About SEATEC

The SEATEC consortium promoted exemplary improvement in technical education through the design of case studies to be implemented in new curricula, instructional materials, and opportunities for faculty and teacher development. The SEATEC Consortium Case Study Development Project was also instrumental in promoting and developing the use of multidisciplinary teams, which included collaborating with business and industry. Business and industry partnering provided the means for better communication between higher education and private business for the development of the needs of business and the student by providing real-world application-based learning.

The vision for the SEATEC consortium of two-year colleges was to provide leadership for the reform of technological education through case-based instructional delivery. SEATEC built a foundation for this vision by developing a fundamental understanding of case-based instruction in technological education.

A synthesis of the best thinking and practice of experts in the field along with the established structure of the SEATEC interdisciplinary teams and industry partners led to the development of real-world model cases. Through development and field testing of these model cases, the impact on students was analyzed and studied.

The SEATEC vision for the short-term led to a long-term potential that can help reform technological education through the introduction of fundamentally sound model materials and methods. At conclusion, this project had a body of research-based knowledge about the development and implementation of case studies in technology and the resulting improvements in student learning. Samples and models of materials and case-based implementation techniques provided a foundation for reform in the development and delivery of successful case-based tools for instruction.

As the implementation of case studies matures in The Case Files™ project into regional and national field testing, the SEATEC model for developing and using case studies in technological education will influence students and teachers on a widening scale. An ongoing program of dissemination will inform a national constituency of educators about the development and implementation of a case-based approach to technological education, now known as "Problem-based Case Studies."