Berklee Case Study Center

About the Case Study Method

The Berklee Case Study Center was founded in 2016 to provide support for writing, finding, and using case studies in the classroom. The case study method is used by instructors to help students learn more about real-life situations regarding businesses, artists, managers, and more. The Berklee Case Study Center Leadership group (login required) comprises a diverse group of faculty and staff from many areas of the institution. 

A case study is a detailed story in which the "case" may be an individual, organization, event, or action, existing in a specific time and place. The method tells a story about the situation and reveals some key learnings. A case study usually presents a problem or dilemma faced by individuals or organizations, and invites readers to imagine solutions to put into practice. The case study is facilitated by an instructor who knows about the solutions that were really implemented, that is, what actually happened in reality.

Teaching with case studies is a pedagogical method that instructors can use to express the complexity of a given situation. A process of discussion and analysis, guided by the instructor, leads class participants to deeper insights into issues and their resolution. On one side, students need to read and discuss the details of the situation. On the other side, instructors have teaching notes that describe the possible outcomes of the case.

This short video shows the case study method being used in the classroom at Berklee's campus in Valencia, Spain.

Accessing a Case Study

Berklee has joined the International Case Centre in order to provide access to over 50,000 cases that faculty are able to use in their teaching. Based in England, the International Case Centre holds the world’s largest and most diverse collection of management cases, articles, book chapters and teaching materials, including the collections of leading business schools across the globe. 

To access the Berklee subscription to this resource, Boston faculty should contact Yamil Suarez (ysuarez@berklee.edu), and Valencia faculty should contact Alex Cuadrado (acuadrado@berklee.edu). Please refer to the Berklee library page for more information.

Writing/Submitting a Case Study 

Berklee faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to write and submit new case studies for publication at the International Case Centre. Examples of case study subjects that can be written about at Berklee are musicians/bands, firms/companies in the music industry, emergent technologies/tools in audio or video production, clinical tests in music therapy, and classroom examples, among others. The following is a sample of two recent case studies and accompanying teaching notes recently published by Berklee:

Guidelines and templates for writing, and details on the submission process can be found at Writing/Submitting a Case Study for Berklee (login required). 

Other Resources