ENCOURAGING PARTICIPATION IN CASE DISCUSSIONS: A COMPARISON OF THE MICA AND THE HARVARD CASE METHODS.

The article presents information on two different case study methods, Harvard Case Method (HCM) and McAleer Interactive Case Analysis (MICA). Case discussion is a pedagogical technique that is frequently used in a variety of business courses. One survey showed that about 94% of instructors use it at least to a slight extent in undergraduate business policy/strategy courses. However, very few empirical studies have examined the effectiveness of the discussion method in achieving the intended objectives. Relying on anecdotal evidence, some authors have supported its use whereas others have reported on the problems arising out of the predominant method of case discussion and have doubted its effectiveness. We have attempted to introduce a measure of rigor into this stream of work by systematically comparing alternate methods. The analysis shows that students in the MICA method section reported better preparation and participation benefits as compared with students in the HCM method. In addition, students in the MICA class were better able to identify the main focus of the cases discussed, showing that they were able to better recall the content issues involved in the case discussion. Thus, on both counts of content and process, the MICA method appears superior. Successful implementation of HCM gives the instructor an active role in the class, calling on several skills including the ability to listen, ask appropriate questions to facilitate discussion, and later, recall the class session accurately for evaluation purposes.