Learning through Case Studies

Learning through Case Studies

"A method used by the best management schools of the world."

The Harvard Business School, one of the top ranked Business schools of the world, has been the case study approach to teach students. This has now been followed by almost all Business Schools in the world.

This method is an offshoot of the Case Method invented by Christopher Columbus Langdell, Dean of Harvard Law School from 1870 to 1895. This was a way to simplify legal education by focusing on previous case laws. Students read the cases and came prepared to analyse them during a question answer session in the class.

Instead of law cases, Business professors use real-life examples from the business world to highlight and analyse real world principles and challenges. Case studies typically consist of a short narrative, told from the point of view of a manager or business leader and provide readers with an overview of the main issue; background on the institution, industry, and individuals involved; and the events that led to the problem or decision at hand. These are based on interviews or public sources and are more often disguised versions of actual events based on the faculty authors’ experience and knowledge of the subject. Cases are used to illustrate a particular set of learning objectives and has multiple benefits.

A major advantage of teaching with case studies is that students are actively engaged in figuring out the principles by abstracting from the examples. This develops skills in:

1. Problem solving

2. Analytical tools, quantitative and/or qualitative, depending on the case

3. Decision making in complex situations

4. Coping with ambiguities

We are introducing case studies as a way to learn. To start with we have taken from the teaching resources library of written by MIT Sloan, we will be introducing our own case studies shortly.

You could check the available Case Studies here.

#LearningisFun #LearnEveryday