FAQ Series: What If I Don’t Normally Use Cases in the Classroom?

FAQ Series with Prof. Weiser - Article 1

With the fall semester ramping up, the team at Real Time Cases aims to deliver a series of useful and practical articles to answer the most commonly asked questions posed to us by instructors. The overarching goal is to help professors understand how they can effectively and easily implement Real Time Cases’ video-based case studies into their syllabus. 
This post serves as the first in the series and addresses the question: What if I don’t normally use cases in the classroom?”
The key to understand here is that video is the preferred format through which many students tend to consume information
Hannah Weiser is a Lecturer on Management and Organizations at the University of Maryland, College Park, as well as a Coordinator and Associate Professor of Business and Management at Montgomery College. As Professor Weiser explains,
I was getting the indication from a lot of my students that they weren’t necessarily reading the textbook, and when you start looking at the research, it really supports that…not only are they not reading it, some of them aren’t even buying it.”   
Professor Weiser knew that her students were using YouTube as a learning tool and that they liked watching videos. The decision to try Real Time Cases in her classroom was about going where the students’ are and adapting to their needs, rather than trying to change their existing behavior. Professor Weiser continues, “I was just trying to look for a way to still communicate the information from the class in a way that they would look at it and get some information; and so, a lot of my students, they liked watching YouTube, they liked watching videos, and this was a way to get them the material in a format that they were used to and liked.”
Engaging video content that lets students confront unresolved challenges facing real companies is the centerpiece of what Real Time Cases produces. The format delivers information in the way that students are already familiar with, and it provides an alternative channel for students to encode the new information. Thus, even professors who don’t typically use traditional case studies in class may find that Real Time Cases can help to more easily reach students and deepen their understanding.
If you’d like to view this portion of the video interview with Hannah Weiser, you can watch the full clip here: