Case studies

In the last two weeks of class, we've been learning with a different approach: case studies. Case studies are a great way to approach a topic, and with how class has been these past two weeks, I think most agree that these have been great. Case studies are meant for many levels of learning, and some institutions, like Harvard, use them almost exclusively. These can give us an interesting idea of how real-world business works.

The nature of our case studies and why class discussion was so interesting is that they pull together more concepts than just the foundations of IS - they require us to think about many soft concepts. An analysis of how people work, ethics, and our world's current problems gives many more people the ability to make a contribution with so much to talk about. When more specialized fields become topics is when people often have less to say.

One idea I thought might help is to introduce case studies earlier in the course. Maybe establishing a consistent frequency of case studies would help - it might give everyone a day to look forward to. What do you think about case studies?

Case Study

I have found the case studies to be very interesting. There are things that I didn't know before reading them. I really liked the one about Medivet. I thought that it was a cool concept to be able to go to a clinic that is easily accessible where ever your day may take you. This would also be helpful if there were an emergency and they didn't have the equipment necessary or if you weren't near your usual vet.

Recently, I was reading Ahead of the Curve and it takes place at Harvard. It is kind of like the diary of someone who went through their MBA program. All of the things in the book were true. They use case studies to teach their graduate students about real life situations. It was interesting to read because they get to give their own perspectives on a matter. I enjoyed the similarities between how case studies are being used here and at Harvard.

I know that we aren't at the same caliber as Harvard but it just goes to show you that the same type of teaching is used in each location. I believe that it would be beneficial to use these case studies in more depth. Perhaps in an accounting course it would be useful to see what happened with Enron, worldcom, or Tyco.