Case competitions can be used to include the business community in your teaching 

Thomas Bjørnsten took part in the faculty’s Stay Relevant case competition in both 2018 and 2019, alongside a large group of students studying an internationalisation elective course called “Creative Marketing Communication – Aesthetic and Digital Approaches”. 

In 2018 Bjørnsten was asked by the administrative working group responsible for arranging the faculty’s Stay Relevant case competition whether he was interested in taking part with students from his internationalisation elective course. He already had experience of including cases and presentations by external parties in his teaching, so it seemed like an obvious opportunity. There were several reasons for this. His elective focuses on marketing communication, making it relevant for the competition. And it is also cross-disciplinary, bringing together students from different academic backgrounds. 

Bjørnsten says that the use of real-world cases in his teaching doesn’t only generate good insight into what the contemporary labour market is looking for. It also meets the increasing demands of many students of the humanities, who are aware of the challenges involved in converting their learning and knowledge into more specific competences. He often finds his cases following collaboration with companies and organisations. 

A partnership involving Silkeborg, the business community and the students 

In both 2018 and 2019, the Stay Relevant case competition was conducted in partnership with Silkeborg Municipality, the aim being to establish business collaborations between the local business community and students from the Faculty of Arts. The teachers were included in the planning process on a continuous basis – for instance, they helped to ensure the quality of the cases on which the students were going to work. At Bjørnsten’s suggestion, it was agreed that the concept should be expanded to include an introductory, inspirational lecture on design thinking by the design mentor Lasse Chor, who was also responsible for facilitating the competition. The aim of introducing the students to design thinking was to give them specific methods of working on their cases during the competition. The focus was placed in particular on the challenges arising when academic knowledge has to be converted into ideas, prototypes and proposals for solutions in a short space of time. 

The actual competition took place at Campushuset in the centre of Silkeborg, with a coach being laid on to transport the students to and from Silkeborg. The day started with a kick-off meeting at 9 am, after which the students had six hours to work on their proposals. In the afternoon the groups took turns to pitch their ideas to a broad panel of judges including representatives from the Faculty of Arts, Silkeborg Municipality, the private sector and the independent business community. 

Thomas Bjørnsten’s good advice and points of focus:  

• Students from the Faculty of Arts taking part in a case competition for the first time often face a steep learning curve.   
• The event should be integrated as a compulsory part of the teaching, and students should be expected to play an active role. Owing to the compact form of such competitions (1½-2 days), they are relatively easy to accommodate in the teaching. 
• Teachers should consider the precise composition of the groups very carefully, in a dialogue with the team behind the case competition in question. Groups containing a balanced mix of students with various competences often work best. So integrating a case competition in internationalisation electives and similar cross-disciplinary courses is an obvious idea. 
• Case competitions are also a great idea for any teachers who are interested in including business cases in their teaching.