Case Studies: Meetings

Monday, January 13, 2003, Torgersen 3180 (1:30-2:30 pm)

• Next Meeting: Friday, January 17, Torgersen 3180 (1:30 pm)
• Attendees: Mary Beth, Jack, Con
• Funding for this project is not approved yet, but seems to be heading that way
• Want to take the previous work on the usability case library a step beyond:
  • more work
  • develop content
  • define vision
  • cooperative development with other instructors at other places
  • develop case study methods
• Case studies are a special niche of learning by example
• This phase to be 2 years?
• STARTING POINT: ../references/Kolodner.pdf (Janet & Mark)
  • Case based education and design
  • We should emulate this work in our domain
  • They talk about a theoretical grounding
  • Mary Beth to send others a copy of this paper [Action: Mary Beth, Completed]
• WORKSHOPS:
  • 2 faculty workshops at VT, this summer and next
  • First summer: a discussion and requirements workshop
    • Identify activities we can support
    • Develop them the rest of the summer and have them ready for the fall
  • Next summer: reflections and refinement
    • Focus less on the tool and more on refinement of use
    • Use should be driven by learning activities
    • Past: disconnects between activities for the class and the way the tool works
• Jack's spring course (CS 3724):
  • Added more activities
  • Can see how they work
  • It can serve as a prototype for what we may ask others wrt evaluation
• Current case study library
  • Hosted on ucs.cs.vt.edu
  • Richard Bowman (a junior) developed current UI
  • Need access [Action: Con, Completed]
  • There is some log data on previous use--take a look at it [Action: Con, Refined: See 2003.01.24]
• We need to do a better job collecting data
  • From Jack's class
  • 3x during semester? or after every activity?
  • Online survey?
• We have funding for paid subjects (we think)
• A good result for this semester would include a taxonomy of case study uses
  • Perturbility (is this a word?)
  • Traceability
  • Contrast (HW #7)
  • Analogy/modeling (HW #1)
  • Extension
  • Summarization
• Could also map what the cases are useful for....
  • as a starting point for analysis
  • as a starting point for experiences
• Possible question: The case helped me to...(select from descriptions based on taxonomy)
• It would be good to know what learning outcomes we expect from each exercise so we can develop related questions
• ACTION ITEMS:
  1. Print out a copy of CS 3724 calendar, activities, homework [Action: ALL, Completed: See 2003.01.17 notes]
  2. Keep only those activities related to case study library [Action: ALL, Completed: See 2003.01.17 notes]
  3. For each: assign categories (above taxonomy) and develop some possible evaluation questions [Action: ALL, Completed: See 2003.01.17 notes]