Launching #OpenCases: Our FREE new experiential education resource
At CapSource, we’re a team of educators and innovators dedicated to making experiential learning more accessible to students, and more turn-key for educators than ever before. Since many schools are being forced to move their curriculum online as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic, we began to think of ways that we can help.
Because our mission has always been to make education as engaging and relevant for students as possible, we decided this would be the best time to launch a FREE new educational resource: #OpenCases.
Available starting today, educators everywhere can begin using our Library of OpenCases, which are plug-and-play “Case Studies” based on recently completed Capstone Projects and Live Cases.
Our up-to-date #OpenCases provide educators with the structure and resources needed to challenge #AllStarStudents to think creatively about solving real, complex, interdisciplinary “real-world” challenges as emerging young professionals.
While no one knows exactly how long this unfortunate interruption of our “normal” lives will last, there are two things that we do know for certain:
- Educators are eager to continue teaching and need tools and resources that make distance learning more engaging and effective, and
- Students are eager to continue learning and want to earn credits towards their degrees.
The circumstances forcing schools to move curriculum online are urgent and frightening, but the process of “going virtual” doesn’t have to be.
For over three years, CapSource has been successfully coordinating top-quality virtual Experiential Learning engagements for students and educators at some of the best universities around the world. When we help pair industry with institutions like the American Cancer Society with Notre Dame, DoorDash with Pace University, and Burger King with Northern Illinois University, we focus on aligning the course teaching goals with company goals so that the collaboration is meaningful and the outcomes are beneficial for all parties involved.
For many universities, integrating industry third-parties into the student learning experience is relatively new, but traditional case studies, which can be used as a regular part of any curriculum, are definitely not.
Our “OpenCases” combine the age-old Case Theory with our Experiential Learning Pedagogy, which enables educators to easily go beyond the strictly theory-based approach you find when using a historical text-based Harvard Business Case Study for example.
Depending on the level of your students and how much “virtual class time” you wish to commit, you can use our OpenCases as a way to bring course topics to life by encouraging classroom discussion or providing the necessary context and structure so that students can virtually collaborate on practical, real-world research projects.
We are proud to continue serving our network of #ExperientialEducators that have reliably come to us since we were founded in the Fall of 2017 in search of ways to make Experiential Learning easier to deliver with quality at scale at their institutions. We are hopeful that educators will see our new OpenCases as a means to create an engaging virtual classroom dynamic. These quick, efficient, and powerful educational experiences will not only keep students engaged and earning credits toward their degrees, but they’ll also better prepare them for their professional lives after school.
The CapSource Team continues to stand by our partner institutions and industry partners during this time of unprecedented change and uncertainty. If you have any questions about Experiential Learning or the OpenCase resource, please contact us.
If you’re interested in authoring a teaching manual for any OpenCases or would like to share how you’ve been able to use our tool to bolster your class experience, please schedule time to discuss with our team.
Jordan Levy, Founder & Executive Director at CapSource, is a Forbes 30 Under 30 and serial education technology entrepreneur. He has started two EdTech companies that help higher-ed programs bridge the skills gap for their students through experiential learning. His method is to integrate real companies into the education process through hands-on collaborations that expose learners to new circumstances with real stakeholders, challenges, and outcomes. Outside of work, Jordan is passionate about cooking, photography, networking, mixology, travel, sailing, tennis, public speaking, and coaching/connecting fellow entrepreneurs.