case study method - draft

What data will be collected and how?

Invitations to participate in this study were sent to the awardees of all Learning and Teaching grants in 2012. There were three respondents who agreed to become a case study. The projects were from the School of Education; the Faculties of Human Sciences and Arts; and the Office for First Year Experience (FYE). Each project had a project leader and a project manager. Both were briefed on the case study protocol (see Appendix A). This included a minimum of three interviews with the project manager over the duration of the project (beginning, middle and end) and an interview with the project leader. These interviews were recorded for transcription, then transcripts were sent to the participants for review. Access to documentation including grant applications, minutes of any project meetings and final reports was also part of the case study protocol. There was also a request to attend any project meetings as a participant observer. This was only possible in one project.

How will the data be analysed?

Data generated in case study research can become unwieldy...(because?). The amount collected for this study was kept to a minimum by following just three projects. Each project was analysed separately and results compared. Content analysis of the interview and project documentation data was carried out using the manual extraction of themes (Krippendorf, date).

limitations to the methodology:
generalising results from just three cases can be problematic. However results could then be used in a pilot or wider study.