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Enrich your students’ educational experience with case-based teaching

The NCCSTS Case Collection, created and curated by the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science, on behalf of the University at Buffalo, contains over a thousand peer-reviewed case studies on a variety of topics in all areas of science.

Cases (only) are freely accessible; subscription is required for access to teaching notes and answer keys.

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Development of the NCCSTS Case Collection was originally funded by major grants to the University at Buffalo from the National Science Foundation , The Pew Charitable Trusts , and the U.S. Department of Education .

Center for Teaching

Case studies.

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Case studies are stories that are used as a teaching tool to show the application of a theory or concept to real situations. Dependent on the goal they are meant to fulfill, cases can be fact-driven and deductive where there is a correct answer, or they can be context driven where multiple solutions are possible. Various disciplines have employed case studies, including humanities, social sciences, sciences, engineering, law, business, and medicine. Good cases generally have the following features: they tell a good story, are recent, include dialogue, create empathy with the main characters, are relevant to the reader, serve a teaching function, require a dilemma to be solved, and have generality.

Instructors can create their own cases or can find cases that already exist. The following are some things to keep in mind when creating a case:

• What do you want students to learn from the discussion of the case?
• What do they already know that applies to the case?
• What are the issues that may be raised in discussion?
• How will the case and discussion be introduced?
• What preparation is expected of students? (Do they need to read the case ahead of time? Do research? Write anything?)
• What directions do you need to provide students regarding what they are supposed to do and accomplish?
• Do you need to divide students into groups or will they discuss as the whole class?
• Are you going to use role-playing or facilitators or record keepers? If so, how?
• What are the opening questions?
• How much time is needed for students to discuss the case?
• What concepts are to be applied/extracted during the discussion?
• How will you evaluate students?

To find other cases that already exist, try the following websites:

• The National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science , University of Buffalo. SUNY-Buffalo maintains this set of links to other case studies on the web in disciplines ranging from engineering and ethics to sociology and business
• A Journal of Teaching Cases in Public Administration and Public Policy , University of Washington

For more information:

• World Association for Case Method Research and Application

Book Review :  Teaching and the Case Method , 3rd ed., vols. 1 and 2, by Louis Barnes, C. Roland (Chris) Christensen, and Abby Hansen. Harvard Business School Press, 1994; 333 pp. (vol 1), 412 pp. (vol 2).

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Making Learning Relevant With Case Studies

The open-ended problems presented in case studies give students work that feels connected to their lives.

To prepare students for jobs that haven’t been created yet, we need to teach them how to be great problem solvers so that they’ll be ready for anything. One way to do this is by teaching content and skills using real-world case studies, a learning model that’s focused on reflection during the problem-solving process. It’s similar to project-based learning, but PBL is more focused on students creating a product.

Case studies have been used for years by businesses, law and medical schools, physicians on rounds, and artists critiquing work. Like other forms of problem-based learning, case studies can be accessible for every age group, both in one subject and in interdisciplinary work.

You can get started with case studies by tackling relatable questions like these with your students:

• How can we limit food waste in the cafeteria?
• How can we get our school to recycle and compost waste? (Or, if you want to be more complex, how can our school reduce its carbon footprint?)
• How can we improve school attendance?
• How can we reduce the number of people who get sick at school during cold and flu season?

Addressing questions like these leads students to identify topics they need to learn more about. In researching the first question, for example, students may see that they need to research food chains and nutrition. Students often ask, reasonably, why they need to learn something, or when they’ll use their knowledge in the future. Learning is most successful for students when the content and skills they’re studying are relevant, and case studies offer one way to create that sense of relevance.

Teaching With Case Studies

Ultimately, a case study is simply an interesting problem with many correct answers. What does case study work look like in classrooms? Teachers generally start by having students read the case or watch a video that summarizes the case. Students then work in small groups or individually to solve the case study. Teachers set milestones defining what students should accomplish to help them manage their time.

During the case study learning process, student assessment of learning should be focused on reflection. Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick’s Learning and Leading With Habits of Mind gives several examples of what this reflection can look like in a classroom: 

Journaling: At the end of each work period, have students write an entry summarizing what they worked on, what worked well, what didn’t, and why. Sentence starters and clear rubrics or guidelines will help students be successful. At the end of a case study project, as Costa and Kallick write, it’s helpful to have students “select significant learnings, envision how they could apply these learnings to future situations, and commit to an action plan to consciously modify their behaviors.”

Interviews: While working on a case study, students can interview each other about their progress and learning. Teachers can interview students individually or in small groups to assess their learning process and their progress.

Student discussion: Discussions can be unstructured—students can talk about what they worked on that day in a think-pair-share or as a full class—or structured, using Socratic seminars or fishbowl discussions. If your class is tackling a case study in small groups, create a second set of small groups with a representative from each of the case study groups so that the groups can share their learning.

4 Tips for Setting Up a Case Study

1. Identify a problem to investigate: This should be something accessible and relevant to students’ lives. The problem should also be challenging and complex enough to yield multiple solutions with many layers.

2. Give context: Think of this step as a movie preview or book summary. Hook the learners to help them understand just enough about the problem to want to learn more.

3. Have a clear rubric: Giving structure to your definition of quality group work and products will lead to stronger end products. You may be able to have your learners help build these definitions.

4. Provide structures for presenting solutions: The amount of scaffolding you build in depends on your students’ skill level and development. A case study product can be something like several pieces of evidence of students collaborating to solve the case study, and ultimately presenting their solution with a detailed slide deck or an essay—you can scaffold this by providing specified headings for the sections of the essay.

Problem-Based Teaching Resources

There are many high-quality, peer-reviewed resources that are open source and easily accessible online.

• The National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science at the University at Buffalo built an online collection of more than 800 cases that cover topics ranging from biochemistry to economics. There are resources for middle and high school students.
• Models of Excellence , a project maintained by EL Education and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has examples of great problem- and project-based tasks—and corresponding exemplary student work—for grades pre-K to 12.
• The Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning at Purdue University is an open-source journal that publishes examples of problem-based learning in K–12 and post-secondary classrooms.
• The Tech Edvocate has a list of websites and tools related to problem-based learning.

In their book Problems as Possibilities , Linda Torp and Sara Sage write that at the elementary school level, students particularly appreciate how they feel that they are taken seriously when solving case studies. At the middle school level, “researchers stress the importance of relating middle school curriculum to issues of student concern and interest.” And high schoolers, they write, find the case study method “beneficial in preparing them for their future.”

Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Assignments

• Annotated Bibliography
• Analyzing a Scholarly Journal Article
• Group Presentations
• Dealing with Nervousness
• Using Visual Aids
• Grading Someone Else's Paper
• Types of Structured Group Activities
• Group Project Survival Skills
• Leading a Class Discussion
• Multiple Book Review Essay
• Reviewing Collected Works
• Writing a Case Analysis Paper
• Writing a Case Study
• About Informed Consent
• Writing Field Notes
• Writing a Policy Memo
• Writing a Reflective Paper
• Writing a Research Proposal
• Generative AI and Writing
• Acknowledgments

A case study research paper examines a person, place, event, condition, phenomenon, or other type of subject of analysis in order to extrapolate  key themes and results that help predict future trends, illuminate previously hidden issues that can be applied to practice, and/or provide a means for understanding an important research problem with greater clarity. A case study research paper usually examines a single subject of analysis, but case study papers can also be designed as a comparative investigation that shows relationships between two or more subjects. The methods used to study a case can rest within a quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-method investigative paradigm.

Case Studies. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Mills, Albert J. , Gabrielle Durepos, and Eiden Wiebe, editors. Encyclopedia of Case Study Research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010 ; “What is a Case Study?” In Swanborn, Peter G. Case Study Research: What, Why and How? London: SAGE, 2010.

How to Approach Writing a Case Study Research Paper

General information about how to choose a topic to investigate can be found under the " Choosing a Research Problem " tab in the Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper writing guide. Review this page because it may help you identify a subject of analysis that can be investigated using a case study design.

However, identifying a case to investigate involves more than choosing the research problem . A case study encompasses a problem contextualized around the application of in-depth analysis, interpretation, and discussion, often resulting in specific recommendations for action or for improving existing conditions. As Seawright and Gerring note, practical considerations such as time and access to information can influence case selection, but these issues should not be the sole factors used in describing the methodological justification for identifying a particular case to study. Given this, selecting a case includes considering the following:

• The case represents an unusual or atypical example of a research problem that requires more in-depth analysis? Cases often represent a topic that rests on the fringes of prior investigations because the case may provide new ways of understanding the research problem. For example, if the research problem is to identify strategies to improve policies that support girl's access to secondary education in predominantly Muslim nations, you could consider using Azerbaijan as a case study rather than selecting a more obvious nation in the Middle East. Doing so may reveal important new insights into recommending how governments in other predominantly Muslim nations can formulate policies that support improved access to education for girls.
• The case provides important insight or illuminate a previously hidden problem? In-depth analysis of a case can be based on the hypothesis that the case study will reveal trends or issues that have not been exposed in prior research or will reveal new and important implications for practice. For example, anecdotal evidence may suggest drug use among homeless veterans is related to their patterns of travel throughout the day. Assuming prior studies have not looked at individual travel choices as a way to study access to illicit drug use, a case study that observes a homeless veteran could reveal how issues of personal mobility choices facilitate regular access to illicit drugs. Note that it is important to conduct a thorough literature review to ensure that your assumption about the need to reveal new insights or previously hidden problems is valid and evidence-based.
• The case challenges and offers a counter-point to prevailing assumptions? Over time, research on any given topic can fall into a trap of developing assumptions based on outdated studies that are still applied to new or changing conditions or the idea that something should simply be accepted as "common sense," even though the issue has not been thoroughly tested in current practice. A case study analysis may offer an opportunity to gather evidence that challenges prevailing assumptions about a research problem and provide a new set of recommendations applied to practice that have not been tested previously. For example, perhaps there has been a long practice among scholars to apply a particular theory in explaining the relationship between two subjects of analysis. Your case could challenge this assumption by applying an innovative theoretical framework [perhaps borrowed from another discipline] to explore whether this approach offers new ways of understanding the research problem. Taking a contrarian stance is one of the most important ways that new knowledge and understanding develops from existing literature.
• The case provides an opportunity to pursue action leading to the resolution of a problem? Another way to think about choosing a case to study is to consider how the results from investigating a particular case may result in findings that reveal ways in which to resolve an existing or emerging problem. For example, studying the case of an unforeseen incident, such as a fatal accident at a railroad crossing, can reveal hidden issues that could be applied to preventative measures that contribute to reducing the chance of accidents in the future. In this example, a case study investigating the accident could lead to a better understanding of where to strategically locate additional signals at other railroad crossings so as to better warn drivers of an approaching train, particularly when visibility is hindered by heavy rain, fog, or at night.
• The case offers a new direction in future research? A case study can be used as a tool for an exploratory investigation that highlights the need for further research about the problem. A case can be used when there are few studies that help predict an outcome or that establish a clear understanding about how best to proceed in addressing a problem. For example, after conducting a thorough literature review [very important!], you discover that little research exists showing the ways in which women contribute to promoting water conservation in rural communities of east central Africa. A case study of how women contribute to saving water in a rural village of Uganda can lay the foundation for understanding the need for more thorough research that documents how women in their roles as cooks and family caregivers think about water as a valuable resource within their community. This example of a case study could also point to the need for scholars to build new theoretical frameworks around the topic [e.g., applying feminist theories of work and family to the issue of water conservation].

Eisenhardt, Kathleen M. “Building Theories from Case Study Research.” Academy of Management Review 14 (October 1989): 532-550; Emmel, Nick. Sampling and Choosing Cases in Qualitative Research: A Realist Approach . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2013; Gerring, John. “What Is a Case Study and What Is It Good for?” American Political Science Review 98 (May 2004): 341-354; Mills, Albert J. , Gabrielle Durepos, and Eiden Wiebe, editors. Encyclopedia of Case Study Research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010; Seawright, Jason and John Gerring. "Case Selection Techniques in Case Study Research." Political Research Quarterly 61 (June 2008): 294-308.

Structure and Writing Style

The purpose of a paper in the social sciences designed around a case study is to thoroughly investigate a subject of analysis in order to reveal a new understanding about the research problem and, in so doing, contributing new knowledge to what is already known from previous studies. In applied social sciences disciplines [e.g., education, social work, public administration, etc.], case studies may also be used to reveal best practices, highlight key programs, or investigate interesting aspects of professional work.

In general, the structure of a case study research paper is not all that different from a standard college-level research paper. However, there are subtle differences you should be aware of. Here are the key elements to organizing and writing a case study research paper.

I.  Introduction

As with any research paper, your introduction should serve as a roadmap for your readers to ascertain the scope and purpose of your study . The introduction to a case study research paper, however, should not only describe the research problem and its significance, but you should also succinctly describe why the case is being used and how it relates to addressing the problem. The two elements should be linked. With this in mind, a good introduction answers these four questions:

• What is being studied? Describe the research problem and describe the subject of analysis [the case] you have chosen to address the problem. Explain how they are linked and what elements of the case will help to expand knowledge and understanding about the problem.
• Why is this topic important to investigate? Describe the significance of the research problem and state why a case study design and the subject of analysis that the paper is designed around is appropriate in addressing the problem.
• What did we know about this topic before I did this study? Provide background that helps lead the reader into the more in-depth literature review to follow. If applicable, summarize prior case study research applied to the research problem and why it fails to adequately address the problem. Describe why your case will be useful. If no prior case studies have been used to address the research problem, explain why you have selected this subject of analysis.
• How will this study advance new knowledge or new ways of understanding? Explain why your case study will be suitable in helping to expand knowledge and understanding about the research problem.

Each of these questions should be addressed in no more than a few paragraphs. Exceptions to this can be when you are addressing a complex research problem or subject of analysis that requires more in-depth background information.

II.  Literature Review

The literature review for a case study research paper is generally structured the same as it is for any college-level research paper. The difference, however, is that the literature review is focused on providing background information and  enabling historical interpretation of the subject of analysis in relation to the research problem the case is intended to address . This includes synthesizing studies that help to:

• Place relevant works in the context of their contribution to understanding the case study being investigated . This would involve summarizing studies that have used a similar subject of analysis to investigate the research problem. If there is literature using the same or a very similar case to study, you need to explain why duplicating past research is important [e.g., conditions have changed; prior studies were conducted long ago, etc.].
• Describe the relationship each work has to the others under consideration that informs the reader why this case is applicable . Your literature review should include a description of any works that support using the case to investigate the research problem and the underlying research questions.
• Identify new ways to interpret prior research using the case study . If applicable, review any research that has examined the research problem using a different research design. Explain how your use of a case study design may reveal new knowledge or a new perspective or that can redirect research in an important new direction.
• Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies . This refers to synthesizing any literature that points to unresolved issues of concern about the research problem and describing how the subject of analysis that forms the case study can help resolve these existing contradictions.
• Point the way in fulfilling a need for additional research . Your review should examine any literature that lays a foundation for understanding why your case study design and the subject of analysis around which you have designed your study may reveal a new way of approaching the research problem or offer a perspective that points to the need for additional research.
• Expose any gaps that exist in the literature that the case study could help to fill . Summarize any literature that not only shows how your subject of analysis contributes to understanding the research problem, but how your case contributes to a new way of understanding the problem that prior research has failed to do.
• Locate your own research within the context of existing literature [very important!] . Collectively, your literature review should always place your case study within the larger domain of prior research about the problem. The overarching purpose of reviewing pertinent literature in a case study paper is to demonstrate that you have thoroughly identified and synthesized prior studies in relation to explaining the relevance of the case in addressing the research problem.

III.  Method

In this section, you explain why you selected a particular case [i.e., subject of analysis] and the strategy you used to identify and ultimately decide that your case was appropriate in addressing the research problem. The way you describe the methods used varies depending on the type of subject of analysis that constitutes your case study.

If your subject of analysis is an incident or event . In the social and behavioral sciences, the event or incident that represents the case to be studied is usually bounded by time and place, with a clear beginning and end and with an identifiable location or position relative to its surroundings. The subject of analysis can be a rare or critical event or it can focus on a typical or regular event. The purpose of studying a rare event is to illuminate new ways of thinking about the broader research problem or to test a hypothesis. Critical incident case studies must describe the method by which you identified the event and explain the process by which you determined the validity of this case to inform broader perspectives about the research problem or to reveal new findings. However, the event does not have to be a rare or uniquely significant to support new thinking about the research problem or to challenge an existing hypothesis. For example, Walo, Bull, and Breen conducted a case study to identify and evaluate the direct and indirect economic benefits and costs of a local sports event in the City of Lismore, New South Wales, Australia. The purpose of their study was to provide new insights from measuring the impact of a typical local sports event that prior studies could not measure well because they focused on large "mega-events." Whether the event is rare or not, the methods section should include an explanation of the following characteristics of the event: a) when did it take place; b) what were the underlying circumstances leading to the event; and, c) what were the consequences of the event in relation to the research problem.

If your subject of analysis is a person. Explain why you selected this particular individual to be studied and describe what experiences they have had that provide an opportunity to advance new understandings about the research problem. Mention any background about this person which might help the reader understand the significance of their experiences that make them worthy of study. This includes describing the relationships this person has had with other people, institutions, and/or events that support using them as the subject for a case study research paper. It is particularly important to differentiate the person as the subject of analysis from others and to succinctly explain how the person relates to examining the research problem [e.g., why is one politician in a particular local election used to show an increase in voter turnout from any other candidate running in the election]. Note that these issues apply to a specific group of people used as a case study unit of analysis [e.g., a classroom of students].

If your subject of analysis is a place. In general, a case study that investigates a place suggests a subject of analysis that is unique or special in some way and that this uniqueness can be used to build new understanding or knowledge about the research problem. A case study of a place must not only describe its various attributes relevant to the research problem [e.g., physical, social, historical, cultural, economic, political], but you must state the method by which you determined that this place will illuminate new understandings about the research problem. It is also important to articulate why a particular place as the case for study is being used if similar places also exist [i.e., if you are studying patterns of homeless encampments of veterans in open spaces, explain why you are studying Echo Park in Los Angeles rather than Griffith Park?]. If applicable, describe what type of human activity involving this place makes it a good choice to study [e.g., prior research suggests Echo Park has more homeless veterans].

If your subject of analysis is a phenomenon. A phenomenon refers to a fact, occurrence, or circumstance that can be studied or observed but with the cause or explanation to be in question. In this sense, a phenomenon that forms your subject of analysis can encompass anything that can be observed or presumed to exist but is not fully understood. In the social and behavioral sciences, the case usually focuses on human interaction within a complex physical, social, economic, cultural, or political system. For example, the phenomenon could be the observation that many vehicles used by ISIS fighters are small trucks with English language advertisements on them. The research problem could be that ISIS fighters are difficult to combat because they are highly mobile. The research questions could be how and by what means are these vehicles used by ISIS being supplied to the militants and how might supply lines to these vehicles be cut off? How might knowing the suppliers of these trucks reveal larger networks of collaborators and financial support? A case study of a phenomenon most often encompasses an in-depth analysis of a cause and effect that is grounded in an interactive relationship between people and their environment in some way.

NOTE:   The choice of the case or set of cases to study cannot appear random. Evidence that supports the method by which you identified and chose your subject of analysis should clearly support investigation of the research problem and linked to key findings from your literature review. Be sure to cite any studies that helped you determine that the case you chose was appropriate for examining the problem.

IV.  Discussion

The main elements of your discussion section are generally the same as any research paper, but centered around interpreting and drawing conclusions about the key findings from your analysis of the case study. Note that a general social sciences research paper may contain a separate section to report findings. However, in a paper designed around a case study, it is common to combine a description of the results with the discussion about their implications. The objectives of your discussion section should include the following:

Reiterate the Research Problem/State the Major Findings Briefly reiterate the research problem you are investigating and explain why the subject of analysis around which you designed the case study were used. You should then describe the findings revealed from your study of the case using direct, declarative, and succinct proclamation of the study results. Highlight any findings that were unexpected or especially profound.

Explain the Meaning of the Findings and Why They are Important Systematically explain the meaning of your case study findings and why you believe they are important. Begin this part of the section by repeating what you consider to be your most important or surprising finding first, then systematically review each finding. Be sure to thoroughly extrapolate what your analysis of the case can tell the reader about situations or conditions beyond the actual case that was studied while, at the same time, being careful not to misconstrue or conflate a finding that undermines the external validity of your conclusions.

Relate the Findings to Similar Studies No study in the social sciences is so novel or possesses such a restricted focus that it has absolutely no relation to previously published research. The discussion section should relate your case study results to those found in other studies, particularly if questions raised from prior studies served as the motivation for choosing your subject of analysis. This is important because comparing and contrasting the findings of other studies helps support the overall importance of your results and it highlights how and in what ways your case study design and the subject of analysis differs from prior research about the topic.

Consider Alternative Explanations of the Findings Remember that the purpose of social science research is to discover and not to prove. When writing the discussion section, you should carefully consider all possible explanations revealed by the case study results, rather than just those that fit your hypothesis or prior assumptions and biases. Be alert to what the in-depth analysis of the case may reveal about the research problem, including offering a contrarian perspective to what scholars have stated in prior research if that is how the findings can be interpreted from your case.

Acknowledge the Study's Limitations You can state the study's limitations in the conclusion section of your paper but describing the limitations of your subject of analysis in the discussion section provides an opportunity to identify the limitations and explain why they are not significant. This part of the discussion section should also note any unanswered questions or issues your case study could not address. More detailed information about how to document any limitations to your research can be found here .

Suggest Areas for Further Research Although your case study may offer important insights about the research problem, there are likely additional questions related to the problem that remain unanswered or findings that unexpectedly revealed themselves as a result of your in-depth analysis of the case. Be sure that the recommendations for further research are linked to the research problem and that you explain why your recommendations are valid in other contexts and based on the original assumptions of your study.

V.  Conclusion

As with any research paper, you should summarize your conclusion in clear, simple language; emphasize how the findings from your case study differs from or supports prior research and why. Do not simply reiterate the discussion section. Provide a synthesis of key findings presented in the paper to show how these converge to address the research problem. If you haven't already done so in the discussion section, be sure to document the limitations of your case study and any need for further research.

The function of your paper's conclusion is to: 1) reiterate the main argument supported by the findings from your case study; 2) state clearly the context, background, and necessity of pursuing the research problem using a case study design in relation to an issue, controversy, or a gap found from reviewing the literature; and, 3) provide a place to persuasively and succinctly restate the significance of your research problem, given that the reader has now been presented with in-depth information about the topic.

Consider the following points to help ensure your conclusion is appropriate:

• If the argument or purpose of your paper is complex, you may need to summarize these points for your reader.
• If prior to your conclusion, you have not yet explained the significance of your findings or if you are proceeding inductively, use the conclusion of your paper to describe your main points and explain their significance.
• Move from a detailed to a general level of consideration of the case study's findings that returns the topic to the context provided by the introduction or within a new context that emerges from your case study findings.

Note that, depending on the discipline you are writing in or the preferences of your professor, the concluding paragraph may contain your final reflections on the evidence presented as it applies to practice or on the essay's central research problem. However, the nature of being introspective about the subject of analysis you have investigated will depend on whether you are explicitly asked to express your observations in this way.

Problems to Avoid

Overgeneralization One of the goals of a case study is to lay a foundation for understanding broader trends and issues applied to similar circumstances. However, be careful when drawing conclusions from your case study. They must be evidence-based and grounded in the results of the study; otherwise, it is merely speculation. Looking at a prior example, it would be incorrect to state that a factor in improving girls access to education in Azerbaijan and the policy implications this may have for improving access in other Muslim nations is due to girls access to social media if there is no documentary evidence from your case study to indicate this. There may be anecdotal evidence that retention rates were better for girls who were engaged with social media, but this observation would only point to the need for further research and would not be a definitive finding if this was not a part of your original research agenda.

Failure to Document Limitations No case is going to reveal all that needs to be understood about a research problem. Therefore, just as you have to clearly state the limitations of a general research study , you must describe the specific limitations inherent in the subject of analysis. For example, the case of studying how women conceptualize the need for water conservation in a village in Uganda could have limited application in other cultural contexts or in areas where fresh water from rivers or lakes is plentiful and, therefore, conservation is understood more in terms of managing access rather than preserving access to a scarce resource.

Failure to Extrapolate All Possible Implications Just as you don't want to over-generalize from your case study findings, you also have to be thorough in the consideration of all possible outcomes or recommendations derived from your findings. If you do not, your reader may question the validity of your analysis, particularly if you failed to document an obvious outcome from your case study research. For example, in the case of studying the accident at the railroad crossing to evaluate where and what types of warning signals should be located, you failed to take into consideration speed limit signage as well as warning signals. When designing your case study, be sure you have thoroughly addressed all aspects of the problem and do not leave gaps in your analysis that leave the reader questioning the results.

Case Studies. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Gerring, John. Case Study Research: Principles and Practices . New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007; Merriam, Sharan B. Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education . Rev. ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1998; Miller, Lisa L. “The Use of Case Studies in Law and Social Science Research.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 14 (2018): TBD; Mills, Albert J., Gabrielle Durepos, and Eiden Wiebe, editors. Encyclopedia of Case Study Research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010; Putney, LeAnn Grogan. "Case Study." In Encyclopedia of Research Design , Neil J. Salkind, editor. (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010), pp. 116-120; Simons, Helen. Case Study Research in Practice . London: SAGE Publications, 2009;  Kratochwill,  Thomas R. and Joel R. Levin, editors. Single-Case Research Design and Analysis: New Development for Psychology and Education .  Hilldsale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1992; Swanborn, Peter G. Case Study Research: What, Why and How? London : SAGE, 2010; Yin, Robert K. Case Study Research: Design and Methods . 6th edition. Los Angeles, CA, SAGE Publications, 2014; Walo, Maree, Adrian Bull, and Helen Breen. “Achieving Economic Benefits at Local Events: A Case Study of a Local Sports Event.” Festival Management and Event Tourism 4 (1996): 95-106.

Writing Tip

At Least Five Misconceptions about Case Study Research

Social science case studies are often perceived as limited in their ability to create new knowledge because they are not randomly selected and findings cannot be generalized to larger populations. Flyvbjerg examines five misunderstandings about case study research and systematically "corrects" each one. To quote, these are:

Misunderstanding 1 :  General, theoretical [context-independent] knowledge is more valuable than concrete, practical [context-dependent] knowledge. Misunderstanding 2 :  One cannot generalize on the basis of an individual case; therefore, the case study cannot contribute to scientific development. Misunderstanding 3 :  The case study is most useful for generating hypotheses; that is, in the first stage of a total research process, whereas other methods are more suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building. Misunderstanding 4 :  The case study contains a bias toward verification, that is, a tendency to confirm the researcher’s preconceived notions. Misunderstanding 5 :  It is often difficult to summarize and develop general propositions and theories on the basis of specific case studies [p. 221].

While writing your paper, think introspectively about how you addressed these misconceptions because to do so can help you strengthen the validity and reliability of your research by clarifying issues of case selection, the testing and challenging of existing assumptions, the interpretation of key findings, and the summation of case outcomes. Think of a case study research paper as a complete, in-depth narrative about the specific properties and key characteristics of your subject of analysis applied to the research problem.

Flyvbjerg, Bent. “Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research.” Qualitative Inquiry 12 (April 2006): 219-245.

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What the Case Study Method Really Teaches

• Nitin Nohria

Seven meta-skills that stick even if the cases fade from memory.

It’s been 100 years since Harvard Business School began using the case study method. Beyond teaching specific subject matter, the case study method excels in instilling meta-skills in students. This article explains the importance of seven such skills: preparation, discernment, bias recognition, judgement, collaboration, curiosity, and self-confidence.

During my decade as dean of Harvard Business School, I spent hundreds of hours talking with our alumni. To enliven these conversations, I relied on a favorite question: “What was the most important thing you learned from your time in our MBA program?”

• Nitin Nohria is the George F. Baker Professor of Business Administration, Distinguished University Service Professor, and former dean of Harvard Business School.

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• Published: 21 July 2021

A case study of university student networks and the COVID-19 pandemic using a social network analysis approach in halls of residence

• José Alberto Benítez-Andrades 1 ,
• Tania Fernández-Villa 2 ,
• Carmen Benavides 1 ,
• Andrea Gayubo-Serrenes 3 ,
• Vicente Martín 2 , 4 &
• Pilar Marqués-Sánchez 5  

Scientific Reports volume  11 , Article number:  14877 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

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• Epidemiology
• Health care
• Public health

The COVID-19 pandemic has meant that young university students have had to adapt their learning and have a reduced relational context. Adversity contexts build models of human behaviour based on relationships. However, there is a lack of studies that analyse the behaviour of university students based on their social structure in the context of a pandemic. This information could be useful in making decisions on how to plan collective responses to adversities. The Social Network Analysis (SNA) method has been chosen to address this structural perspective. The aim of our research is to describe the structural behaviour of students in university residences during the COVID-19 pandemic with a more in-depth analysis of student leaders. A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out at one Spanish Public University, León, from 23th October 2020 to 20th November 2020. The participation was of 93 students, from four halls of residence. The data were collected from a database created specifically at the university to "track" contacts in the COVID-19 pandemic, SiVeUle. We applied the SNA for the analysis of the data. The leadership on the university residence was measured using centrality measures. The top leaders were analyzed using the Egonetwork and an assessment of the key players. Students with higher social reputations experience higher levels of pandemic contagion in relation to COVID-19 infection. The results were statistically significant between the centrality in the network and the results of the COVID-19 infection. The most leading students showed a high degree of Betweenness, and three students had the key player structure in the network. Networking behaviour of university students in halls of residence could be related to contagion in the COVID-19 pandemic. This could be described on the basis of aspects of similarities between students, and even leaders connecting the cohabitation sub-networks. In this context, Social Network Analysis could be considered as a methodological approach for future network studies in health emergency contexts.

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Introduction.

Adversities seem to have been a permanent reality in the last decade 1 . Their consequences cause damage to people's lives that deserve the attention of political leaders and researchers. In the context of any disaster, models of human behaviour are constructed that reflect the importance of relationships between actors, between actors and knowledge, and even between actors and beliefs 2 .

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 a global emergency on January 31, 2020 3 . It is one of the disasters that has had the greatest impact on our history. Recent studies have already shown that the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have an impact on mental health, leading to anxiety, depression, disturbed sleep quality and even increased perceptions of loneliness 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 . In the same sense, the impact of the pandemic has also "hit" young people, who go to school every day but who have seen their social relationships decline. The educational context was always present in the strategies implemented in previous pandemics. Some of the most common measures were the closure of schools to contain the transmission of influenza 12 , support through informal networks on university campuses during the influenza A(H1N1) pandemic 13 , and the need to increase knowledge on the pandemic, as it was found to influence everyday attitudes and practices 14 .

One of the measures that has had the greatest social impact in the COVID-19 pandemic has been the obligation to maintain a physical distance. Specifically, in the field of higher education, it seems to be remarkably complex and more difficult to carry out 15 . University campuses are of interest for studying social behaviour in the context of a pandemic. Numerous studies have shown how university students acquire healthy habits or, conversely, drug and alcohol consumption habits, depending on the type of relationships they have on campus and in the university residences 16 , 17 .

However, there is a lack of studies that analyse the behaviour of university students based on their social structure during a pandemic. Therefore, a quantitative understanding of the behaviour of students in a health emergency situation is necessary as this information could be useful in making decisions about how to prepare for disasters. That is, how to act appropriately during and after an emergency of any kind, since interpersonal relationships, through which supportive and interdependent links are established and which are present in any emergency or disaster.

To address this structural perspective, the SNA method has been applied. The SNA is a distinctive perspective within the social and behavioural sciences. It is distinctive because it is based on the fact that relationships take place between interacting units 18 . For the SNA method, the unit of analysis is not the isolated individual, but the social entity made up of the actor with its possible connections, generating a structure 19 . The main perspective of the SNA focuses on the importance of the relationships between the units that interact in the social networks 18 . A social network is made up of a set of points or nodes that represent individuals or groups, and a set of lines that represent the interaction or otherwise, between the nodes, generating a social structure 20 .

One of the most relevant premises of the SNA, for our study, is that it is not only assumed that individuals are connected through a structure, but that their goals and objectives are as well, because these are only achieved through connections and relationships 19 , 21 , 22 . Thus, the SNA could show us if university students with a more responsible goal form their own networks or mingle with their not-so-responsible peers. In relation to the groups, the actors influence and inform each other in a process that creates a growing homogeneity 21 . This perspective is of interest to this research.

The contacts between actors can be analyzed in two types of networks: sociocentric or complete networks and egocentric networks. The former includes an analysis between actors that belong to a delimited and previously defined census 23 . While the latter analyzes the structure that is generated between an ego and its contacts 24 .

There is an extensive core of studies on SNA and health habits. Some of the most recent are related to contagion in substance use 25 , 26 , physical activity 27 , behavior related to the individual's low weight 28 , engagement in university rooms 29 or eating behaviors 30 among others. SNA has even been applied to disaster scenarios such as droughts, floods, landslides, tsunamis, and cyclones 31 . No one thought that one year after this study, its results would be so useful for another scenario related to a major catastrophe such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Other recent studies shows a social network analysis approach in the problematic internet use among residential college students during COVID-19 lockdown 32 or associations between interpersonal relationships and mental health 33 .

Based on the above, the purpose of this study was to analyse a community of university students and their structural behaviour in their university residences. Halls of residence form micro-communities where very close relationships develop, which can become a context of risk. In other words, university residences could become "places" that facilitate the spread of pandemics if adequate protocols are not followed. However, dormitories can also have a preventive value. Peer support behavioural patterns take place in them, among peers who are exposed to the same risks and circumstances. This sharing of similar situations can generate an enriching coping of personal experiences 34 . However, there is a lack of studies that analyse the structures of university students and their coping in crisis situations.

This study was conducted during one of the waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, where infection rates were at their highest. With the SNA methodology, the aim is to find answers to questions such as: What are the structural characteristics of the leading individuals in the dormitories? How are the contagion outcomes related to the structural positions in the network? For such questions, the proposed objectives were (i) to analyse the relationship between the students' network position and their outcomes with respect to the COVID-19 contagion, (ii) to describe the influential position of student leaders in the network, (iii) to analyse the Egonetwork of the most influential student leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic, and (iv) to visualise the relational behaviour of university students in the global network.

Study design

A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out at one Spanish Public University. The data was collected during one of the waves of the pandemic, specifically from 23th October 2020 to 20th November 2020.

The measures taken during the pandemic in the different regions of Spain were different, depending on the results of the contagion at each moment. At the time of carried out this study, teaching in the locality of the study was adapted to the situation. That is, there were limitations on the number of people, "mirror" classrooms, identification of QR, etc. In the town there was a limit to the number of people who could meet, pubs and discotheques had been closed, and there was a 10 pm curfew.

Setting and sample

The participation was of 93 students, from 4 university residences. The characteristics of the sample can be seen in Table 1 . Of the total participants, 32.26% were women and 67.74% men.

Ethical consideration

All participants received an informed consent form to participate in the study. Lastly, participants were offered the possibility of retracting consent once they had signed the form, without needing to provide a reason, and an email contact address was given should they require any further information. Participation was voluntary, and subject availability was respected at all times. All the participants that were involved in the study have given their informed consent to participate in this study.

The data for this study are considered health-related data. They comply with Directive 03/2020 of the European Data Protection Committee 35 . The researchers requested anonymised data from the responsible body of the university in charge of contacts COVID-19.

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of León (ETICA-ULE-008-2021).

Data collection

We collected the data from the database created at the university, SIVeULE, created for the follow-up of cases of COVID-19. This database collates the characteristics of the actors and their RT-qPCR result.

In the university there was a protocol to indicate norms and rules of (i) hygiene and preventive measures, (ii) what to do if you had symptoms, (iii) definitions of what was considered "close contact", "confinement", and " positive result ". There was support staff to collect data, deal with doubts, and assist both positive actors and confined actors. These people were called "trackers." The name defined their role because they identified the student's contacts that were positive, had symptoms, or had been "in close contact” with a positive person.

In the database, other data such as name, residence, gender, grade, name of contacts, and date and result of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test are also collected.

For the present study, the names were anonymized and registered in matrices for subsequent analysis using the SNA method.

The data obtained were used to construct a 93 × 93 matrix. The matrix was read as follows:

For rows, “A nominates B”;

For columns, “A is nominated by B”.

To carry out this study, the matrix has been symmetrized, determining that if A nominated B, B also nominated A. That is to say, it is an undirected matrix, since, if A had any contact with B, B also had contact with A.

Data analysis

For data analysis, we apply SNA to the 93 × 93 matrix. measures of centrality were applied to analyse leadership from a structural perspective. Centrality is a construct of the SNA that means the position in the network 18 . Previous researchers have applied SNA to the study of leadership, because they have conceptualized leadership as a process that starts from the collective and the interconnections 36 , 37 , 38 . For this study, the centrality measures selected were: degree, betweenness and eigenvector 18 :

The degree is the number of connections adjacent to an actor. Given the centrality of degree \({d}_{i}\) of the actor i and \({x}_{ij}\) is the cell ( i, j ) of the adjacency matrix, then

Betweenness centrality is defined as the Extent to which an actor serves as a potential “go-between” for other pairs of actors in the network by occupying an intermediary position on the shortest paths connecting other actors. The formula for the centrality of node j is given by the:

In this formula, \({g}_{ijk}\) represents the number of geodetic paths that connect i and k and through k while \({g}_{ik}\) is the total number of geodetic paths between i and k .

Eigenvector centrality corresponds to the measure of actor centrality that takes into account the centrality of the actors to whom the focal actor is connected.

Normalized measures were used.

The measures of centrality studied in the SNA have been the normalized degree (nDegree, the normalized degree centrality is the degree divided by the maximum possible degree expressed as a percentage), Eigenvector and nBetweenness (is the normalized betweenness centrality computed as the betweenness divided by the maximum possible betweenness).

To select the most leading students in the network, the measure of normalized nBetweenness was used 39 . This measure becomes more relevant during a pandemic, where the possibility of serving as a bridge or intermediary allows other networks to reach out, transferring good or bad practices and behaviors.

In order to have more information about the behaviour of the student leaders, the Egonetwork analysis of the most leading nodes for each component was carried out. Key players theory has been used to obtain this group of students displaying greater leadership 40 . Egonetwork studies the connections of a given node. This analysis in isolation is less comprehensive than the analysis of the entire network. But the researchers recommend this analysis combined with the analysis of the whole network to go deeper into the behaviour of certain nodes, depending on the objective of the research 24 , 34 , 41 .

Statistical analysis and visualisation

IBM SPSS Statistics (26.0) software. was used for the statistical processing of the data. For the analysis of descriptive data, frequencies and percentages were used for the qualitative variables, whereas the mean and standard deviation were used for the quantitative variables. A chi-square test was carried out to verify whether there was a relationship between the groups, and the Student’s t-test was used to compare the mean scores between the groups. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out to check the differences for continuous variables divided in groups. The UCINET tool, version 6.679 42 was used for the calculation of the SNA measurements. The tests carried out to study the normality of the distribution were Kolmogorov–Smirnov for populations of more than 55 individuals and the Shapiro–Wilk test for those less than or equal to 55. The level of statistical significance was set at 0.05. For qualitative analysis, a visualization of the global network will be carried out using Gephi, version 0.9.2, software. The key player tool has been used to calculate the key players of the network 43 .

As shown in Table 2 , there was a significant effect of residence on nDegree [F(3,89) = 22.135, p < 0.001] and Eigenvector [F(3,89) = 151.035, p < 0.001] and there was no significant effect of residence on nBetweenness [F = (3,89),p = 0.784].

Students in residence C have significantly higher degrees of centrality in nDegree and Eigenvector compared to the other residences. In the case of nBetweenness, students in residences A and D have higher values, although not significantly so.

Significant differences in all measures of centrality (nDegree, Eigenvector and nBetweenness) measures were found for the groups of people who tested positive for RT-qPCR (PCR +) versus those who tested negative for PCR (PCR-). The PCR + group of people had higher values of centrality than the PCR- group. The degrees of significance of these differences are shown in Table 3 .

Significant differences were found between leaders and non-leaders calculated with the three measures of centrality and the prevalence of people who tested positive or negative for PCRs. Leaders had a higher percentage of people in the PCR + group compared to non-leaders. The degrees of significance of these differences are shown in Table 4 .

Figure  1 A shows the nodes of the study network highlighting in each colour which residence each one belongs to (A,B,C or D). In Fig.  1 B the same network can be seen but the nodes with PCR + appear in red and and the nodes with PCR- in green. The distribution of the network allows us to appreciate the 4 different residences. The size of the nodes is represented by the nBetweenness of each node.

Graphs of the university student network differentiating a colour for each residence hall ( A ) and differentiating the positive and negative PCR groups ( B) .

Figure  2 shows the network highlighting the trajectories of the three most important key players. The edges coming out of these key players are thicker than the others. Furthermore, the key players are numbered in order of importance in the network (1, 2 and 3). The size of the nodes is represented by the nBetweenness of each node.

The network shown under the Atlas 2 distribution highlighting the 3 most important key players in the network.

Figure  3 shows the Egonetworks of the 3 key players in the network. Figure  3 A shows the most important key player in the network. If this node were eliminated, the two components would be separated (those of the C and D residence). Figure  3 B,C show the Egonetworks of the key players 2 and 3 respectively. These nodes are structurally very similar. If both nodes were removed from the network, there would no longer be a connection between residence C and residences A and B.

Egonetworks of the 3 main key players of the network.

This research contributes empirical evidence based on a social network approach to the development of the COVID-19 pandemic on university halls of residence. We have presented a study strategy and results, which link the relationship between the centrality of leaders and the outcome of pandemic infection. There is a significant core of research using the SNA methodology applied to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is a lack of research focusing on the structural responses of university students, a population of particular interest given their training experience. A university student "absorbs" experiences that are translated into behaviour, and transfers the resources obtained through their relationships.

Our results demonstrate the relationship between the centrality in the network of student leaders and the outcome of their infection (positive or negative). Not only could leaders spread pandemic behaviour towards their more local peers, they also seem to spread it to other halls of residence. This is demonstrated by the structure of betweenness. Leaders with a higher degree of betweenness could become key players, so that their presence or absence can disconnect the various components of the entire network. This could lead to a disconnection of the contagion process, both on a positive and negative level. The findings are the first to demonstrate that networks in university accommodation develop successful or unsuccessful responses to a pandemic. University managers should take these findings into account when developing response and behavioural strategies in pandemic or disaster situations. Strategies should be designed with a network rather than an individual approach.

Although our study did not ask about the relationship between the actors, we understand that the contacts established between the students are relationships of friendship or good classmates. We only analysed whether or not people had been in contact, during a state of lockdown. But obviously, with the SNA, we can visualise relational behaviours that would be more difficult to appreciate using other methodologies.

Our results show that student leaders have a high degree of centrality not only at the local level, i.e. in the component related to their accommodation, but also at the level of the global network. Our results are in line with studies of Mehra et al. 36 , who highlighted that the integration of a leader into the friendship network in one social circle can be related to the reputation of the leader in other social circles.

Leadership or reputation at the local level is related to the performance of the team, and leadership outside the team is what allows new opportunities to arise and new information to be disseminated 36 . In the case of university students in their accommodation, the aim is to have a friendly atmosphere and to collaborate in difficult moments, to motivate each other, etc. Our results shown a statistically significant relationship between leadership and the positive results of the COVID-19 tests. In this sense, previous studies have already found that having too many resources related to social capital in a group (such as centrality) could negatively affect the efficiency of the group 44 . In other words, the leader will exert an influence on his or her colleagues and this influence could "infect" a certain behaviour, in this case of responsibility or not in a state of health emergency.

Another aspect demonstrated in our research is that there is a similarity between student groupings in terms of their COVID-19 test results. That is, we observe groups where the results are all positive (nodes in red), and others where the results are negative (nodes in green). This finding, could be related to numerous previous studies where actors occupy similar social positions in the classroom. For example, the studies from 45 showed that stuttering students had the same social position as the rest of their peers, because both (stutterers and non-stutterers) tended to design their groups structurally the same.

Homophily theory indicates that individuals associate with those with whom they share aspects of similarity, such as similar beliefs, characteristics and behaviours, which occurs especially in young people and adolescents 46 Therefore, this may partly justify why negative-test college students are more cohesive, and positive-test college students as well.

One of the measures implemented with the greatest impact in this COVID-19 pandemic has been social distancing or isolation. The closure of premises or the reduction in hours of places of leisure has led to this social, or rather physical, distancing, as it is physical contact that is avoided. Studies have shown that the reduction in contacts based on social networks that coexist in social bubbles, and the similarity between contacts, increase social distancing from other actors, and therefore decrease the risks of contagion 47 . But in the case of this research, university accommodation could not be considered as a bubble. We could think of them as big bubbles, where behavioural patterns become contagious, be they positive and negative ones. Therefore, in this sense, the directors of the centres should take note and plan different strategies according to the behaviour of the subnetworks. That is to say, promote those behaviours with negative results of contagion and intervene in those subnetworks with positive results. For this, and as explained previously, the best option would be to plan together with the leaders.

Our results have shown that students with a high degree of Betweenness have a position in the network that gives them great leadership. In this sense, previous studies have used this structural metric as a predictor of leadership due to the strategic position that the actors have in the network and their role in bridging different networks 39 , 48 .

For a better understanding of the role of these actors, in this research we analyse these university students on the basis of two more structural issues. On the one hand, which of them could have a key player role. Secondly, to analyse the Egonetwork of those students with a greater degree of centrality in each of the components.

As regards key players, our results showed that 3 students with a high degree of betweenness, i.e. with an intermediary role, had a key player structure. The importance of the key actor has been explained perfectly by Borgatti (2006) 40 , describing both the negative and positive aspects. The negative is that the network, or networks, actually depend on these nodes, and cohesion between the networks would be diminished if these actors were to disappear 40 . This problem is greater when, in a public health context, we select a small number of individuals to contain a pandemic or to reduce the risk of contagion that links different networks. If these actors disappeared, the number of those infected would increase. As regards the positive role of these actors, they are ideal for spreading attitudes and behaviour, because they quickly gain access to different networks. Borgatti (2006) explains the importance of the structure of the key players, with the same relevance in very different contexts, such as terrorist networks or pandemic contexts 40 . In our case, our results are supported by the justification of this great researcher.

Our findings have shown that student leaders with a higher degree of Betweenness had a higher density than their peers in their Egonetworks . This could facilitate the transmission of social capital in a context such as the COVID-19 pandemic. These students, who serve as bridges, could become key actors with the ability to mobilize and coordinate social activity 49 . Their role is key for other colleagues, since they could serve as a "mirror" to "invite" appropriate behaviors in a health emergency. The key question that remains is, what behavior do they have? Structurally, the present investigation has demonstrated and justified that its position in the network is a model that could be disseminated among the rest of the actors.

To summarize the above, those responsible for universities must take into account the collective behavior of its networks. In a context such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the diffusion of behaviors is very relevant. Authors call for “urban intelligence” as a possible strategy to deal effectively with a pandemic. They understand that the impact of a health emergency is more than just a public health problem since it involves social risks and instability. This situation would be better dealt with by having the best that the social and community structure can offer, the so-called "urban intelligence” 50 .

SNA could provide a set of terms and concepts to explain and describe social phenomena 51 . The method offers a distinctive approach to analysing leadership in disaster processes. Leaders could be like "builders" of social responses and the managers of the universities should take it into account for the intervention processes.

The most important limitations of this study should be considered for future research. For example, it would be of interest to carry out other analyzes focused more on the cohesion of the network and the behavior of the subgroups, in order to draw structural conclusions at the micro level. Future lines of research could focus on comparing the students’ leadership in terms of structure with leadership as perceived by both them and their own peers.

Conclusions

The present research has carried out a study with students in university residences. The aim has been to describe the structural behaviour of students in university residences during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a more in-depth analysis of student leaders. The specific objectives proposed to develop the research were to: (i) analyse the relationship between the position of students in the network and their results with respect to COVID-19 infection, (ii) describe the position of influence of student leaders in the network, (iii) analyzing the Egonetwork of the most influential student leaders on the COVID-19 pandemic, and (iv) visualise the relational behaviour of university students in the global network.

The main conclusions derived from the results are detailed below:

The most central students in the network, had more positive results regarding COVID-19 infection.

The leadership of the confined students was related to higher degree, eigenvector and betweenness.

A small core of leaders are key players, so their role conditions the connection or disconnection between different components of the global network.

Students with a key player structure show a similar Egonetwork if they belong to the same residence.

There is a student leader with the maximum key player power structure, causing a total disconnection between networks if he/she disappears from the global network.

The findings show that strategies to cope with a disaster or pandemic need to be addressed through a network approach. University managers will need to have a profound understanding of students' relational behaviour. Only then will the most restrictive measures be effective. Responsible or irresponsible behaviour is transferred through the connections between students, so Social Network Analysis should be considered as a method of analyzing the evolution of a pandemic at the societal level. Any crisis involves contacts, but in a pandemic, contacts can transfer infection. Also in a pandemic, contacts can transfer habits and behaviours "passed on" by leaders, so that they allow for more effective coping. All of this can be analysed using SNA. Our study provides findings with an innovative approach, achieved with SNA. Among the limitations of the study it should be noted that the sample is very small (n = 93). This means that we cannot state categorically the representativeness of the results presented. However, the results could be used for future research where it is useful to analyse health emergency contexts as a network rather than analysing individuals in isolation.

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Using Case Studies to Teach

Why Use Cases?

Many students are more inductive than deductive reasoners, which means that they learn better from examples than from logical development starting with basic principles. The use of case studies can therefore be a very effective classroom technique.

Case studies are have long been used in business schools, law schools, medical schools and the social sciences, but they can be used in any discipline when instructors want students to explore how what they have learned applies to real world situations. Cases come in many formats, from a simple “What would you do in this situation?” question to a detailed description of a situation with accompanying data to analyze. Whether to use a simple scenario-type case or a complex detailed one depends on your course objectives.

Most case assignments require students to answer an open-ended question or develop a solution to an open-ended problem with multiple potential solutions. Requirements can range from a one-paragraph answer to a fully developed group action plan, proposal or decision.

Common Case Elements

Most “full-blown” cases have these common elements:

• A decision-maker who is grappling with some question or problem that needs to be solved.
• A description of the problem’s context (a law, an industry, a family).
• Supporting data, which can range from data tables to links to URLs, quoted statements or testimony, supporting documents, images, video, or audio.

Case assignments can be done individually or in teams so that the students can brainstorm solutions and share the work load.

The following discussion of this topic incorporates material presented by Robb Dixon of the School of Management and Rob Schadt of the School of Public Health at CEIT workshops. Professor Dixon also provided some written comments that the discussion incorporates.

Advantages to the use of case studies in class

A major advantage of teaching with case studies is that the students are actively engaged in figuring out the principles by abstracting from the examples. This develops their skills in:

• Problem solving
• Analytical tools, quantitative and/or qualitative, depending on the case
• Decision making in complex situations
• Coping with ambiguities

Guidelines for using case studies in class

In the most straightforward application, the presentation of the case study establishes a framework for analysis. It is helpful if the statement of the case provides enough information for the students to figure out solutions and then to identify how to apply those solutions in other similar situations. Instructors may choose to use several cases so that students can identify both the similarities and differences among the cases.

Depending on the course objectives, the instructor may encourage students to follow a systematic approach to their analysis.  For example:

• What is the issue?
• What is the goal of the analysis?
• What is the context of the problem?
• What key facts should be considered?
• What alternatives are available to the decision-maker?
• What would you recommend — and why?

An innovative approach to case analysis might be to have students  role-play the part of the people involved in the case. This not only actively engages students, but forces them to really understand the perspectives of the case characters. Videos or even field trips showing the venue in which the case is situated can help students to visualize the situation that they need to analyze.

Accompanying Readings

Case studies can be especially effective if they are paired with a reading assignment that introduces or explains a concept or analytical method that applies to the case. The amount of emphasis placed on the use of the reading during the case discussion depends on the complexity of the concept or method. If it is straightforward, the focus of the discussion can be placed on the use of the analytical results. If the method is more complex, the instructor may need to walk students through its application and the interpretation of the results.

Leading the Case Discussion and Evaluating Performance

Decision cases are more interesting than descriptive ones. In order to start the discussion in class, the instructor can start with an easy, noncontroversial question that all the students should be able to answer readily. However, some of the best case discussions start by forcing the students to take a stand. Some instructors will ask a student to do a formal “open” of the case, outlining his or her entire analysis.  Others may choose to guide discussion with questions that move students from problem identification to solutions.  A skilled instructor steers questions and discussion to keep the class on track and moving at a reasonable pace.

In order to motivate the students to complete the assignment before class as well as to stimulate attentiveness during the class, the instructor should grade the participation—quantity and especially quality—during the discussion of the case. This might be a simple check, check-plus, check-minus or zero. The instructor should involve as many students as possible. In order to engage all the students, the instructor can divide them into groups, give each group several minutes to discuss how to answer a question related to the case, and then ask a randomly selected person in each group to present the group’s answer and reasoning. Random selection can be accomplished through rolling of dice, shuffled index cards, each with one student’s name, a spinning wheel, etc.

Tips on the Penn State U. website: http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/cases/

If you are interested in using this technique in a science course, there is a good website on use of case studies in the sciences at the University of Buffalo.

Dunne, D. and Brooks, K. (2004) Teaching with Cases (Halifax, NS: Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education), ISBN 0-7703-8924-4 (Can be ordered at http://www.bookstore.uwo.ca/ at a cost of $15.00)

7 Favorite Business Case Studies to Teach Undergrads—and Why

Explore more.

• Case Teaching
• Course Design
• Course Materials

FEATURED CASES

Chris and Alison Weston (A) , selected by Amy Wallis of Wake Forest University School of Business, United States

Cynthia Carroll at Anglo American (A) , selected by Mihran A. Aroian of McCombs College of Business, United States

Merck: Managing Vioxx (A) , selected by Johanna Glauber of IE University, Spain

Starbucks: Delivering Customer Service , selected by Joseph C. Miller of St. Ambrose University, United States

Swoon: Mixing Up the Perfect Marketing Cocktail , selected by Sheri L. Lambert of Fox School of Business, Temple University, United States

Tesla Motors: Financing Growth , selected by Oscar Melo-Vega Angeles of the University of Lima, Peru

Trader Joe’s , selected by Michael Roberto of Bryant University, United States

To understand how undergraduate educators use the case method and find out which cases they gravitate toward, we asked several experienced case instructors, “What is your favorite case to teach undergrads and why does it work particularly well with them?”

The cases they shared range in industry and topic—from mining to pharmaceuticals and finance to marketing—but all offer valuable learning for undergraduate students.

1. Chris and Alison Weston (A)

Chris and Alison Weston (A) is an exceptional tool to help undergraduate students grasp moral disengagement and its ethical implications. The Westons are characters that students identify with—a married couple seeking to have fulfilling, lucrative careers—which makes the case personal for them. By examining a real-world scenario and the slippery slope that the Westons found themselves on, students see how easy it is to begin practicing unethical behavior. Reading about the implications of the Westons’ actions also highlights the situation through multiple ethical lenses, driving home the importance of perspective-taking and critical-thinking skills.

Coupling this case with “ A Note on Moral Disengagement ”—which expertly explains Bandura’s work on the psychological elements of ethical decision-making—brings the concepts to life for students; they find it intriguing to identify moral disengagement mechanisms at work in the case and eye-opening to see how easily the Westons fall into predictable traps of their own making.

I like to divide the class into breakout groups so students can practice both anticipating and preventing moral disengagement, as well as intervening when they see it happening. This builds important skills for ethical leadership.

2. Cynthia Carroll at Anglo American (A)

This semester, I’m teaching undergraduate students minoring in business. Since it’s an overview course, I needed a case study that touches upon several different areas of management. My favorite case this semester is Cynthia Carroll at Anglo American (A) .

Located in South Africa, Anglo American is one of the largest mining companies in the world. The case opens with then-new (now former) CEO Cynthia Carroll learning about a fatality at one of the mining facilities. She finds the incident unacceptable and immediately closes the mine. The case is powerful—Carroll brings radical change to the organization not only in addressing worker safety but also in addressing the overall operations of an organization that employs more than 150,000 workers.

The case shows us how, despite opposition from all sides, Carroll transforms the operations of a large corporation in which worker fatality is accepted as a norm. How she engages with skeptical stakeholders and moves the mining workforce (where the illiteracy rate was 70 percent) to participate is a tremendous example of great leadership. The way she conceives her strategy is an uplifting story for undergraduates and how she improves the operational and financial performance of the company is inspiring. The opportunity to teach about leadership, organizational transformation, crisis management, changing organizational culture, and employee empowerment in one case is simply elegant.

3. Merck: Managing Vioxx (A)

When teaching cases to undergraduates, I encourage my students to put themselves in the shoes of the decision maker(s) and get their hands sweaty under the pressure. When students have less work experience, case discussions are fabulous for allowing them to apply frameworks in business decisions. Students directly experience the challenges and complexities, gaining hands-on skills for their future careers.

One of my favorite cases to teach is Merck: Managing Vioxx (A) . Students are explicitly asked to stand in the shoes of CEO Ray Gilmartin, who learns about potentially severe cardiovascular risks of the painkiller drug Vioxx. A great strength of the case is that information is presented step by step—through six supplements—simulating Ray Gilmartin’s decision situation. This setup and great supplementary video material make it an exceptionally strong case for undergraduate teaching.

4. Starbucks: Delivering Customer Service

When I teach marketing strategy to undergraduates, I like to ask the students, “Have you ever shopped at a store that felt like it was made for you, but then one day it just seemed like it sold out by becoming more mainstream?” The question elicits responses consisting of various clothing stores, restaurants, and so forth. When discussing their experiences, students often seem to suspect that the growth of a service business comes at the cost of the elements that initially drew a core group of dedicated customers.

I find that students love giving definition to marketing phenomena they’ve actually experienced and they love talking about the products and services they use. For that reason, the case Starbucks: Delivering Customer Service is a favorite of mine to introduce to strategy undergrads.

Today’s students are interested in understanding the kind of service organization Starbucks was at its onset. They are interested in knowing who Starbucks’s initial core customers are and eager to discuss Starbucks’ growth intentions in the 90s and early 2000s, as well as how it coincided with changes to the external social environment.

As a coda, I often call upon the students’ experiences with today’s Starbucks. We discuss how the company has learned to bifurcate its operation to appeal to the service-intensive core consumer as well as the product-intensive casual consumer. It’s a great case to explain the pitfalls of the wheel of retailing to undergraduates.

5. Swoon: Mixing Up the Perfect Marketing Cocktail

There are several cases that I love to use for my marketing strategy capstone course with undergraduates. One of those is Swoon: Mixing Up the Perfect Marketing Cocktail , which centers around a nimble beverage startup. Students put themselves in the shoes of the two cofounders to design a marketing strategy for branding.

Many times, I’ve had students approach me wondering, “Why don’t any of the protagonists look like me?” The Swoon case is perfect: The cofounders are young women and many of my students can relate to them or see themselves in the protagonists. The case also comes with a “meet the protagonist” video, which immerses the students in a conversation between the two founders.

Two other cases I love to use, Opera Philadelphia: Segmentation Strategies for Changing Markets and Hamilton Won More Than Twitter , deal with non-traditional businesses (an opera company and a Broadway show). Students love interacting with these cases and applying marketing theory to the arts. On top of that, the Opera Philadelphia case enables students to roll up their sleeves, analyze consumer data, and formulate a plan forward.

It is all about engagement. Teaching concepts through these cases gets our students fully engaged.

6. Tesla Motors: Financing Growth

I use several cases for my undergraduate classes. My favorite one now is Tesla Motors: Financing Growth . This case can be applied to intermediate finance courses and can be used at many levels: undergraduate, MBA, and executive education. It is also specifically perfect to use in the Financial Management in International Business course, an undergraduate course in the Faculty of Business and Economics department at the University of Lima.

These are the main reasons I love teaching with it:

It is stimulating and provocative for students. They get excited about the numbers and the discussion. It incites them to participate, explain their assumptions, and compare their answers.

The company is trending and students around the world know about it; the case provides new information on a company they know. It is also great for discussing the impact of sustainability in company valuations.

It provides the opportunity to apply various finance learnings, including the shifting price of the company and shares according to valuation method, the value stock and growth stock and why investors pay more or less for it, equity financing, comparison with the market’s price, and companies with negative profit and positive value.

I can link the concepts back to other core curriculum readings I use for the course, including Financial Accounting Reading: Introduction to Valuation and Finance Reading: Cost of Capital .

It uses simple but technical language. And while it involves many numbers, and it can be discussed in a 90-minute class.

7. Trader Joe’s

WEBINAR: USING ACTIVE LEARNING STRATEGIES WITH UNDERGRADS

For more about using active learning strategies with undergrads, watch the recording of a recent HBP webinar with Michael Roberto, Trustee Professor of Management at Bryant University. In the webinar, Why Undergraduate Students (and Faculty) Struggle with Active Learning , Roberto speaks to the challenges faculty face and recommends strategies to address those problems.

Trader Joe’s is a highly successful firm in a very challenging industry, so the case provides a great platform for exploring many concepts in competitive strategy. Moreover, the company seems to be executing a rather counterintuitive strategy, forgoing many of the services and offerings that rivals consider essential in the supermarket business. That sparks the interest of inquisitive undergraduates.

SHARE WITH US Do you have a favorite case to teach your undergraduate students? We would love to hear about it!

To find other great cases to teach undergrads, check out this collection of Engaging Cases for Undergraduate Students or browse best-selling undergraduate cases by discipline .

Amy Wallis is a full teaching professor at the Wake Forest University School of Business. As an organizational development leader and academic professional, Wallis’s teaching and expertise are in leadership, ethics, organizational behavior, team development, and change management.

Mihran A. Aroian is an assistant professor of instruction in the department of management at McCombs College of Business, University of Texas at Austin. He is a graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute and has an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.

Johanna Glauber is an assistant professor in the strategy department at IE University. Her research focuses on firms’ strategy and behavior in case of failure. Having a background in management and mechanical engineering, Glauber is particularly interested in product failures in manufacturing industries, such as product recalls in the automotive industry. She also is an active member of the international research community.

Joseph C. Miller is professor and chair of the marketing and sales departments at St. Ambrose University.

Sheri L. Lambert is an associate professor of practice in the department of marketing at Temple University’s Fox School of Business where she teaches marketing strategy, digital innovation in marketing, and consumer buyer behavior at the undergraduate, graduate, and executive levels. Lambert is also academic director of the MS-Market Research Program and managing director of the Fox Center for Executive Education.

Oscar Melo-Vega Angeles is an associate professor of finance, a researcher, and the international financing area coordinator at the University of Lima. He is also responsible for the University of London program at the University of Lima. Melo-Vega has experience in researching and consulting in economics and finance. He has used cases in undergraduate classes for 15 years.

Michael Roberto  is the Trustee Professor of Management and the director of the Center for Program Innovation at Bryant University. He joined the tenured faculty at Bryant after serving for six years on the faculty at Harvard Business School.

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Case-based learning.

Case-based learning (CBL) is an established approach used across disciplines where students apply their knowledge to real-world scenarios, promoting higher levels of cognition (see Bloom’s Taxonomy ). In CBL classrooms, students typically work in groups on case studies, stories involving one or more characters and/or scenarios.  The cases present a disciplinary problem or problems for which students devise solutions under the guidance of the instructor. CBL has a strong history of successful implementation in medical, law, and business schools, and is increasingly used within undergraduate education, particularly within pre-professional majors and the sciences (Herreid, 1994). This method involves guided inquiry and is grounded in constructivism whereby students form new meanings by interacting with their knowledge and the environment (Lee, 2012).

There are a number of benefits to using CBL in the classroom. In a review of the literature, Williams (2005) describes how CBL: utilizes collaborative learning, facilitates the integration of learning, develops students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to learn, encourages learner self-reflection and critical reflection, allows for scientific inquiry, integrates knowledge and practice, and supports the development of a variety of learning skills.

CBL has several defining characteristics, including versatility, storytelling power, and efficient self-guided learning.  In a systematic analysis of 104 articles in health professions education, CBL was found to be utilized in courses with less than 50 to over 1000 students (Thistlethwaite et al., 2012). In these classrooms, group sizes ranged from 1 to 30, with most consisting of 2 to 15 students.  Instructors varied in the proportion of time they implemented CBL in the classroom, ranging from one case spanning two hours of classroom time, to year-long case-based courses. These findings demonstrate that instructors use CBL in a variety of ways in their classrooms.

The stories that comprise the framework of case studies are also a key component to CBL’s effectiveness. Jonassen and Hernandez-Serrano (2002, p.66) describe how storytelling:

Is a method of negotiating and renegotiating meanings that allows us to enter into other’s realms of meaning through messages they utter in their stories,

Helps us find our place in a culture,

Allows us to explicate and to interpret, and

Facilitates the attainment of vicarious experience by helping us to distinguish the positive models to emulate from the negative model.

Neurochemically, listening to stories can activate oxytocin, a hormone that increases one’s sensitivity to social cues, resulting in more empathy, generosity, compassion and trustworthiness (Zak, 2013; Kosfeld et al., 2005). The stories within case studies serve as a means by which learners form new understandings through characters and/or scenarios.

CBL is often described in conjunction or in comparison with problem-based learning (PBL). While the lines are often confusingly blurred within the literature, in the most conservative of definitions, the features distinguishing the two approaches include that PBL involves open rather than guided inquiry, is less structured, and the instructor plays a more passive role. In PBL multiple solutions to the problem may exit, but the problem is often initially not well-defined. PBL also has a stronger emphasis on developing self-directed learning. The choice between implementing CBL versus PBL is highly dependent on the goals and context of the instruction.  For example, in a comparison of PBL and CBL approaches during a curricular shift at two medical schools, students and faculty preferred CBL to PBL (Srinivasan et al., 2007). Students perceived CBL to be a more efficient process and more clinically applicable. However, in another context, PBL might be the favored approach.

In a review of the effectiveness of CBL in health profession education, Thistlethwaite et al. (2012), found several benefits:

Students enjoyed the method and thought it enhanced their learning,

Instructors liked how CBL engaged students in learning,

CBL seemed to facilitate small group learning, but the authors could not distinguish between whether it was the case itself or the small group learning that occurred as facilitated by the case.

Other studies have also reported on the effectiveness of CBL in achieving learning outcomes (Bonney, 2015; Breslin, 2008; Herreid, 2013; Krain, 2016). These findings suggest that CBL is a vehicle of engagement for instruction, and facilitates an environment whereby students can construct knowledge.

Science – Students are given a scenario to which they apply their basic science knowledge and problem-solving skills to help them solve the case. One example within the biological sciences is two brothers who have a family history of a genetic illness. They each have mutations within a particular sequence in their DNA. Students work through the case and draw conclusions about the biological impacts of these mutations using basic science. Sample cases: You are Not the Mother of Your Children ; Organic Chemisty and Your Cellphone: Organic Light-Emitting Diodes ;   A Light on Physics: F-Number and Exposure Time

Medicine – Medical or pre-health students read about a patient presenting with specific symptoms. Students decide which questions are important to ask the patient in their medical history, how long they have experienced such symptoms, etc. The case unfolds and students use clinical reasoning, propose relevant tests, develop a differential diagnoses and a plan of treatment. Sample cases: The Case of the Crying Baby: Surgical vs. Medical Management ; The Plan: Ethics and Physician Assisted Suicide ; The Haemophilus Vaccine: A Victory for Immunologic Engineering

Public Health – A case study describes a pandemic of a deadly infectious disease. Students work through the case to identify Patient Zero, the person who was the first to spread the disease, and how that individual became infected.  Sample cases: The Protective Parent ; The Elusive Tuberculosis Case: The CDC and Andrew Speaker ; Credible Voice: WHO-Beijing and the SARS Crisis

Law – A case study presents a legal dilemma for which students use problem solving to decide the best way to advise and defend a client. Students are presented information that changes during the case.  Sample cases: Mortgage Crisis Call (abstract) ; The Case of the Unpaid Interns (abstract) ; Police-Community Dialogue (abstract)

Business – Students work on a case study that presents the history of a business success or failure. They apply business principles learned in the classroom and assess why the venture was successful or not. Sample cases: SELCO-Determining a path forward ; Project Masiluleke: Texting and Testing to Fight HIV/AIDS in South Africa ; Mayo Clinic: Design Thinking in Healthcare

Humanities - Students consider a case that presents a theater facing financial and management difficulties. They apply business and theater principles learned in the classroom to the case, working together to create solutions for the theater. Sample cases: David Geffen School of Drama

Recommendations

Finding and Writing Cases

Consider utilizing or adapting open access cases - The availability of open resources and databases containing cases that instructors can download makes this approach even more accessible in the classroom. Two examples of open databases are the Case Center on Public Leadership and Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Case Program , which focus on government, leadership and public policy case studies.

• Consider writing original cases - In the event that an instructor is unable to find open access cases relevant to their course learning objectives, they may choose to write their own. See the following resources on case writing: Cooking with Betty Crocker: A Recipe for Case Writing ; The Way of Flesch: The Art of Writing Readable Cases ;   Twixt Fact and Fiction: A Case Writer’s Dilemma ; And All That Jazz: An Essay Extolling the Virtues of Writing Case Teaching Notes .

Implementing Cases

Take baby steps if new to CBL - While entire courses and curricula may involve case-based learning, instructors who desire to implement on a smaller-scale can integrate a single case into their class, and increase the number of cases utilized over time as desired.

Use cases in classes that are small, medium or large - Cases can be scaled to any course size. In large classes with stadium seating, students can work with peers nearby, while in small classes with more flexible seating arrangements, teams can move their chairs closer together. CBL can introduce more noise (and energy) in the classroom to which an instructor often quickly becomes accustomed. Further, students can be asked to work on cases outside of class, and wrap up discussion during the next class meeting.

Encourage collaborative work - Cases present an opportunity for students to work together to solve cases which the historical literature supports as beneficial to student learning (Bruffee, 1993). Allow students to work in groups to answer case questions.

Form diverse teams as feasible - When students work within diverse teams they can be exposed to a variety of perspectives that can help them solve the case. Depending on the context of the course, priorities, and the background information gathered about the students enrolled in the class, instructors may choose to organize student groups to allow for diversity in factors such as current course grades, gender, race/ethnicity, personality, among other items.  

Use stable teams as appropriate - If CBL is a large component of the course, a research-supported practice is to keep teams together long enough to go through the stages of group development: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning (Tuckman, 1965).

Walk around to guide groups - In CBL instructors serve as facilitators of student learning. Walking around allows the instructor to monitor student progress as well as identify and support any groups that may be struggling. Teaching assistants can also play a valuable role in supporting groups.

Interrupt strategically - Only every so often, for conversation in large group discussion of the case, especially when students appear confused on key concepts. An effective practice to help students meet case learning goals is to guide them as a whole group when the class is ready. This may include selecting a few student groups to present answers to discussion questions to the entire class, asking the class a question relevant to the case using polling software, and/or performing a mini-lesson on an area that appears to be confusing among students.  

Assess student learning in multiple ways - Students can be assessed informally by asking groups to report back answers to various case questions. This practice also helps students stay on task, and keeps them accountable. Cases can also be included on exams using related scenarios where students are asked to apply their knowledge.

Barrows HS. (1996). Problem-based learning in medicine and beyond: a brief overview. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 68, 3-12.  

Bonney KM. (2015). Case Study Teaching Method Improves Student Performance and Perceptions of Learning Gains. Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education, 16(1): 21-28.

Breslin M, Buchanan, R. (2008) On the Case Study Method of Research and Teaching in Design.  Design Issues, 24(1), 36-40.

Bruffee KS. (1993). Collaborative learning: Higher education, interdependence, and authority of knowledge. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD.

Herreid CF. (2013). Start with a Story: The Case Study Method of Teaching College Science, edited by Clyde Freeman Herreid. Originally published in 2006 by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA); reprinted by the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science (NCCSTS) in 2013.

Herreid CH. (1994). Case studies in science: A novel method of science education. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 23(4), 221–229.

Jonassen DH and Hernandez-Serrano J. (2002). Case-based reasoning and instructional design: Using stories to support problem solving. Educational Technology, Research and Development, 50(2), 65-77.  

Kosfeld M, Heinrichs M, Zak PJ, Fischbacher U, Fehr E. (2005). Oxytocin increases trust in humans. Nature, 435, 673-676.

Krain M. (2016) Putting the learning in case learning? The effects of case-based approaches on student knowledge, attitudes, and engagement. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 27(2), 131-153.

Lee V. (2012). What is Inquiry-Guided Learning?  New Directions for Learning, 129:5-14.

Nkhoma M, Sriratanaviriyakul N. (2017). Using case method to enrich students’ learning outcomes. Active Learning in Higher Education, 18(1):37-50.

Srinivasan et al. (2007). Comparing problem-based learning with case-based learning: Effects of a major curricular shift at two institutions. Academic Medicine, 82(1): 74-82.

Thistlethwaite JE et al. (2012). The effectiveness of case-based learning in health professional education. A BEME systematic review: BEME Guide No. 23.  Medical Teacher, 34, e421-e444.

Tuckman B. (1965). Development sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63(6), 384-99.

Williams B. (2005). Case-based learning - a review of the literature: is there scope for this educational paradigm in prehospital education? Emerg Med, 22, 577-581.

Zak, PJ (2013). How Stories Change the Brain. Retrieved from: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_stories_change_brain

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Case studies

A case study is used to explore a problem or issue in a specific real world context. You are usually asked to apply wider reading or theory to analyse what is happening in the case. They are often used in subjects such as business or healthcare.

There are two main ways you might encounter case studies in your assignments:

• You are given a case study and you are asked to analyse it. 
• You decide to use case studies as a method for your research, and you gather information on a specific situation to produce a case study as your findings. 

Scroll down for our recommended strategies and resources. 

Answering a case study assignment usually involves analysing the case, researching and linking to theories, and then making recommendations. This useful resource takes you through these steps with example cases from Management and Nursing: 

Writing a case study (RMIT University)

Case study report (e.g. Nursing)

In Healthcare professions you may be asked to write a case study report on a specific client or patient. This resource shows you how to keep your writing relevant and focused on the patient:

Case study report on a patient [video] (RMIT University)

Research method

If you are conducting your own research, you need to understand whether a case study is the most suitable method for answering your research question(s). Look at this introduction to case studies in research and their strengths and weaknesses: 

Case study as a research method (University of Melbourne)

Time to think about theory

Case studies often take time to analyse carefully. What is presented on the surface may have deeper, or less obvious, causes underneath. This is where your wider reading and theory may help, as it can provide frameworks or models for explaining complex and unclear behaviour. For example, theories on group dynamics might help us understand why a specific project team is failing to meet its targets.

Problem-solving

Case studies are a way of exploring a real world problem. You are usually asked to propose recommendations or solutions to the issue presented in the case. Don’t just stop at analysing what is happening and why it is happening, remember to also consider ‘so what can we do about this?’

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Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies of 2021

Two cases about Hertz claimed top spots in 2021's Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies

Two cases on the uses of debt and equity at Hertz claimed top spots in the CRDT’s (Case Research and Development Team) 2021 top 40 review of cases.

Hertz (A) took the top spot. The case details the financial structure of the rental car company through the end of 2019. Hertz (B), which ranked third in CRDT’s list, describes the company’s struggles during the early part of the COVID pandemic and its eventual need to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 

The success of the Hertz cases was unprecedented for the top 40 list. Usually, cases take a number of years to gain popularity, but the Hertz cases claimed top spots in their first year of release. Hertz (A) also became the first ‘cooked’ case to top the annual review, as all of the other winners had been web-based ‘raw’ cases.

Besides introducing students to the complicated financing required to maintain an enormous fleet of cars, the Hertz cases also expanded the diversity of case protagonists. Kathyrn Marinello was the CEO of Hertz during this period and the CFO, Jamere Jackson is black.

Sandwiched between the two Hertz cases, Coffee 2016, a perennial best seller, finished second. “Glory, Glory, Man United!” a case about an English football team’s IPO made a surprise move to number four.  Cases on search fund boards, the future of malls,  Norway’s Sovereign Wealth fund, Prodigy Finance, the Mayo Clinic, and Cadbury rounded out the top ten.

Other year-end data for 2021 showed:

• Online “raw” case usage remained steady as compared to 2020 with over 35K users from 170 countries and all 50 U.S. states interacting with 196 cases.
• Fifty four percent of raw case users came from outside the U.S..
• The Yale School of Management (SOM) case study directory pages received over 160K page views from 177 countries with approximately a third originating in India followed by the U.S. and the Philippines.
• Twenty-six of the cases in the list are raw cases.
• A third of the cases feature a woman protagonist.
• Orders for Yale SOM case studies increased by almost 50% compared to 2020.
• The top 40 cases were supervised by 19 different Yale SOM faculty members, several supervising multiple cases.

CRDT compiled the Top 40 list by combining data from its case store, Google Analytics, and other measures of interest and adoption.

All of this year’s Top 40 cases are available for purchase from the Yale Management Media store .

And the Top 40 cases studies of 2021 are:

1.   Hertz Global Holdings (A): Uses of Debt and Equity

2.   Coffee 2016

3.   Hertz Global Holdings (B): Uses of Debt and Equity 2020

4.   Glory, Glory Man United!

5.   Search Fund Company Boards: How CEOs Can Build Boards to Help Them Thrive

6.   The Future of Malls: Was Decline Inevitable?

7.   Strategy for Norway's Pension Fund Global

8.   Prodigy Finance

9.   Design at Mayo

10. Cadbury

11. City Hospital Emergency Room

13. Volkswagen

14. Marina Bay Sands

15. Shake Shack IPO

16. Mastercard

17. Netflix

18. Ant Financial

19. AXA: Creating the New CR Metrics

20. IBM Corporate Service Corps

21. Business Leadership in South Africa's 1994 Reforms

22. Alternative Meat Industry

23. Children's Premier

24. Khalil Tawil and Umi (A)

25. Palm Oil 2016

26. Teach For All: Designing a Global Network

27. What's Next? Search Fund Entrepreneurs Reflect on Life After Exit

28. Searching for a Search Fund Structure: A Student Takes a Tour of Various Options

30. Project Sammaan

31. Commonfund ESG

32. Polaroid

33. Connecticut Green Bank 2018: After the Raid

34. FieldFresh Foods

35. The Alibaba Group

36. 360 State Street: Real Options

37. Herman Miller

38. AgBiome

39. Nathan Cummings Foundation

40. Toyota 2010

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Engaging students in the feedback process

Peter Puxon, Academic Communication Centre (IoE) and Dr Peter Bratby Natural Sciences (MAPS), explain how they put feedback at the centre of the learning process.

MediaCentral Widget Placeholder https://mediacentral.ucl.ac.uk/Player/if47jH18

Watch the video on MediaCentral . Download the transcript [docx] . 

Emphasise learning-focused feedback

We all want to improve the way that feedback is delivered, understood and acted upon. But it can be a challenge, especially when feedback is ‘transmission-focussed’: only concerned with teachers’ comments and evaluation.

To change this, we can introduce more ‘learning-focused’ feedback into our teaching, which continually makes the point that feedback is a learning opportunity.

We believe that feedback is effective when students are receptive, when they understand their assessments’ expectations and when they share responsibilities for the feedback process. So, it is important to incorporate activities which develop students’ understanding of feedback as feedback for learning, rather than feedback on learning.

Design feedback for learning into the curriculum

In our case, the module convenor, an academic communication lecturer and postgraduate teaching assistants redesigned the curriculum of our 3rd Year Natural Sciences Literature Review Module. In this module, students are assessed on a 3,000-word literature review and a five-minute presentation.

To help students develop the skills to produce this work, they attend interactive sessions on a fortnightly basis, which are led by postgraduate teaching assistants (PGTAs).To meaningfully engage students with feedback, some sessions contained activities aimed at:

• increasing assessment literacy
• developing shared responsibilities
• managing effects (students’ emotional responses to feedback).

Increase assessment literacy

Assessment literacy is the ability to understand the purpose and processes of assessment, and accurately judge one’s own work.

To improve accurate judgement, students in our module completed a guided marking activity early in the course. We also provided high-scoring literature reviews from previous students together with marker feedback, and a genre analysis task with an example literature review. In the fortnightly sessions, students were encouraged to share drafts of their work with their peers, and they had the opportunity to clarify terminology in the marking criteria with the PGTAs. Finally, students presented a draft version of their presentation to a small group of peers with guidance from their tutor. The students then shared critical feedback with each other.

Develop shared responsibilities

Students need to be aware that the responsibility for feedback does not lie exclusively with educators. Instead, a culture of shared responsibility for giving and receiving feedback should be developed.

We incorporated several tasks designed to help develop this culture. Early in our module, students completed a supervision plan in which the supervisor and student decided how and when feedback should be provided. In addition, students examined supervisor feedback on a previously submitted literature review.

They discussed the quality of feedback with guiding questions:

• Is this effective feedback?
• What would improve this feedback?
• What advice would you give to the supervisor on giving effective feedback?

As a result, the students were more aware of what would constitute effective feedback for them. So, when students submitted their first draft of their review with an they could better articulate their feedback needs. First students commented on the staff-designed criteria, then they proposed changes which were negotiated with staff. The intention here was to clarify assessment expectations and to give a sense of ownership in the assessment process.

Manage students’ emotional responses to feedback

Ideally, we want our students to manage their emotional responses and avoid defensiveness when receiving critical feedback. This requires establishing a trusting and caring atmosphere, but it also requires that students take responsibility for their emotional responses and develop effective strategies for dealing with feedback.

We used the fortnightly sessions to help students develop these strategies. First, PGTAs shared examples of critical feedback they had received from their supervisors, and talked about how they handled this experience. Second, the students had a feedback before they completed their assignment. Lastly, the students discussed a number of provided student comments (e.g., ‘I think it is so hard to take on feedback on board, as you've got your own specific writing style and you're so stuck in your way’), and why they thought the student felt that way.

An ongoing dialogue about feedback is key

Throughout the module, we explicitly made students aware that active engagement with the feedback process was an organising principle. This meant that as well as all the activities listed above, the importance of feedback literacy became an ongoing dialogue between students, PGTAs, lecturers and supervisors.

Students may require a lot of encouragement to change from an assessment-focussed to a feedback-focussed mindset, so embed feedback-related activities throughout your teaching.

Further reading

• Carless, D. and Boud, D. (2018) The Development of Student Feedback Literacy: Enabling Uptake of Feedback. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 43(8), 1315–1325. doi:10.1080/02602938.2018.1463354.
• Evans, C. (2016) Enhancing assessment feedback practice in higher education: The EAT framework. Southampton: University of Southampton, UK
• Nash, R.A., and Winstone, N. E. (2017) Responsibility-sharing in the giving and receiving of assessment feedback, Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1519

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Montclair SCM Student Team Finishes Second in National Case Study Competition

Posted in: College News and Announcements , School of Communication and Media News

A team of Montclair State School of Communication & Media students finished second in the prestigious Bateman Case Study Competition, hosted by the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA). The national contest challenges student teams to design, implement, and measure a public relations campaign to support the goals of a real-world client.

This year’s client was Culturs , a global lifestyle network that enhances community and fosters human connection between cross-cultural populations including racially and culturally blended individuals. The missing “e” in Culturs represents the often-hidden diversities of these populations. 

Throughout the academic year, the Montclair team conducted extensive research with the Montclair community to discover insights for its robust on and offline campaign.  Their findings highlighted that more than half of students who identify as multi-ethnic have felt out of place or not fully belonging to one culture; and that 60% of respondents felt their culture was represented on campus but didn’t feel fully seen or heard.

The Montclair Culturs campaign was developed by five SCM students: Rianna Cafaro (’24), Gabriella Castillo (’24), Diana Ochoa-Perez (’24), Kaylee Seitz (’25) and Gina-Marie Zoccoli (’25). Professor Mary Scott served as the faculty advisor for the third consecutive year, SVP Communications at United Entertainment Group Heter Myers was the industry advisor and SCM Professor Erin Weinberg provided critical support and guidance to the team. 

“Participating in this competition provided my team and I a deep understanding of and experience in executing a PR campaign from start to finish.” Cafaro said. “Montclair Culturs created a movement that soared beyond our expectations and I am so proud of the work we accomplished.”

The Montclair students advanced to the finals of the competition against teams from BYU and winner University of Florida, and over eight other semi-final teams that received honorable mention. PRSSA received 45 campagn entries. 

The Montclair Culturs campaign set out to establish an inclusive community that celebrates cultural diversity through engaging conversations and shared learning experiences, fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation of multiculturalism.

Highlights of the Montclair team’s campaign and presentation to a panel of judges on May 2 in New York City included:

• The Melting Pot Meals :  a collaborative digital and printed cookbook featuring Montclair students sharing cultural dishes from around the world and the significance of these recipes.
• Cultur-ella: Inspired by Coachella, the team hosted a festival celebrating the cultures of Montclair State through dance, music, and art. The more than 300 attendees made cultural bracelets, danced alongside the LASO dance troupe, Montclair West African Drumming, and influencer Jerseyy Joe, and also learned about the many cultural organizations on campus including Daughta Speaks, the Dominican Student Organization (DSO), the Korean Culture and Language Association (KCLA), the Latin American Student Organization(LASO), the Mexican-American Student Association (MASA), and the Veteran and Military Resource office.
• Cultural Print: More than 500 people took the pledge to embrace cultural diversity and shared their personal cultural print on our world map representing their heritage and ethnicities.
• Living in Full Color: An Intimate Conversation on Culture:   a curated conversation with NBC and Telemundo, Montclair faculty and students on multiculturalism and 21st-century diversity.  Kicked off by Provost Junius Gonzales and hosted by Associate Provost for Hispanic Initiatives and International Programs Katia Paz Goldfarb, the event featured WNBC reporter Checkey Beckford and  Telemundo 47’s Ashley Chaparro, Yessi Hernandez and Alexa Rodriguez.  

“Participating in this year’s Bateman Challenge was a dream assignment for our team especially since we saw an authentic impact on the entire campus community,” Professor Scott said. “Inspired by our client Culturs’ mission, the team built and successfully implemented a campaign that provided a platform and addressed the unmet needs of our richly diverse campus – enabling important conversations, rich storytelling, fostering a more connected community and a commitment to future actions. I am immensely proud of our students who worked incredibly hard to execute a strategic campaign that was worthy of this national recognition.”

About the School of Communication and Media:  The School of Communication and Media offers a range of dynamic programs in communication and media to a talented and diverse student population of over 1,800. Offering degrees in film and television, social media and public relations, advertising, journalism and digital media, sports communication, communication and media studies, animation and visual effects, and an MA devoted to strategic communication, the School prepares the next generation of communication and media practitioners and leaders. The School houses award-winning student programs that include  WMSC Radio ,  The Montclarion  newspaper,   Hawk Communications  Agency, the  Red Hawk Sports Network ,  Hawk+  OTT streaming platform, and  News Lab , as well as the  Center for Cooperative Media , which serves the public by working to grow and strengthen local journalism. Student projects and programs have recently received national recognition from PRSSA’s Bateman Competition, an Edward R Murrow Award, several Marconi Award nominations, and a College Television Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Media Contact : Keith Green, School of Communication and Media, 973-655-3701 or  [email protected]

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Crossing continents: Five CWRU students share travel tips for their homelands

Students from all around the world choose to study at Case Western Reserve University, making the institution a vibrant hub of cultural exchange and global learning. Whether they’re sharing stories of the captivating rhythms of Ghana, the bustling markets of Nigeria, the artistic heritage of Italy, the modern marvels of Dubai, the ancient civilizations of Iran or some other place, each student offers a unique perspective shaped by their homeland’s history, traditions, and landscapes. 

Their stories paint a vivid picture of the world beyond our campus—fostering an environment of mutual understanding and appreciation right here in Cleveland. Today (May 7) is National Tourism Day, which was established in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan to encourage and celebrate the benefits of travel. To mark the occasion,  The Daily  is putting the spotlight on five undergraduate and graduate students’ homelands from around the globe.

Learn a few tips and tricks the students shared for navigating their home countries , including from Sarah Acquam, MSW student. 

Sarah Acquam

Home country: Ghana Master of Social Work student

Q: What’s your favorite part about Ghana?

Acquam: As a proud Ghanaian, there are so many things I love about my home country, but if I had to choose a favorite, it would have to be the incredible food, welcoming community, and hospitable people. The food in Ghana is simply unbeatable, with our famous jollof rice being a must-try dish for any visitor. But beyond the delicious cuisine, it’s the warm and inviting spirit of the Ghanaian people that really makes the country special. Many visitors I know have told me they felt right at home during their time in Ghana, which is why we greet everyone with the word “Akwaaba,” meaning “welcome” in our local language. We take great pride in our heritage and are always eager to share it with visitors.

Q: What is the best piece of advice you have for people who visit?

Acquam:   If you really want to experience the true essence of Ghana, I would highly recommend visiting during December. This is when Ghana comes alive with festivities, cultural events, live band music, and a lively atmosphere that truly showcases the heart and soul of our country. You will have the chance to immerse yourself in our rich cultural traditions. Beyond that, my top piece of advice would be to come with an open mind. Don’t get frustrated if things take longer than expected; just go with the rhythm of “Ghanaian Time.” This relaxed mentality is all part of the charm, and you’ll be sure to have an unforgettable experience.

Q: What’s one unique thing visitors should do or see in Ghana?

Acquam: One unique experience I would urge any visitor to Ghana to partake in is exploring our stunning natural landscapes. From the beautiful beaches that line the coast to the lush rainforests and towering waterfalls inland, Ghana is home to some of the most breathtaking scenery in Africa. Be sure to visit iconic sites like the Cape Coast and Elmina Castles, which offer a sobering look into Ghana’s history. And for the adventurous, don’t miss the chance to take a canopy walk through the treetops of Kakum National Park. You should also make time to visit the vibrant cultural art centers, where you can witness traditional craftsmanship and purchase unique souvenirs.

Q: What’s something visitors should avoid when visiting Ghana?

Acquam :  While Ghana is an incredibly welcoming and hospitable country, there are a few cultural norms that visitors should be mindful of.  You will have to be cautious about how you greet people—never use your left hand, as it is considered disrespectful. And, of course, always be respectful of local customs and traditions to avoid any cultural missteps. Also, avoid packing heavy winter clothing as our climate is generally warm and tropical.

Measurement invariance of the modified Utrecht Homesickness Scale: a case of university students from four countries

• Published: 09 May 2024

Cite this article

• Sofya Nartova-Bochaver   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8061-4154 1 ,
• Sofia Reznichenko   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7930-8790 1 ,
• Alfonso Padilla Ochoa   ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0002-7114-3001 1 &
• Zulkarnain Zulkarnain   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3707-1844 2  

The study is devoted to examining the measurement invariance of the Utrecht Homesickness Scale ( UHS ) across four countries while considering cultural characteristics. The sample consisted of 899 first- and second-year students: Indonesia ( N  = 182), Mexico ( N  = 142), Russia ( N = 379), and Ukraine ( N  = 196) ( M age  = 18.29, SD age  = 2.48); female-dominant at 74% ( M age  = 18.56, SD age  = 2.49). In the original version, the UHS consisted of twenty items and five subscales: Adjustment difficulties , Missing family , Loneliness , Missing friends , and Ruminations about home . As hypothesized, the initial five-factor structure of the UHS was upheld but the HS pattern was specific in each country investigated. After removing three items via CFA, the original structure was restored. Convergent validity, reliability, configural, metric, and partial scalar measurement invariance of the UHS modified ( UHS-M ) instrument were achieved. The specific patterns of homesickness in each country are presented. It is concluded that the UHS-M can be recommended both for research and support programs for students suffering from homesickness while accounting for cultural characteristics.

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The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Sofya Nartova-Bochaver, Sofia Reznichenko & Alfonso Padilla Ochoa

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Sofya NARTOVA-BOCHAVER: Conceptualization, Project administration, Resources, Methodology, Investigation (the Russian sample), Writing - Original draft preparation, Reviewing and Editing; Sofia REZNICHENKO: Resources, Methodology, Formal analysis, Writing-Reviewing and Editing; Alfonso PADILLA OCHOA: Investigation (the Mexican sample), Methodology, Writing-Reviewing and Editing; Zulkarnain ZULKARNAIN: Investigation (the Indonesian sample), Reviewing and Editing.

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Nartova-Bochaver, S., Reznichenko, S., Ochoa, A.P. et al. Measurement invariance of the modified Utrecht Homesickness Scale: a case of university students from four countries. Curr Psychol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-06075-5

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Columbia Bars Student Protester Who Said ‘Zionists Don’t Deserve to Live’

After video surfaced on social media, the student, Khymani James, said on Friday that his comments were wrong.

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By Katherine Rosman

Katherine Rosman reported from the campus of Columbia University.

Columbia University announced on Friday that it had barred from its campus a leader in the pro-Palestinian student protest encampment who declared on video in January that “Zionists don’t deserve to live.”

Video of the incendiary comments resurfaced online Thursday evening, forcing the school to again confront an issue at the core of the conflict rippling across campuses nationwide: the tension between pro-Palestinian activism and antisemitism.

The student, Khymani James, made the comments during and after a disciplinary hearing with Columbia administrators that he recorded and then posted on Instagram.

The hearing, conducted by an administrator of the university’s Center for Student Success and Intervention , was focused on an earlier comment he shared on social media, in which he discussed fighting a Zionist. “I don’t fight to injure or for there to be a winner or a loser, I fight to kill,” he wrote.

A Columbia administrator asked, “Do you see why that is problematic in any way?”

Mr. James replied, “No.”

He also compared Zionists to white supremacists and Nazis. “These are all the same people,” he said. “The existence of them and the projects they have built, i.e. Israel, it’s all antithetical to peace. It’s all antithetical to peace. And so, yes, I feel very comfortable, very comfortable, calling for those people to die.”

And, Mr. James said, “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”

In announcing their decision to bar Mr. James from campus, the university did not make clear if he had been suspended or permanently expelled.

Other protest groups condemned the comments and pointed out that one student’s statements do not reflect the tenor of the movement as a whole. But the remarks were widely shared on social media and go to the heart of a question that has animated criticism of the protests: How much of the movement in support of the Palestinian people in Gaza is tainted by antisemitism?

College administrators have pledged to Congress that they will take swift action against hateful attacks on Jewish students and antisemitic threats. “I promise you, from the messages I’m hearing from students, they are getting the message that violations of our policies will have consequences,” Columbia’s president, Nemat Shafik, told congressional leaders last week.

On Friday, a school spokesman said, “Calls of violence and statements targeted at individuals based on their religious, ethnic or national identity are unacceptable and violate university policy.”

Brian Cohen, the executive director of Columbia/Barnard Hillel, the center for Jewish campus life, described Mr. James’s statements as dangerous. “I think students who make comments like that don’t belong on campus,” he said.

Noa Fay, 23, a first-year student at the School of International and Public Affairs, said she was shocked by the “unabashedness” of the video. “It’s one of the more blatant examples of antisemitism and, just, rhetoric that is inconsistent with the values that we have at Columbia,” she said. “I was mostly very surprised to see that it was just so out in the open.”

Early Friday morning, Mr. James posted a statement on social media addressing his comments. “What I said was wrong,” he wrote. “Every member of our community deserves to feel safe without qualification.” He noted that he made these comments in January before he become involved with the protest movement and added that the leaders of the student protests did not condone the comments. “I agree with their assessment,” he wrote.

Mr. James did not respond to a request for comment, and student protesters declined to address the matter at a news conference on the Columbia campus Friday afternoon.

But in an interview earlier in the week, Mr. James drew a distinction between the ideas of anti-Zionism, which describes opposition to the Jewish state of Israel, and antisemitism. “There is a difference,” he said. “We’ve always had Jewish people as part of our community where they have expressed themselves, they feel safe, and they feel loved. And we want all people to feel safe in this encampment. We are a multiracial, multigenerational group of people.”

Sophie Ellman-Golan, the communications director of Jews for Racial & Economic Justice and a Barnard College graduate, said she found Mr. James’s comments awful and upsetting but she added that it was clear his views did not represent those of the other campus protesters.

Ms. Ellman-Golan said that in her 10 years as an organizer, there were always people who tried to inject hateful messages into public action, and that such messages tended to be amplified by those looking to smear entire movements.

“For people who want to believe that characterization, that our movements are inevitably and permanently hostile to us as Jews, this is catnip, right?” she said. “It’s irresistible.”

A spokeswoman for Jewish Voice for Peace, a pro-Palestinian advocacy group, said in a statement that the organization was glad Mr. James had realized he was wrong and had acknowledged that his words were harmful.

“We believe that all people have the capacity to transform — many of our own members once supported Israel’s violence against Palestinians,” the statement said, adding that “within the movement we are committed to holding one another accountable to respecting the dignity of all human beings.”

One student protester who is Jewish and who has spoken to Mr. James about the video said she believed he was committed to nonviolence and acceptance of all people. She said that he had reacted emotionally after being trolled online and that it was unfair that his decision to vent his frustration on social media was being used against him.

It remains unclear how many students are directing the Columbia protests, but Mr. James, 20, emerged as a public face of the demonstrations this week when he led a news conference to assert the demands the movement is making of the Columbia administration.

“This encampment — a peaceful, student-led demonstration — is part of the larger movement of Palestinian liberation,” Mr. James said at the conference.

In his biography on X, he calls himself an “anticapitalist” and “anti-imperialist.”

Mr. James was raised in Boston, and graduated from Boston Latin Academy, according to a 2021 interview with The Bay State Banner.

He told The Banner that at Columbia, he planned to study economics and political science. “The ultimate destination is Congress,” he said.

Eryn Davis , Stephanie Saul , Olivia Bensimon and Claire Fahy contributed reporting.

Katherine Rosman covers newsmakers, power players and individuals making an imprint on New York City. More about Katherine Rosman

Our Coverage of the U.S. Campus Protests

News and Analysis

U.S.C. : The University of Southern California’s academic senate voted to censure Carol Folt , the school’s president, after several tumultuous weeks, including canceling the valedictory address of a Muslim student, clearing a protest encampment and calling in police to arrest dozens of protesters.

G.W.U. : Hours before the mayor of Washington, D.C., was scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill about the city’s handling of a pro-Palestinian encampment at George Washington University, police moved to break up the encampment .

U.C.L.A. : A police consulting firm will review a violent confrontation  at the University of California, Los Angeles, in which a group of counterprotesters attacked demonstrators  at a pro-Palestinian encampment while security guards and police officers failed to intervene.

An Agreement to Divest :  Students who oppose the war in Gaza began dismantling their protest camp  at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland, after the institution agreed to divest from three Israeli companies.

Republican Hypocrisy:  Prominent Republicans have seized on campus protests to assail what they say is antisemitism on the left. But for years they have mainstreamed anti-Jewish rhetoric .

Remembering the 1968 Protests:  As Chicago prepares to host the Democratic National Convention , it wants to shed memories of chaos from half a century ago even as the campus protests are growing.

Outside Agitators:  Officials in New York City have blamed “external actors” for escalating demonstrations at Columbia, but student protesters reject the claim .

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