Abstract:

Teaching cases are used in university education in many disciplines, originating at Harvard Business School but today used in disciplines close to software engineering such as information systems and project managment. In software engineering, however, it is dificult to find published teaching cases. The empirical software engineering community could use teacing cases as an alternative way to disseminate findings from empirical studies to students. In information systems, a teachinc case is described as "a narrative about an organization that faces several possible business opportunities and outcomes" (Sipior et al. 2021). The motivation is to combine practical and theoretical understanding with focus on a business organization and is a problem-based approach to teaching (Sipior et al. 2021). Other disciplines have repositories of teaching cases which are shared between instructors. In an ISERN session, we would like to pitch the idea of teaching cases in software engineering, which could lead to a follow-up activity, editing a special issue on teaching cases in software engineering.

Session Goals:

• Inform of teaching cases as an industry-relevant pedagogical approach in software engineering education through a quick tutorial

• Make the empirical sofware engineering community see teaching cases as an alternative way to publish empirical material, targeting students

• Understand current knowledge of and potential use of teaching cases in the empirical software engineering community (thoughts on fit for courses at bachelor, master and continous education levels)

• Communicate where software engineering course instructors can find relevant teaching cases today

• Discuss how the software engineering community could enable a repository of teaching cases

Development of the Session: (Suggested agenda, 90 minutes in total)

1. What are teaching cases and why is it relevant in software engineering education? (tutorial on teaching cases, 20 minutes)

2. Demonstration of a teaching case (participants read a short teaching case and are briefed on how the case can be used in teaching, 20 minutes)

3. Identifying teaching cases (overview of relevant teaching cases today, 5 minutes)

4. Input on teaching cases from participants (Menti or physical input, 10 minutes)

   a. Existing knowledge of teaching cases

   b. Potential for use of teaching cases in own teaching

   c. Relevant coursses

   d. Relevant topics

5. The way forward: Open discussion on what could be done to foster use of teaching cases in software engineering (discussion in pairs, small groups and then in plenary, 25 minutes)

6. Summary and next steps by session chairs (10 minutes)

Background and Recommended Reading:

Teaching cases in information systems:

Sipior, J. C., Granger, M., & Farhoomand, A. (2021). Writing a Teaching Case and Teaching Note: A Reference Guide. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 49(1), 35.

Teaching cases in project management:

Vega, G. and Aubry, M., "From the Editors Introducing Teaching Case Studies in Project Management Journal®," vol. 49, ed: SAGE Publications Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA, 2018, pp. 3-5.

An example teaching case:

Nuwangi, S. M. and Sedera, D., "A teaching case on information systems development outsourcing: lessons from a failure," Communications of the Association for Information Systems, vol. 46, p. 29, 2020. https://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol46/iss1/29/

Expected Outcomes and Plan for Continuing the Work beyond ISERN:

• Motivated teaching case authors, people willing to review teaching cases

• Special issue on teaching cases in a major software engineering journal

• Motivate chairs of software engineering education conferences to include teaching cases in call for papers.