SWIF Learning: A Guide to Student-Written, Instructor-Facilitated Case Writing
Paul Michael Swiercz, Ph.D.
The George Washington University
Introduction
SWIF Learning—Student-Written, Instructor-Facilitated Case Writing—is a new learning technique designed to engage students fully in the educational experience and ease the transition from the classroom to the workplace. Traditional case teaching has unquestionable value, but it also has a major, if not frequently discussed, shortcoming. Traditional case methods limit the student to the role of analyst. In this role, students are primarily passive actors; as analysts, they are limited to responding to facts and events as reported by someone else. In contrast, SWIF Learning converts case teaching into an active learning experience. SWIF Learning requires students to assume a variety of new roles—researcher, petitioner, interviewer, negotiator, writer, editor, team-member, etc.
This manual provides students with a case-preparation roadmap for making the journey from passive case analyst to active case developer. We really have entered the information age and this reality, I believe, requires that the student discard the passive role expectations of the past and assume more of the active behaviors required of practicing organizational leaders.
Student-Written, Instructor-Facilitated (SWIF) case writing is a powerful tool for helping both students and instructors redefine their roles. In the pages that follow, I provide information selected to help speed the transition and make it smoother. The manual is divided into two sections. The first section provides background information on the case-writing process and answers the most commonly asked questions about case writing. The second section provides a guide to data resources and some tools for evaluating the case. New library technologies and computerized databases offer an extraordinarily rich array of information resources. In fact, the resources are so rich and growing so rapidly that it is impossible to summarize them in a document of this size, so this second section is meant to be only a starting point. The guidelines provided and the resources identified will help the new case writer prepare a clear, concise, and illustrative document.
|
