You are likely to find that writing a good dilemma case can be quite a challenge even though they are fairly short narratives. Certainly it is more difficult to write a two to three page paper than one that is twenty pages long. But the task is even more complex when writing a case study because of the characteristics that make for a good case study. A good case narrative is not, after all, merely a well-told story. It is a teaching and learning tool for the author as well as those who will study the case later. There is a full-length article on this site where dilemma cases are explained. Review that resource before starting to write.

The World Wide Web offers an impactful way to enhance the work you do in your college classes. This is especially true of case studies as we define them in this course. Through the use of hypertext links a case can be made more challenging and instructive. You should plan to include a few carefully selected hyperlinks in every case you write. There is no specified or optimum number of links that contribute to a good case although it is certainly possible to burden a case with too many links which keep the discussion from moving briskly. The key is to search diligently and to select carefully. It has been the experience of students who have done this type of work before that two or three carefully selected links will suffice.

In selecting links think in terms of a "value-added" approach. Use links to make your case(s) more interesting and to provide information on the groups or issues involved. Try to bring out the serious nature of the issues and decisions involved for all the groups involved. Don't prejudice the case by slanting it in favor of one group. A real dilemma is one in which no group is neither entirely right or totally wrong.

Providing objective, unbiased nformation by way of hyper links may seem like a good idea but remember, that when it comes to cultural perspectives things are seldom weighed equally by different groups. Even "facts" and historical veritées; are colored by our cultural or value lenses. But even when the "facts" are undisputed, the meaning of the facts may be different. In these cases it is more important to provide insight and context than clean facts.

There is no need to be exhaustive attempting to answer every conceivable question connected with the case. This will only mire the class discussion in subleties. For purposes of teaching and learning, a good case often leaves out part of the core information just as, in real life, no decision maker has all the information s/he needs to make a wise decision. It is often the mark of a good administrator that s/he can make good decisions without having all the information. It has been the experience e of students who have done this before that two or three carefully selected links will suffice.

The Pluribus Unum Casebook contains many good examples of how links can be used to make dilemma stories more interesting than they could ever be using text alone. As an example visit the case of Death in the Curriculum: The Day of the Dead written by a student at Teachers College in New York. This particular case is a tad too long and borders on having too many links, but overall, the case works well as a teaching/learning tool. Remember, you are writing a case study, not a novel!

How and where do you find appropriate links and how do you select from among them if you find a large number of possibilities? First, focus first on "listservs" and search engines for the web. These are the two most productive source of potential links for your case(s). The "hotlinks" section of this web site offers links to help you find and use these powerful tools, the same tools that web researchers use to zero in on the things they need or want.

You may want to check out those resources and others you may already know about. The most difficult part of the task, however, is to think about the things that might be worth exploring. The problem here is more conceptual than technical. Once you know what to search for it is relatively easy to find the right technical tools to help you find the resources you wnat. Think about the subject of the case you have in mind writing and the search stragegies that might make sense. Depending on the topic of the case, you may need to search for historical figures or events, personalties, concepts and ideas, etc. Until you get conversant with the capabilities of search engines and directories -- they are two different things -- there will be some trial and error involved but don't give up too easily. The web has millions of resources. You simply have to find the right keywords and phrases to unlock them.

Take advantage of sites that describe the technical features of various Internet search tools. Among them are Richard Einer Peterson's page, Eight Internet Search Engines Compared. Included in this site is a concise summary chart of features. Another useful site for information about how search engines work is A Webmaster's Guide to Search Engines.

To learn how to use these tools more effectively, visit sites devoted to this topic. Among those we encountered are two, both prepared by librarians:Tools and Techniques for Searching the Web by Kathleen Webster and Kathryn Paul, and David Habib and Robert Balliot's How to Search the World Wide Web: A Tutorial for Beginners and Non-Experts.

After all this if you still find you're having trouble finding good links talk to the professor who has had a lot of experience with the topic. He will be glad to help provicded you have already done some of the preliminary exploration. A good time to discuss things with the professor and with other classmates is after you have found a group of possible links and are trying to decide among them.

For questions about this course, please contact Prof. González.

The opening URL for this document is
http://www.asu.edu/educ/cber/gonzalez-cm/index.html