Fondue'.
After 10 minutes on the table a Fondue called 'Half & half' presents the following unwanted characteristics: large flaks of a clear liquid can be seen on its surface. The normally creamy liquid cheese has changed into a compact masse of gum like consistence. More detailed information is provided in supplementary material. Task: List the tasks for an examination allowing to analyse the flaws in the cooking procedure that is the cause of this disaster using the Cooking Disaster Analysis Method (CDAM).

Phase 2: Example students answer.

Applying the CDAM the following steps are advised:
  1. Google-search on usual pitfalls in the 'half & half' cooking procedure.
  2. Tasting of the end result.
  3. Execution analysis of the standard 'half & half' receipt
  4. Examination of traces.
  5. Chemical analysis of the rests
  6. Cause description and remedial suggestions

Phase 3: Teacher's sample answer of the system

  1. Examination of functional environment. Do the tools employed allow to carry out the standard 'half & half' receipt?
  2. Examination of traces. Which ingredients have been used?
  3. Questioning cooking accident experts on usual pitfalls in the cheese processing in kitchens.
  4. Chemical trace analysis.
  5. Synthesis of found conditions and cause description.
  6. Suggestions for accident avoidance

Phase 4: Example students auto-analysis

My analysis underestimates the importance of the working environment, the kitchen and completely overlooked the need of a synthesis of the found results before pinning down the cause of the accident. but was quite right about the need of the analysis of the material on hand and the check with Google seems a good short cut to finding ideas on what might have happened. The questioning of an expert - as demanded in the teacher's sample answer - often is not possible.

Phase 5: Teachers feedback.

This is a very good auto-critic, since you clearly identified the main flaws in your application of the CDAM. In a future case analysis you could still be more attentive to the sequence of the different analysis steps to be taken. You should always start with collecting empiric evidence first, before getting influenced by the opinion of experts that have not seen your concrete case.

Practical and technical considerations

The pedagogical aims of this learning setting is to acquire the basic theoretical knowledge of an analyzing and problem solving method and to train its practical step by step procedure until it is mastered. These highly cognitive demands can in fact be trained in a learning process that starts with acquiring information and leads on to tentative constructions of solutions that are then compared to a sample solution in students' auto-critic which is submitted to a teacher's expertise who reacts with a feedback. In this process students remodel their conception of the solution in steps. Guided first by the task, than by a sample solution and finally by the teachers feedback. This three step learning process is strongly supporting students autonomous thinking and analyzing competencies.

The preparation and the first 2 steps of this learning setting can be automated and represented in a teaching tool. See their FET-demo for an admirable instance of an application that even supports the 3 step of the learning procedure.

To implement this scenario in Vista edutech has programmed a case study exercise tool allowing to support teachers and students through the 5 steps of the exercise. For more details go to Creating & Evaluating a Case Study Exercise

If you plan to place several of these scenarios into one course, you will need to time their availability through the selective release. To see the Vista implementation described above go to our
Case Study Scenario Demo
FET Course Icon and click onto "Vista Demos - FET Method Demo".

Links and Acknowledgements

The idea of this scenario has been developed by and first implemented in the SVC-project Finite Element Analysis. See their FET-demo. Their new project eFBS currently develops an authoring tool "Learning Pacemaker" that will allow to implement their method in other subject areas independent of a learning platforms.

FE-Transfer : A computer and web based course for the application of finite element analysis in structure mechanics" In: 33rd International Symposium IGIP / IEEE / ASEE. September 2004, Fribourg , Switzerland. ISBN 2-9401156-28-X, p. 397-402.

Ingenieurprobleme lösen mit der FEM. von Peter Fritzsch. Der e-learning Kurs für die Anwendung der FEM im Maschinenbau und in der Strukturmechanik., FHA, Aargau, 2004.

Cours de post-formation sur l'application de la méthode des éléments finis de Bersier Jacques P., Fritzsche Peter, Wyrsch-Schwander Arnold . Dans: Flash informatique. juin 2003, 5. Lausanne : EPFL. ISSN 1420-7192, p. 23-27.

Author: Andreas Röllinghoff
Modified  24.2.06
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