The Ayuquila River e-case study is designed as a learning resource for use in both face-to-face education as well as online learning in educational programs within a variety of academic disciplines. The e-case provides learners with real-life narrative that educators can use in a flexible manner to introduce diverse academic concepts. At the same time it provides a space for the development of relevant skills in analytical thinking and reflective judgment.
It is anticipated that learners using this case study will have the opportunity to understand how the course materials apply to the world outside the classroom. They will also understand how data is often ambiguous or not clearly defined in many situations. Furthermore, the case study will provide the opportunity to students to explore multiple perspectives related to environmental and development issues in the watershed. In implementing projects or trying reach decisions, the learners would be exposed to the different viewpoints from the local stakeholders who may want different outcomes in terms of development of the watershed. Learners can also see how decisions impact different participants, both positively and negatively.
According to the Penn State University Centre for Teaching and Learning with Technology (http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/cases/casewhat.html), case studies are generally based on real world situations, although some facts may be changed to simplify the scenario. Moreover, it is argued that effective cases typically provide real world artifacts for students to analyse. These can be simple data tables, links to real URL's, quoted statements or testimony, supporting documents, images, video, audio, or any appropriate material. Furthermore, most cases require learners to answer an open-ended question or develop a solution to an open-ended problem with multiple potential solutions. According to educators at Penn State, assignments “can range from a one-paragraph answer to a fully developed group action plan, proposal or decision.”
The Ayuquila River e-case study exemplifies all of the above characteristics and is designed to support individual study or by teams where learners have the opportunity to brainstorm solutions and share ideas and the work.
Target learners: Undergraduate, graduate, participants of training activities.
Academic fields: Environmental science, politics, sociology.
Concepts introduced:
The case study method is a well-established tool in many educational programmes and the application of digital technology brings several benefits in terms of interactivity, interconnectedness as well as creating engaging content. The e-case study provides an effective tool to investigate many concepts including:
• Integrated watershed management
• Conservation of biodiversity
• Management of natural resources
• Natural protected areas
• Sustainable development
• Environmental governance
• Environmental justice
• Community participation
• Environmental education
• Environmental services
• Industrial water management
• Wastewater treatment methods
Assignments / Learning Activities :
In designing assignments to be used in conjunction with the Ayuquila e-case study, it is recommended that the assignments are open-ended, with the students being encouraged to choose appropriate analytic techniques and to pull information from different areas of the course they are studying in order to provide an effective solution to the problem.
The scaffolding of the assignments can be designed to promote group work along the lines of the social constructivist approach so that the students generate their own knowledge about the case and also their own solutions to the problems faced. The students can be assigned part of the jigsaw - subsection of a larger topic or case (either in teams or individually), and then are responsible for researching it and teaching or giving their research results to the rest of the team or class. This could also involve web research on issues such as the importance of sugar production in developing countries, environmental management of sugar cane facilities or on the designation and role of biosphere reserves.
Another very useful approach would be to develop role playing exercises based on the existing stakeholders in the Ayuquila Watershed for instance on how to tackle the pollution from the Sugar cane factory or how to alleviate poverty for some of the downstream communities.
For a complex case like this, the objective is for students to diagnose the underlying problem based on data. These issues are not easy to distinguish because they are submerged in a mass of data.
For more on Case Based Teaching see:
National Center for Using Case Study Teaching in Science
Case Studies in Instructional Technology and Design, UVA
University of South California
