Case Study How To: How Do You Study A Case?

Step 01:  Choose A Group

You are self-selecting your groups for each of the Case Studies.  Click the Groups tab in BBoard and you can sign yourself up.  You can work with anyone you choose, but if you do not choose a group, you will be placed in one.  The deadlines for selecting your groups are:

Remember that you are permitted to self-select your groups, and if you find yourself on a team that isn’t your best fit, you can choose to work with different people on the subsequent cases.  You are not required to work with the same team each time, but once a team is formed, it’s for the duration of the Case.

Step 02:  Arrange a Meeting

Again, do this however works best.  If everyone’s on campus, in-person meetings might be the best choice.  But if you need to meet via Zoom, then do that.  But do not wait until 12 hours before a case is due before you suddenly realize that nobody has spoken to anybody and no work has been done.

Do your best to be flexible; this is a short-term task, not a semester-long project.  You don’t have time to procrastinate!

Step 03:  Start Analyzing

As a good team member, I’m sure you’ll be well prepared to meet with your group.  You’ll already have read the case handout and started thinking about the issues.  If you need anything extra (see Cases 02 and 03, for example), you’ll already know and either have it or know how the group can get it (whatever ‘it’ happens to be—don’t worry, there’s nothing you have to buy).

Spend a few minutes in discussion before anyone starts trying to plow through answering the questions.  Talk about what you’re going to do and make sure everyone in the group is on the same page.  If everyone has read the case and started thinking about it, you might already have some natural division of labor, where one member has a good idea about this and another has an efficient way to do that.  One short conversation might reveal how to play to your group’s strengths!

Step 04:  Get It In Writing

Do whatever works to keep track of your work.  However, a Google doc is a really good choice.  A shared document is available to everyone, and everyone can easily contribute and keep track of the progress.

Make sure that you address each question, and that you have answered it completely.  You will also need to create tables for some of the cases (which is really easy to do in Google docs).  If you have to do calculations, double-check your answers.  Does everyone get the same results?

Step 05:  Use Your Resources

Each case contains links to source material.  Always click through!  In some cases, you will need to retrieve information from the source.  If you are ever unable to access any of these resources, please let me know as soon as possible.  The links in the documents have been verified, but it’s always possible for things to change (and if that happens, I need to know!).

Step 06:  Put It Together and Hand It In

The Case Studies are due on the dates shown below, no later than 6:00PM.

To prepare your case study for evaluation, compile a neat, easy-to-follow document that addresses each of the questions completely.  Please take a few moments before you submit to make sure that your document is neat, complete, and professional.  Proofread it for spelling and grammar (then have another person do it again!).  Make sure the questions are numbered, any figures or tables are labeled, and that the document is easy to read.

To submit your case, export the document as a pdf.  Blackboard does not recognize a Google doc as an allowable file format for submissions.  Use the appropriate Blackboard assignment to upload your work, and submit only one document for the entire group.  Each Case Study is worth 50 points, and all participating group members will receive the same score.

Need a hard copy of these instructions? Click here to download the .pdf!