Drs. Nicholas Grahovec and Tyler Wood from Northern Illinois University presented a recorded session at the 2020 Lilly Conference I watched tonight. They described a type of case study I didn’t know about: case-by-collaboration (CBC). The presenters began by discussing the importance of critical thinking and project-based learning. Grahovec and Tyler teach courses in occupational/physical therapy and use critical thinking and problem-based learning (PBL). The presenters emphasized the benefits of PBL including student ownership, increased sense of accomplishment, and increases in collaboration and problem solving. They also differentiated critical thinking and clinical reasoning, with clinical reasoning focusing on clinical scenarios and patients. Case-by-collaboration (CBC) involves in-depth case studies that can be designed for a variety of disciplines. CBC incorporates a case study, soft skills (teamwork, operate/manipulate electronic data, communicate with others), and deliverables (reports, graphics, charts) aligned with the skills and learning objectives. The example Grahovec and Wood described had extensive dialog, an evolving scenario and characters, data, and multiple parts. The creative medical investigation (CMI) is a narrative medical case designed to include storylines, discussion questions, and a presentation for students to deliver to the class. The course was a professional-level athletic training course. I was struck by the level of detail, twists, and dialogue in these cases. Several characters form a story together, interact, and help set up a medical investigation. The presenters mention that the CBC go beyond traditional cases, with lengths going over 20 pages! Discussion questions require thought, application, and often design of a plan. In the course, participants gave an assignment in which they create a CBC with several components: detailed dialogue, practice what they are going to say, specific descriptions… either building on a case used in class or creating their own. The presenters mentioned that their qualitative analysis of students using semi structured interviews indicated that CBC were found to be enjoyable, induced creative thought, encouraged collaboration, and facilitated logical thought progression. I didn’t know about the CBC model and enjoyed this presentation. I also see several connections and similarities to the high-throughput case studies we are creating as part of our NSF RCN HITS (go.ncsu.edu/hits). While we often don’t include extensive dialogue and character development, high-throughput cases often have several parts, require data analysis or handling, and have students often collaborate to respond challenging open-ended questions. We’ve been thinking about high-throughput cases and their use online and in different courses. The CBC model presented by Grahovec and Wood was thought-provoking and introduced me to a different way of thinking about cases: as ways to foster collaboration and practice important professional skills!
