Single Carrot Theatre: Financial Crisis Leads to Artistic Pivot

This teaching case study examines how Single Carrot Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland used adaptive capacity, leadership structures and risk assessment to implement a large organizational and artistic pivot. The case study is designed for undergraduate students to analyze how an established arts organization in financial risk can pivot from a traditional model to an innovative business structure while managing financial sustainability, audience growth and artistic vision. The Instructor’s Manual includes learning objectives, sample questions and additional resources to guide discussion around organizational culture and the important role of artistic vision in arts organizations.

Instructor's Manual: Single Carrot Theatre

Many arts organizations struggle to find long-term financial sustainability.[1] There are limited opportunities to build sustainable infrastructure and sources of long-term funding as organizations grow.[2] These risks are particularly challenging for organizations beyond the early startup phase that garner excitement and novelty. Single Carrot Theatre followed a traditional path of establishing a central theatre space for their operations, but unfortunately it created financial strain on the organization that almost resulted in permanent closure. With an established culture of innovation and a focus on artistic decision making, the company decided to implement an innovative organizational and artistic pivot. The company has successfully refined their mission to focus on site-specific and community-based theatre making. Although there were problems with public relations and limiting the perceived image of failure, the company was able to successfully retain a large portion of their patrons. Their nomadic structure lessened financial burdens, created an opportunity for new partners and funding sources and reestablished the company's unique brand of innovative theatre making. Early evidence suggests a recommitment of key stakeholders and potential for growing audiences in new ways. This case is designed to highlight how innovative arts entrepreneurs can pivot from traditional models of theatre and innovate financial success while remaining relevant and impactful to their audience. [1] “The Fundraising Report,” SMU DataArts, accessed January, 14, 2021, https://culturaldata.org/the-fundraising-report/the-fundraising-report-home/. [2] Ibid.

Instructor's Manual: Powell Flutes

Students often see innovation or creativity as beyond them. No doubt many educators hear “I’m not creative” or “I don’t know how to come up with ideas” from their students. This manual explains how the case can help students innovate by (1) articulating the need or problem, (2) plumbing the depths of personal experience, (3) staying focused on the objective and (4) assuming away obstacles. While this is a practical approach, Clayton Christensen’s concept of “disruptive innovation” provides some theoretical context that is interwoven in the case. Questions for discussion are posed along with brief answers offered by the case.

Pricing and scholarship optimization at waypoint adventure

Theoretical basis This case can be used to develop students’ understanding of optimization and the development of a linear programing (LP) model and solution. The instructor’s manual provides one possible solution based on the LP tools available in excel. Research methodology This case is based on real events at waypoint adventure and is derived from the authors’ experience consulting with this organization as they sought to improve pricing and scholarship management. Case overview/synopsis A young non-profit organization serving the disabled community in Boston sought growth but lacked clarity and consistency in their program pricing and scholarship structures. The case analysis centers on revising program prices to achieve specific cost and revenue requirements and determining a scholarship policy that will maximize participation in their outdoor adventure programing for the upcoming year. This case allows the exploration of optimization with an atypical objective, as the organization seeks to maximize participant engagement rather than profit. Complexity academic level The target audience includes upper-level undergraduate and MBA or early graduate-level students studying the optimization techniques of operations management, revenue and pricing management or marketing. The case would also be useful for discussing the challenges faced by non-profits and the non-traditional objectives that can arise for these organizations.

Automated Answer Scoring for Engineering’s Open-Ended Questions

Audience Response System (ARS), like “clicker,” has proven their effectiveness in students’ engagement and in enhancing their learning. Apart from close-ended questions, ARS can help instructors to pose open-ended questions. Such questions are not scored automatically for that Automated Text Scoring; ATS is vastly used. This paper presents the findings of the development of an intelligent Automated Text Scoring, iATS, which provides instantaneous scoring of students’ responses to STEM-related factual questions. iATS is integrated with an Audience Response System (ARS), known as iRes, which captures students’ responses in traditional classrooms environment using smartphones. iATS Research is conducted to code and test three Natural Language Processing (NLP), text similarity methods. The codes were developed in PHP and Python environments. Experiments were performed to test Cosine similarity, Jaccard Index and Corpus-based and knowledge-based measures, (CKM), scores against instructor’s manual grades. The research suggested that the cosine similarity and Jaccard index are underestimating with an error of 22% and 26%, respectively. CKM has a low error (18%), but it is overestimating the score. It is concluded that codes need to be modified with a corpus developed within the knowledge domain and a new regression model should be created to improve the accuracy of automatic scoring.

Quick start guide: how to review teaching cases

Theoretical basis Metacognition, learning how to learn, peer feedback and peer review. Research methodology Essay based on experience as a reviewer and editor and best practices. Case overview/synopsis This quick start guide provides a tutorial on how to review teaching cases and the associated instructor’s manual or teaching note. The purpose of this guide is to help develop the confidence and skill of novice reviewers and refresh and refocus experienced reviewers. Case writers may also use this guide to anticipate peer reviewer feedback and assess or refine their cases before submitting them to a journal. Reviewing is essential to the Academy – without peer reviews there would be no peer reviewed journal articles, a pillar of the tenure process. Reviewing is also a valuable way to learn, to keep current in a field and to be a good citizen – contributing to one’s professional community. This guide will help scholars become even more effective reviewers, writers and contributors to the Academy. Complexity academic level For academics interested in developing their case reviewing skills.

Ethical Issues Underlying the Instructor's Manual for Teaching With Cases

This chapter on case research explores the ethical underpinnings of the writing order of the case/IM, IM authorship and validity, testing the case with a class, and students' plagiarism as well as access to the Internet and the IM. This is then followed by a section entitled “Publish or Perish: The Value of Case Publication,” which addresses the perceived value of publishing teaching cases as well as how the demands for increased publishing (as well as the increased number of publishing outlets) may lead to more pragmatic and perhaps unethical actions by case authors.

Writing the Case Study

The chapter covers the rudiments of writing a case study and the teaching notes or instructor's manual. While the chapter focuses on business cases for publication in top-tiered journals, examples of how these standards may be relaxed for lower-tiered journals, conference papers, and other peer-evaluated research outlets is also given. The author is currently associate editor of one case journal and editor of another and has taught case writing around the globe. While rooted in the methods of the North American Case Research Association this article incorporates ideas from the Harvard, Ivey, and other case study publishers.

Crafting a teaching case study: ideation to publication

Synopsis “I think I would like to write a case. What do I do now?” The purpose of this paper is to answer this often-asked question by presenting a useful guide for case writers which examines the entire process of case writing beginning with the initial idea and proceeding through required stages leading to the publication of case studies. Further, this guide seeks to emphasize that case writing is a form of research, not just story telling. Ultimately, the increasing interest of scholars in researching, writing, and publishing pedagogical cases provided the impetus for this paper. The four major case writing processes identified in this paper include ideation (idea generation), creation (crafting the case study), application (creating the Instructor’s Manual), and publication (publishing the case). Each of these four processes is presented in detail including examples, pitfalls, and resources. This work is intended to assist novice, as well as experienced, case authors who seek advice on crafting and publishing pedagogical cases in refereed journals. Resources presented in this paper should be helpful especially for aspiring and as yet unpublished case writers. Research methodology The paper is based partially on archival research, but most of the content is based on the substantial experience of the authors. Relevant courses and levels The paper is relevant for upper-level undergraduates as well as graduate students interested in pedagogically based research.