Case studies in computing education: Presentation, evaluation and assessment of four case study-based course design and delivery models

Case studies have been used in different fields of university-level education already for decades. More recently, the advantages of using case studies have been realised by university-level computing educators, too. New approaches have been introduced in computing education - such as project-based learning, problem-based learning, situated learning or inquiry-based learning. Many of those approaches successfully use case studies. Despite the increasing popularity of this teaching methodology there seems to be a deep lack in any research papers or practice reports which would attempt to describe, evaluate and assess possible approaches or models in using case studies in computing education. This conference contribution reports on selected best practices of course design and delivery implemented in one of the core courses of the Bachelor of Science (Information Systems Management) degree program (BSc (ISM)) offered by the School of Information Systems (SIS) at the Singapore Management University (SMU). The paper presents, evaluates, compares and assesses four different course design and delivery models which are largely based on case studies and are extensively using this teaching methodology throughout the entire course lifecycle (starting with the course design process, delivery of face-to-face teaching sessions, student assessment process and post-mortem course review process).