Using the Case Study Approach to Challenge Students in an Introductory Business Law Course

• Author: Vivian Schoner,Darren Charters,Sally Gunz
• Published date: 01 January 2009
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-1722.2009.00060.x
• Date: 01 January 2009

Using the Case Study Approach

to Challenge Students in an

Introductory Business Law Course

Darren Charters,

n

Sally Gunz

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and Vivian Schoner

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I. OVERVIEW

For students, the early years at universities can be discouraging as they

may face large classes, limited interaction with instructors, and a discon-

nection between the scholarly experience they might have expected to

encounter and that which they in fact endure. In this article we describe a

case study project (CSP) designed specifically for instructors wishing to

challenge students who are interested in engaging in active self-learning

and having the enriched academic experience they might have looked

forward to upon starting their studies. We implemented both quantitative

and qualitative learning assessment features to assess and demonstrate the

effectiveness of the CSP approach.

The CSP was designed to be a courseembedded case study in a twelve-

week, one semester, introductory lawcourse that is offered within the earlier

stages of a structured academic program

1

Fthe second half of year two of a

five-year accounting and financial management program. The course cov-

ers the traditional legal topicsFfor example, torts, contracts, and corporate

lawFas well as some more specialized ones appropriate for accounting and

finance students. The CSP was designed to meet three goals:

r2009, Copyright the Authors

Journal compilation rAcademy of Legal Studies in Business 2009

47

Journal of Legal Studies Education

Volume 26, Issue 1, 47–86, Winter/Spring 2009

n

Professor, Business Law, School of Accounting and Finance, University of Waterloo.

nn

Continuing Lecturer, Business Law, School of Accounting and Finance, University of

Waterloo.

nnn

Research Consultant, Communication, Leadership and Social Innovation, Faculty of Arts,

University of Waterloo.

1

The University is Canadian but there is no reason to believe the CSP would not be equally

relevant to courses taken in other countries and the United States in particular.

to develop discipline-based teaching methods that would meet the needs

of a variety of students while also providing interested students the

stimulation they seek;

to document the effectiveness of these methods on students’ learning

outcomes; and

to assess students’ perceptions of their learning experiences when work-

ing through a project of this nature.

This article first provides an explanation of the background and mo-

tivation for the CSP described here. We next provide the theory behind

the CSP approach. We then describe and report on the particular appli-

cation of the CSP. Finally, we present and discuss the results of several as-

sessment measures designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the case study

on learning as it pertains to student learning outcomes and students’ per-

ceptions of their learning experiences using the CSP. The documentation

for the study is presented in Appendices I, II, III and IV.

2

II. BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE FOR DEVELOPING

THE BUSINESS LAW CASE STUDY PROJECT (CSP)

The CSP is designed to be a course embedded case study in a twelve-week

3

introductory law course that is offered at an early stage in a structured

academic program (‘‘the program’’)Fthe second term of the second year

of study in a School of Accounting and Finance.

4

Students are conditionally

2

Appendices I, II, III, and IV can be found at http://www.saf.uwaterloo.ca/IntroBusLaw-

Appendices.html (last visited July 18, 2008).

3

This is a standard course length within the particular university.

4

While the accounting program has many characteristics in common with more general

business programs, inevitably there are also idiosyncratic features. Most specifically, the pro-

gram is more specialized than a general business program and, at the risk of generalization,

tends to attract students with a more quantitative than liberal arts background. Incoming

students have historically been selected primarily based on their final year high school ad-

mission average. Students are strongly encouraged to take at least two mathematics courses

and many include three high school mathematics courses in their top six admission courses

(the courses on which admission decisions are made). English remains the only required lib-

eral arts course. Finally, despite the best efforts of the school and the accounting and related

professions to stress the need for a broad educational background, there remains the per-

ception that accounting, and by extension the accounting profession, is primarily about

numbers.

48 Vol. 26 / The Journal of Legal Studies Education

admitted from high school into the first year of the program and must

attain a required first-year average in order formally to enter their second

year.

5

The demand from high school students for this program is high with

commensurate rigorous admission standards. The students admitted to

the program have obtained some of the highest high school completion

grades in the university.

6

Typically many of these students continue to

perform at a very strong level throughout the program,

7

and all students

must attain an overall honors standing in order to proceed to the fifth,

graduate (masters) level of the program. In the first year of the program

courses are held with students from other disciplines, and classes are often

very large. In the second year, classes are restricted to those within the

program, and class sizes drop to forty-five to seventy-five. For the first two

years of running the CSP in the business law class, numbers were kept to

under fifty.

One of the challenges to teaching a business law course can be that it

may not be perceived as a ‘‘mainstream’’ course by students in a business

program (or here, accounting and finance program); that is, where stu-

dents are not taking this as a prelaw course, they may not see business law

as directly related to their career goals, but rather as a requirement im-

posed by program administrators. It is also an introductory course in

which reasonably introductory concepts must be learned even though stu-

dents might be considering more complex scenarios in other courses.

Traditionally, we have addressed these various constraints and ex-

pectations by designing a course with more depth than breadth, but this

only partially addresses the issue. Additional features incorporated into the

business law course taught by the instructors from time-to-time have

5

Although almost all of these students come to the program directly fromhigh school, the CSP

approach would apply equally well to older or nontraditional students.

6

In the 2006–2007 year, for example, there were over 3000 applicantsfor 165 positions, and

admission averages were among the highest across the university.

7

In both 2005 and 2006 university convocations, a graduating student from the program was

awarded the Governor General’s silver medal for having one of the highest graduating

averages within the university. These academic medals were created in 1873 by the then

Governor General, Lord Dufferin, to encourage academic excellence across Canada. They

have become the most prestigious award that students in Canadian schools can receive, and

the silver medal is the top award given at an undergraduate level. See Governor General’s

Academic Medal, http://www.gg.ca/honours/awards/acmed/index_e.asp (last visited July 10,

2007).

2009 / Introductory Business L aw Course 49