SUMMARY PAPER

LEARNING BY CASE STUDY IN THE CLASSROOM

MSC, a sustainability education initiative, began by creating and piloting case studies in

classrooms around the University of Michigan campus. Professor Jeremiah Johnson, an early

adopter, developed two of MSC's first case studies with students from his class. Johnson aimed

to encourage student engagement in the learning process and contribute to faculty scholarship.

He signed his name onto a proposal for the Transforming Learning for a Third Century initiative,

which aimed to create case studies for sustainability education. Johnson planned to have his

students create their own case studies as the major project for the course, but he was concerned

about the students' understanding, ability to deliver high-quality work, and potential negative

course evaluations. In April, Professor Johnson, a professor, was observing students presenting

their semester-long case studies. He was impressed by the students' work and was interested in

collaborating with MSC representatives to develop multimedia-enriched cases. In a meeting with

faculty, 27 proposals were accepted, including two from his students in NRE 615. These case

studies fit well into his existing syllabus and could be used to teach future students. Professor

Johnson hoped that the students would benefit from the process, based on research on the

benefits of project-based learning.

Summer was a busy time for student case authors who transformed classroom

assignments into case studies, including "Distributed Energy Storage" about Tesla's partnership

with Vermont's Green Mountain Power. They chose to do most of the podcast production

themselves, with MSC providing production and engineering. Andrea Kraus, with audio

production experience, used the podcast as a complementary learning mode and a connection to

Green Mountain Power practitioner Josh Castonguay, allowing the case study to link theory to
practice. Professor Johnson aimed to assess the positive impact of a case study on his teaching,

"Distributed Energy Storage," by giving students a quiz. He decided to pass out content-related

questions about the case, which would be used on the final exam in April. Johnson was also

looking forward to the annual meeting for the Association of Environmental Engineering and

Science Professors (AEESP) in June, hoping his results would interest other professors looking

to improve their teaching. Professor Johnson attended a conference discussing "Distributed

Energy Storage" and was unsure about the prevalence of case studies in teaching. Despite some

research supporting their efficacy, many instructors viewed case studies as inferior and time-

consuming. Faculty were also not trained in facilitating classroom discussions associated with

case studies.

MSC aimed to overcome barriers in teaching through its case library and teaching

workshops. Professor Johnson's assessment results showed significant improvement in students,

including international and first-generation college students. His class consisted of students from

three schools: Engineering, Business, and SEAS. Engineering students showed the largest score

gains, followed by SEAS and Business students. Professor Johnson observed great value in

having students write teaching cases and found that supplementing lectures with cases helped tie

disparate concepts together. After his presentation, the audience clapped enthusiastically, and a

barrage of questions followed. Professor Johnson was beaming, unsure of the number of converts

to case-based teaching, but he intended to use student-produced material in his class for a long

time.

Submitted by: Julie Ann Dequit BTLEd-IA3