Designing multidiscipline cases

By developing one overall multidiscipline case for one or several courses in an academic program, different learning challenges from multiple disciplines can be addressed in order to enhance the total learning goal. To achieve a learning goal, a generic case could be designed to bridge different disciplines in a systematic way. The important challenge is to design the case, which in its content as well as format, addresses the goals of the course and eventually also the objectives of the program as a whole. This paper addresses how to design such an overall multidiscipline case. Six design dimensions are identified to use when designing, producing, testing, and using a case of any type. The design is seen as an overall learning experience, which simultaneously encompasses three aspects. First, the learning experience must start with an understanding of student knowledge levels in the different disciplines. Second, the faculty of the disciplines must articulate what kind of learning goals they would like to achieve with the different courses. Third, the case should address the objective(s) of the course both in its content and working (i.e. pedagogical) formats. Only when the three areas of student learning, faculty learning, and subject are intertwined, will the best learning arena be created. A generic case could be a valuable tool in supporting more holistic and reflective learning.