Handbook Table of Contents > Teaching Methods > Managing a Case Assignment
Indiana University Teaching Handbook
Teaching Methods
Managing a Case Assignment
- Design discussions for small groups: 3-6 students is an ideal group size for setting up a discussion on a case.
- Design the narrative or situation such that it requires participants to reach a judgment, decision, recommendation, prediction or other concrete outcome. If possible, require each group to reach a consensus on the decision requested.
- Structure the discussion. The instructor should provide a series of written questions to guide small group discussion. Pay careful attention to the sequencing of the questions. Early questions might ask participants to make observations about the facts of the case. Later questions could ask for comparisons, contrasts, and analyses of competing observations or hypotheses. Final questions might ask students to take a position on the matter. The purpose of these questions is to stimulate, guide or prod (but not dictate) participants’ observations and analyses. The questions should be impossible to answer with a simple yes or no.
- Debrief the discussion to compare group responses. Help the whole class interpret and understand the implications of their solutions.
- Allow groups to work without instructor interference. The instructor must be comfortable with ambiguity and with adopting the non-traditional roles of witness and resource, rather than authority.
