Case-based learning
From The Learning Engineer's Knowledgebase
Case-based learning is an approach to designing learning activities that makes use of cases of examples and prior events. Cases can be either from a learner's personal life and experience or from documented descriptions of events to make sense of future information and learning exercises. Case-based learning is open-ended and learner-centered, and is a form of active learning.
Definition
Case-based learning is an active learning approach that uses cases as examples for learners to make sense of new information and problems. In a case-based learning exercise, a case is presented to a learner, the case is analyzed by the learner, insights are made from the case, and new challenges are presented in which lessons from previous cases can be used to solve the challenges.
The first key element of case-based learning is the case, or a specific, detailed example of something (an object, interactions between people/computers, or an event). The second key element is a challenge or problem that needs to be solved by learners using a case or a combination of cases.
A case should at least be (1) descriptive in that it describes the prominent features of the case, the people and objects involved, how objects were built or their characteristics, or other important qualities about the example that should be noted. A case is also often (2) event based, in that the example case happened or was used at some point and that there is a sequence of events or story can be described.
Additional Information
Case-based learning (CBL) often uses open-ended problem solving as a type of learning activity as the lessons drawn and application of cases to new problems will likely be different for each learner and there is no single correct answer on how to analyze and use a case to solve a problem.
Learners may need substantial instructional support and scaffolding to analyze, draw lessons from, and apply cases to new problems. Although the activity is primarily driven by the learner as an active learning exercise, instructors or facilitators have a role to:
- (1) encourage participants to remember and analyze prior experiences from their lives that are relevant to the subject of study;
- (2) analyze cases in a productive way, including by asking prompting questions and how to draw out inferences and insights from examples; and
- (3) instructing learners on how to approach and investigate new problems, which includes how to use prior cases to understand, reason with, and solve new problems.
CBL also relies on the authenticity of the material being encountered and studied. CBL is heavily influenced by the family of theories of situated cognition that predict that learners will perform better on tasks after the learning experience is over if the activities from which they learned are built from and look like real-world tasks and use the ways that people think in real life. Proponents of CBL argue that CBL is closely aligned with how humans actually process new information and situations, as people more easily draw from their prior experiences and the experiences of others to make sense of new situations. In other words, they use cases from their own experience and from what they've heard about to solve new situations that look similar to cases that they know about.
Similar to case-based learning, there is a specific approach to educational design called case-based reasoning (CBR). CBR emphasizes the use of a learner's previous experiences and their recall of specific events (e.g., cases) to make sense of and solve new problems that they encounter. The role of the case is central to case-based reasoning. Researchers interested in using cases, prior experiences, and real-world examples would probably find value in examining the research literature and prior examples that use CBR.
Tips and Tricks
- Within your learning experiences you design, consider including specific descriptive examples as cases that have happened in real life. People may use these cases to understand how something similar was done and what the outcomes of that case were when people did specific actions. Examples, or cases, give learners concrete ideas on how something worked and what the outcome was.
- Case-based learning relies on cases, their analysis, and challenges or problems that are solved by using cases. If you use case-based learning, consider what kinds of solvable, but challenging problems you might provide to learners in which they can find similarities between previous cases and new problems. It is important to remember, however, that problems that are presented to learners need to be small enough in scope that they are solvable in the time allotted and with the cases that were given or drawn from the learner's prior experience.
- Ponder what kinds of activities might be done with learners to get them to think about their prior experiences and how they relate to the learning activities that they are doing in your product. What kinds of questions might teachers or facilitators ask to help learners remember and apply their prior experiences to solving a given challenge.
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