Assessing the Effectiveness of using Multi-Media for Case-based Learning

Instructor: Robert Cavalier
Scope: Course – Introduction to Ethics, Department of Philosophy, College of Humanities & Social Sciences
Assessment Tool/Method: A study comparing the effectiveness of traditional vs. multi-media approaches to case studies on student learning outcomes.

Motivation:

Traditional approaches to ethical case studies often rely on a four or five paragraph case study. The study is treated as an example to be discussed within the framework of prior readings and is used to test the analytical skills of the student, and to ask them to explore the relation between the general and the particular. But the one pressing problem with a “case summary” is the discrepancy between its description and its reality. The palpable complexity of real life situations seems to recede in the textbook overview of such cases. This motivated the attempt to introduce reality into the context of case studies through the use of interactive multimedia, CD-ROM technology. CD-ROM provides flexible navigation through the central and often competing issues in the case.

Goals:

The purpose was to see if learning outcomes were advanced by the use of interactive media.

Implementation:

The Case. The study involved the undergrads at CMU in philosophy course at CMU and the use of the case of Dax Cowart, a burn patient who wished to be allowed to die. At the time that the students encounter the case of Dax, his injuries have left him severely scarred, his hands are badly deformed and the sight in his remaining eye is at risk. As a patient, he undergoes daily treatments in an antiseptic tank that are so painful to him, that he has persistently asked doctors to stop his treatment. Dax feels that the projected length of his treatment and the quality of life that he can expect to regain do not warrant the torment he must suffer. The doctors know that if they continue his treatment, he will live; if they stop his treatment, he will surely die. The question that students are posed is: does Dax have a right to die? And if so, what does this mean?

Participants:

Students who were enrolled in the introduction to ethics course at CMU were divided into and given either a text, film or CD-ROM version of the case materials.

When was/will the data be collected?

Students completed a 50 minute, in-class essay exam. The exam questions focused on students’ knowledge of the facts of the case, the principal participants in the case, and the central issues of the case.

Current status?

Completed

Impact/Results:

The results of the assessment showed that there was a statistical difference in learning outcomes based on the medium used to present the case study. The students who learned about the case using the interactive CD-ROM had a higher mean score than the students who learned about the case via text or film. The CD students outperformed the other two groups with regard to the two key outcomes of the course: (a) ability to understand the complex perspectives and positions of the principals in the case; (b) to analyze the case with respect to its morally relevant details.

Published Articles:

Cavalier, Robert & Keith Weber (2002), Learning, Media, and the Case of Dax Cowert: A Comparison of Text, Film and Interactive Media; In, Interactive Learning Environments; 10(3):243-62.

Cavalier, Robert (2004), Applied Ethics in a Digital Age; In D. Resnick and D.S. Scott (eds.); The Innovative University; pp 245-257; Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press.