How can the Discussion Case Be Used?
Cases can provide instructional technology students with the opportunity
to experience complex, real-world situations, and to respond to them based
on the professional knowledge they've developed to that point. In the
process, they further refine their professional competencies.
The process of team collaboration can enhance this experience, providing
multiple points of view and offering individuals the opportunity to advance,
and develop support for, their own perspectives. The 1997 Discussion Case
is presented to provide instructional design students an opportunity to
discuss the case not only with faculty and students within their programs
but to develop a response to the case that will be shared with participants
from other universities as well. (All case responses will be posted to the
event web site.)
As an added benefit, each team's response will receive a careful reading
from an expert outside their own educational program. In the Discussion
Case, these experts will assume Provocateur roles. Each Provocateur will
assume the role of a character from the case, and will review each team's
case response. From these roles, the Provocateurs will ask each team
questions related to the team's response. The teams' question responses
will also be posted to the event web site, so that they may be reviewed
by teams at all universities.
What Should Teams Do in Developing Their Responses?
The Discussion Case requires teams to analyze the case materials and
propose an instructional design based on their reading of the case.
As they develop their instructional design case response, teams will benefit
if they:
- Identify the key issues present in the case,
- Consider the issues from different perspectives, including those of
the key players in the case,
- Identify what professional knowledge they have that would be
pertinent (and what more they need to know),
- Determine possible courses of action and
- Hypothesize as to the possible outcomes of those plans.
In the Competition Case response (the next case in the '97 event),
limitations will be placed on the amount of time a team can meet to
discuss and develop a case response (six hours) and on the length of the
response (1,250 words). We are recommending these time/length limits
for the Discussion Case as well. Most participants in the '96 event
responded positively to these limitations, indicating that they resulted
in more focused team efforts and more succinct responses than may
otherwise have been the case.
Timeline for Harvesting Cooperation Case Activities (1997):
- Jan 13: Sponsors form teams, send bio sketches (1 paragraph each) and
photos for participants to event coordinators (kinzie@virginia.edu).
- (Jan 20: Sponsors recruit Officials for Competition Case [2nd case in the
'97 event])
- Jan 27: Discussion Case available to teams at case web site
(http://teach.virginia.edu/go/ITcases).
Teams discuss the case
with faculty, professionals, and other students at their home institution,
and develop their case response.
- Feb 10: Teams submit case responses (a proposed instructional design
[see above]) to the event coordinators (kinzie@virginia.edu). (By
12:00 noon, EST).
- Feb 12: Case responses from all teams posted on the web site.
Provocateurs assume character roles and review case responses,
begin developing questions for each team.
- Feb. 19: Provocateurs send questions for each team to event
coordinators (kinzie@virginia.edu).
Event coordinators
collate questions for each team.
- Feb 21: Event coordinators send Provocateur questions to each team.
Teams discuss the questions with faculty, professionals, and
other students at their home institution.
- Feb 28: Teams submit Provocateur question responses to event
coordinators (kinzie@virginia.edu). (By 12:00 noon, EST).
- Mar 3: Responses to Provocateur questions posted to web site.
- Mar 10: Competition Case made available.
What is the Discussion Case Like?
The Discussion Case is, in format, somewhat like the practice case
("The Trials of Terry Kirkland"). The case is in the form of a story,
presented as a series of scenes along a timeline, and accompanied by a
number of ancillary materials. Presentation will be through the use of
text and still images. In addition, URLs to different sites on the Internet
are provided within the case to provide additional content materials.
A key difference in the Discussion Case is the focus of the case
response--teams are being asked specifically to develop an instructional
design in response to the case, rather than just responding to the case
itself.
The case is designed for the use of the Netscape Navigator 2.0 (or later
version) web browser. This browser supports the use of frames. If your
current web browser cannot make use of frames, a non-frames version of
the case is provided and should automatically be made available to you
when you access the web site.
