Using Design Thinking to Write and Publish Novel Teaching Cases: Tips From Experienced Case Authors

Abstract

With increasing calls for a greater connection between management education and practice, teaching cases play a vital role in the business curriculum. Cases not only allow instructors to expose students to practical problems but also let educators contribute to the scholarship of teaching and learning. An important reason why faculty members may refrain from writing cases is they perceive it is difficult to develop publishable cases that are also novel. Reviewers of the journals that publish teaching cases are increasingly asking authors to place the case in the extant literature and explain what makes their case unique. To overcome some of the challenges encountered when attempting to write and publish novel teaching cases, this article presents a useful framework—Design Thinking—for tackling the “wicked problem” of developing novel cases and provides experience-based tips to implement the framework. By introducing the concepts and language of design thinking, we provide case writers with an iterative approach that leads to the development of novel cases by identifying and innovatively addressing instructors’, students’, and editors’ demands. We argue that by applying a design-thinking approach, case writers can produce novel and publishable instructional cases.

Project-Based Learning in a Transinstitutional Research Setting: Case Study on the Development of Sustainable Food Products

“…First, adequate research methods were chosen (i.e., photovoice and design thinking). These research methods are known to foster students' participation and motivate students to perform self-regulated learning [49][50][51]. Second, the RCT was established to maintain co-creation in the initial phase of the research.…”

Critical Thinking and Transformational Learning: Using Case Studies as Narrative Frameworks for Threshold Concepts

“…Choi and Lee (2008) offered a similar model for the instructor to reflect on learner objectives. Additionally, to motivate the learner, ensure that cases are timely, embedded in current events, and focused on healthcare issues (Sayed et al, 2017;Sheehan, Gujarathi, Jones, & Phillips, 2018). If cases are used to intentionally teach critical thinking, threshold concepts and prepare healthcare professionals, then intentionality is required for introducing and employing this learning strategy (Townsend et al, 2014).…”

UTCPredictor: An uncertainty‐aware novel teaching cases predictor

“…Teaching cases play an increasingly important role for computer science teaching ; it can be reflected in at least three aspects. First of all, the demand for experiential learning and the need to connect textbook concepts to real‐world happenings is growing in response to criticisms of traditional lecture‐based instructional methods.…”

“…Thus, we need to continually adapt our teaching cases to what is happening at the moment to stay up‐to‐date. However, teaching case building is an extremely time‐consuming work . Sheehan et al summarized several important attributes of a good teaching case: …”

“…However, teaching case building is an extremely time‐consuming work . Sheehan et al summarized several important attributes of a good teaching case: The case is novel and hooks users with an engaging context.…”