Best Practice Guide for Designing and Delivering EPICUR courses
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International Case-based Learning
International Case-based Learning
Why include international case-based learning in your courses?
Cases are generally taken from or inspired by professional or other authentic practices. They offer learners the opportunity to apply their learning and to identify what they need to learn by engaging in authentic situations via a form of simulation. The level of learner engagement can align with different cognitive levels (Bloom’s taxonomy; SOLO taxonomy). At entry level, learners may be required to apply clearly identified knowledge and skills to a relatively simple case, whilst higher level learner engagement may be at the analysis level, where learners have to analyse a complex and possibly interdisciplinary case to begin to identify the significant factors contributing to the challenge. The most complex cases may be classified as wicked problems, which require inter-disciplinary, creative and innovative approaches and which even then, may not be resolved but hopefully better understood.
International cases offer a further dimension for critical thinking and intercultural competence development. When students engage with the same or similar cases based in different international contexts, they extend their learning and their comparative understanding of intercultural and international contexts. Comparative cases can be provided by international companies and organisations, explicitly to assess students’ graduate-level problem-solving competencies. International case-based learning is well suited to group work, including multicultural groups, which includes in class and between class collaborative study time.
6 key points about international case-based learning
- Align the case-based learning activity with the relevant course learning outcomes and assessment.
- Provide clear instructions and guidance for the students, explaining the purpose of the international case-based learning, the learning requirements and the group work processes.
- Involve the students with the identification of cases and/or the co-design of cases. This will enable the students to understand how authentic cases can be identified and described. See the example below for ways to engage students with designing international cases.
- When selecting cases which could be applicable internationally, choose ones which can be replicated in different national or cultural contexts. Decide which are the most relevant features of the case which will need to be replicated in another context.
- Designing cases can be time consuming, but it may not always be necessary to provide a detailed case (Addo, et al., 2022). The level of cognitive engagement, the alignment with learning outcomes and the time available for case-based learning will all help determine the complexity of the case.
- AI could be used to contribute to case co-design. If students use AI to co-develop cases, include a critical review process which requires them to check the case’s authenticity.
International case-based learning in practice
The international case-based learning is planned as a group work activity, with clear learning objectives and associated guidance. The findings from the group work will be presented or shared with the other groups and teacher, and possibly colleagues from professional settings. The students will provide scaffolded peer feedback to their fellow groups. As the cases will require a comparative element, the teacher needs to identify a comparable local or national case and clarify which features of the case are most likely to be replicable in other contexts.
Each group is responsible for re-contextualising their case in a different international setting. The range of international contexts could be up to the students or there could be parameters for example: countries must be from the same or different continents or regions; countries must have the same or diverse positions in the Human Development Index, or if the case originates from a company, they must identify a comparable company, based in another nation.
Once the groups have their own international cases, they are tasked with applying their knowledge and skills, drawing on additional insights into cultural or national requirements, social norms, intercultural approaches which may contribute to the challenges elicited by the case. Each group is tasked with unpacking their case, with an international and intercultural perspective ready to present or share their findings with the other groups and the teacher.
Having worked on their cases, the groups share their findings with all groups who provide peer feedback applying the case study task criteria. The criteria could be shared in the form of a checklist. After the peer feedback session, the students engage with a comparative review of the international cases, again focusing on the case study criteria for a relevant structure.
The comparative review focuses on whichever features of the case are identified as most significant for the learning outcomes, incorporating awareness of how different international and intercultural factors may contribute to the case and to addressing the challenges elicited by the cases.
The ‘Peer Learning’ example from the University of Plymouth, UK exemplifies how students developed comparative cases about differences in UK and Chinese management styles.
The prospective case study (Kearsley, 2025) from a global health ethics course also includes a comparative case study exercise which is modelled on a panel review process.
Links to resources for international case-based learning
The University of Waterloo, New Zealand provides strategies and practical examples of course internationalisation at different levels including learning outcomes, curricula content and learning activities. Available at: https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/catalogs/tip-sheets/strategies-course-internationalization
The University of Plymouth, UK provides practical examples from different faculties and subject areas of Internationalisation and curriculum development: why and how? Available at: https://www.beds.ac.uk/jpd/volume-4-issue-3/internationalisation-and-curriculum-development-why-and-how
References
- Stewart, Kearsley. A. (2015). Teaching Corner: The Prospective Case Study: A Pedagogical Innovation for Teaching Global Health Ethics. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 12(1), 57–61. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-014-9605-5
- Addo, Reuben, Koers, Gregory, & Timpson, William. M. (2022). Teaching sustainable development goals and social development: a case study teaching method. Social Work Education, 41(7), 1478–1488. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2022.2112168
Internationalising the Curriculum
Author(s)
- Donna Hurford (SDU)
Next steps
If you need further support with developing your course, please contact your local teaching support unit.
If you need further information on offering your course for EPICUR, please contact your EPICUR institutional coordinator.
Local teaching support units
EPICUR Institutional Coordinators
Adam Mickiewicz University
Karolina Choczaj
karmench@amu.edu.pl
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Nikos Kouloussis
nikoul@agro.auth.gr
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Michael Zacherle
zacherle@kit.edu
University of Amsterdam
Tiffany Boersma
t.a.boersma@uva.nl
Universität Freiburg
Charlotte Langowski
charlotte.langowski@zv.uni-freiburg.de
Université de Haute-Alsace
Léa Ziri
lea.ziri@uha.fr
Universität für Bodenkultur Wien
Nicolas Fries
nicolas.fries@boku.ac.at
University of Southern Denmark
Ida Thøstesen
ilt@sdu.dk
University of Strasbourg
Pascale Nachez
pnachez@unistra.fr
Further use as OER explicitly permitted:
This Resource Sheet within the Best Practice Guide for Designing and Delivering EPICUR Courses was created by Alberto Innocenti and Donna Hurford, University of Southern Denmark.
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License: This work and its contents are – unless otherwise stated – licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 .
Last edited: 28. Jan 2026, 08:55, Hutz-Nierhoff, Dorthe [dh1076@rz.uni-freiburg.de]