ABSTRACT
A report by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) on college learning for the new global century suggests that we are living in a time of great change which is only set to intensify. More specifically, the report states that 'the context in which today’s students will make choices and compose lives is one of disruption rather than certainty, and of interdependence rather than insularity’ (AACU, 2007, p. 2). Because future graduates are also expected to work in very complex and uncertain environments, which are both messy and interdisciplinary (AACU, 2010), there is an onus on business educators to employ product-based pedagogies that engage students in learning knowledge and skills through an extended inquiry process that is structured around complex and authentic questions and carefully designed products and tasks. According to the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), business schools should ensure that ‘interactive experiences are available in all courses and all major learning experiences of the program’ (AACSB, 2012, p. 39), whereby various student groups have the opportunity to learn from each other, and the school’s programs should involve collaboration and cooperation among participants in the educational process. This is a clear advocacy of the enhancement of experiential learning (Kolb, 1984; Kolb & Kolb, 2005) in higher education. This chapter outlines one of a series of options within the domain of experiential learning methods: the live case study (henceforth LCS), which offers real and complex questions to students and which espouses cross- and interdisciplinary knowledge and the development of alliances with significant others beyond the business school to enrich the educational experience. The chapter is structured as follows. First, the LCS as opposed to a traditional case study (hereafter TCS) will be defined; second, the advantages and disadvantages of the LCS method will be reviewed; third, an LCS as part of a business communication workshop within a career development module at a French business school will be outlined; finally, some advice and recommendations will be provided to those intending to integrate an LCS method into a teaching module.
