Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011 - rees2009

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) Página 862 de 957
should be done before using the case first time, usually relying on colleagues or grade
students that may give useful feedback before getting the class floor.
Course organization
An important hindrance we have found when facing the design of case-based sessions is
the difficulty to balance homework with the supposed ‘lecture’ duration: case preparation
usually makes the student to work for a reasonably long while before attending the course.
Our global study plan is not prepared for this, so in our first experiences (before migrating
the whole course to a case-based structure), we have tried to simplify cases, and organize
sessions to integrate theory delivery and problem analysis with case solving (in order to
reduce the workload to be done as homework).
Of course, this is not the optimal scenario to work with cases, but it can be a starting point
to facilitate migration from one methodology to the other.
Assessment
The assessment methodology has to be very clear when working with cases, as it differs
from the traditional modes. Assessment usually includes an evaluation on the quality of
the student participation during the session. This is motivating from the point of view of
class preparation, on-site active thinking, development of oral skills or social interaction.
On the other hand, it can also inhibit the free flow of discussion, being affected by
externalities, such as class size, driving personalities, difficulties for the facilitator to
calibrate intervention times, etc.
Measuring in-class performance may be complemented (although not usually substituted)
with homework case analysis and in-class formal outcomes (e.g. a brief exercise may have
to be handed in by the end of the session). In any case, it is important to state clear how
the grading process is going to be, and have it into account in the course dynamics.
A relevant aspect when opting for in-class assessment is to avoid relying on vague
impressions of the quantity or quality of a student’s participation (UTDC, 2004). That
means to define an objective guideline for evaluation needs. For example, it has to include
the skills that students have to show and how these abilities can be developed during the
course.
Dealing with group discussion and individual assessment at the same time may be
complicated for the instructor. For this reason, students are usually asked to sit on the
same place during all course sessions to facilitate identification. The instructor may then
use a photomap of the classroom, which helps him to annotate the evaluations by using
visual memory. It is important to note that assessment has usually to be completed just
immediately after the session.
Effectiveness evaluation
Delivering case-based sessions can be considered enriching from the facilitator side, as no
session is going to be exactly the same than the previous or the following one, due to the
great importance that the student group has in it. Nevertheless, it is usually a costly and
Proceedings of Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011
Madrid, 4 th - 7 th October 2011