Abstract:

In the last academic years, the experience of some professors of Strategic Management of our University showed that there were different kinds of students, which goals and needs were very dissimilar. That was the origin of problems in the development of practical sessions, as some of the students of the class were clearly asking for advanced case study discussion about the subject that some other ones, due to their time availability or personal preferences, rejected.

In the academic year 2018/2019, one of the professors decided to give the students the option to choose between three different evaluation options for the practical part: Non-continuous Evaluation, designed especially for students who could not grant a regular tracing of the subject; Continuous Evaluation, specially oriented to the students which want to follow the subject regularly, but are not ready to discuss case studies; and the Business School Mode, focused on the discussion of freshly prepared case studies about business management.

At the beginning of the academic year, two different courses were given the chance to choose between these three different evaluation methods, stating clearly the rules established for each of the evaluation methodologies. The majority of the students selected the Continuous Evaluation, being less popular selections both the Non-Continuous Evaluation and the Business School mode, which was the option chosen by 11 (7,05% of the class) and 20 (17,85%) students in each course. This number of students granted agile debates, initially in small groups and finally in front of the whole class, where each of the students had the chance to develop different abilities for teamwork and public speaking.

The marks of the students who chose the Business School mode in multiple choice tests about the subject were significantly higher than the ones achieved by the rest of the class, showing that case study discussion helped them to reinforce the acquisition of theoretical knowledge. We also carried out a qualitative research, based on focus groups, showing that the possibility of choosing their evaluation method satisfied the students, no matter the path followed in each case, while the connection with the subject was higher in the case of the students who chose the Business School mode

Keywords:

Business school, case studies, evaluation methodology.