Designing and Delivering a Core Case
What is a Core Case? Heading link
“Core case” is not really an official term in the scholarly literature, however, it is pretty easy to define. It is a clinical case or series of cases used for teaching where the details of the case are given at different times so students are not overwhelmed with all the details of a complex case at one time.
Focus on the aspect of the case that should be emphasized to meet your objectives: history, physical, diagnostic testing, management, or ethical/psychosocial/logistical issues.
The facilitator decides where the guiding questions will show up in each session. Faculty work with their content teams to determine the length of the case and how it will unfold over the session or over multiple core cases sessions. Keep in mind that core cases can unfold over the course of one day, one week, or a longer time period. For example, you might develop a case about malnutrition during weeks of a block that is focused on biochemistry. You might come back to the case again during another block on the brain and behavior to focus on the psychological aspects of malnutrition. This is actually a great way to ‘spiral’ the curriculum, but reminding students what they have already learned and built on that knowledge.