Coming into this course, I was expecting to teach a class of about 90 students, so when over 300 students had registered by the end of our first week in Mwanza, it was quite overwhelming. It was also, however, extremely exciting to see how much this course has grown since it was first offered at SAUT three years ago. Our students came from a range of disciplines including tourism, economics, business administration, law, public relations and education. This was the perfect scenario because it added to the authentic Ivey experience of having students come together from a range of backgrounds to offer different perspectives to the case discussion. Additionally, having so many students required us to split into four “sections” so our students really got the true Ivey experience.
Classes at SAUT started off fairly similar to our HBA classes. It was obvious who the more confident students were and who the shy students were. Fortunately, in HBA1, you get comfortable in your classroom fairly quickly and the quieter students begin to speak up in the first couple of weeks. Since this course only lasted for a few weeks we needed to ensure we could get the quieter students involved in the discussions very quickly. Personally, my goal for this course was to not only ensure that all the students were active in the discussions, but that they enjoyed the case method for the same reasons I do: because you get to learn so much more than just course material. You learn how to debate, defend your opinion, think on the spot and most importantly you get to learn from your classmates rather than just the instructor.
The cases that we taught were all based on African businesses and had a strong entrepreneurial focus, which resonated well with our students. Regardless of their program, most of our students had hopes of owning their own small business in the future. These cases, therefore, helped them gain an understanding of the key success factors and challenges entrepreneurs run into. It was obvious how much our students had learned from the cases when we held a “Dragon’s Den” competition. For three hours we watched close to fifty students present to us their business ideas and business plans. There was an overwhelming amount of great ideas and fantastic presentations and it was obvious that students had incorporated the frameworks and lessons from the cases we had taught into their business plans. Choosing a winner for the competition was almost as difficult as choosing the top students to receive their Certificates of Distinction, which in my opinion, was a huge indication of the success of the course.
As Ivey students, we truly have a unique skill set in terms of understanding the case method. Service Learning in Africa gives us the opportunity to share that skill set in an environment where students learn through a more traditional method while allowing us to broaden our business perspective. Our time at SAUT was definitely successful for us and for our students. Considering the demand for the course and the fact that the majority of our students were interesting in continuing case-based learning through the Ivey exchange program, I hope that SAUT is able to incorporate the case method into more of their programs and Service Learning in Africa continues to grow.