Programming Case Studies As Context For Active Learning Activities In The Classroom

Programming studies are used to achieve a variety of instructional objectives in computer science courses. Instead of using a programming case study as the lecture material, we adapt it to facilitate active learning activities in the classroom. While it preserves most programming tasks in context, our approach provides an opportunity for students to work out desirable solutions as they learn programming concepts and techniques. An anonymous student survey indicates that students' satisfaction with their learning experience was noticeably enhanced. In this paper, we describe our initial experience with a case study-based approach to active learning. We also discuss issues that we have identified with this approach.