The Case Files Approach

What has come to be known as the “The Case Files approach” has produced positive learning outcomes at NSCC and has also been adopted and adapted by faculty from participating ATE-funded technological programs across the country. Problem-based case learning (PBCL) is at the heart of The Case Files approach. Active learning experiences incorporate authentic open-ended business/industry problematic situations, multiple perspectives, more than one solution, and transfer of learning to novel situations.  Business partners, through meaningful partnerships with educators, are an integral to the process of negotiating the content and framing the situation for students. The Case Files activities simulate the real world of engineering technology and information technology by positioning students to solve the kind of “messy” problems they will encounter in business and industry.

Professional Development by Design

Beginning with an Awareness Workshop as an orientation to the Case Files Approach we will work with you to design a strategy for professional development to accomplish your technical education reform goals.  Through the Professional Development by Design cycle faculty put into practice the foundational principles of “how people learn.”  Follow up coaching through face to face work sessions, online communication via e-mail, conference calls and videoconferencing support further development of PBCL experiences as well as implementation at local sites. Interviews conducted in spring 2006 indicate that implementation among students is as high as eighty percent in Virginia and just beginning in other locations, such as the Midwest Center for IT consortium where faculty from four states completed the immersion workshop in February 2006 and received follow up coaching for their work session in September 2006.   Contact us for more information about how you can become involved in the growing community of practitioners who are designing, developing and implementing problem-based case learning experiences using The Case Files Approach