Case Training Projects & Activities

• Enhancing global competitiveness of the U.S. seafood industry: educational case studies in international trade and marketing (2006-2008)

• Writing and Teaching Decision-Focused Cases for Fisheries Management Training Workshop (Held at University of Rhode Island, June 11-15, 2007)

• Improving Participation in Fisheries Management: Stock Assessment Training for Stakeholders (2006-2008)

• IIFET 2004 Ad Hoc Workshop, Developing Case Studies for Fishery Management Training

Enhancing global competitiveness of the U.S. seafood industry: educational case studies in international trade and marketing

Project Leaders

• Dr. Gil Sylvia, Director, Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station, Oregon State University (gil.sylvia@oregonstate.edu)

• Dr. Michael Harte, Director, Marine Resource Management Program, Oregon State University (mharte@coas.oregonstate.edu)

• Laura W. Jodice, Program Manager, Training Managers for 21st Century Fisheries Initiative (jodicel@yahoo.com)

Project Funding: 

The project sponsor is the USDA CREES International Science and Education Competitive Grants Program (www.csrees.usda.gov/funding/rfas/pdfs/05_intl_science.pdf). The budget includes funding for six case writer fellowships ($6500 per person) and a one-week intensive case writing and teaching workshop to train fellows and others interested in writing decision-focused teaching cases for fisheries management training. 

Project Summary:

This project focuses on the development of research-based, decision-focused case writing and teaching in international seafood marketing and trade. Decision-focused case teaching method, used extensively by business management and other competitive professions, promises an effective means to increase international knowledge and applied integrative decision-making skills among seafood industry professionals, fisheries managers, students, and educators. However, decision-focused case method is rarely used in seafood marketing and trade curricula due to inexperience of educators and lack of appropriately designed cases. The project includes:

1) A one-week case writing and teaching workshop designed to prepare case writers. The workshop trainers have expertise in counseling and preparing writers in business/marketing programs throughout North America. 
2) Six case writer fellowships available by application to academics and other top experts and designed to facilitate site visits for case research with international collaborators. 
3) Creation of six quality, research-based, decision-focused, teaching cases on international fisheries and seafood economics, marketing, trade, and management issues. 
4) Piloting and evaluation of cases in a variety of academic and continuing education settings
5) Case dissemination through the same publication mechanisms used by the top business management schools. 

International & domestic industry partners:

The project has identified industry partners who have a history of innovation and have demonstrated interest in capacity building for fisheries management. Seven international and domestic industry partners have agreed to allow their company/organization be the subject of a decision-focused case study. As the project progresses, other industry partners may be sought as a means to create cases which meet curricular gaps in seafood marketing and trade and fisheries management.

Goals:

The goals of USDA CSREES International Science and Education Competitive Grants Program are 1) strengthen the global competence of students, faculty, and staff in agriculture and 2) enhance business performance in international agriculture and related sectors. 

Case selection:

Case selection will occur following the intensive training and upon further consultation with the international/domestic industry partners. However, the following criteria will be used to guide case selection:

• Historical decision that occurred in face of difficult challenges

• Highlights a successful, innovative company/organization

• Provides key lessons on global seafood trade business and management

• Fits within a range of export oriented issues (from primarily export to those supplying domestic markets but facing international competition)

• Represents challenges associated with the changing world of globalization, competitiveness, conservation/management, new technologies, trade regulations etc. in seafood trade. 

• Is associated with certain significant/innovative fisheries management tools (e.g. ITQ’s, MSC Certification, Cooperative Research and Management).
  

Improving Participation in Fisheries Management: Stock Assessment Training for Stakeholders (2006-2008)

Sponsor: Oregon Sea Grant
Project Team: Dr. Gil Sylvia, Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station, Oregon State University; Dr. David Sampson, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University; Steve Theberge, Oregon Sea Grant, Marine Extension Agent; Laura Jodice, Program Manager, Training Managers for 21st Century Fisheries Initiative; Dr. Lew Brown, Joseph M. Bryan School of Business and Economics University of North Carolina, Greensboro.
Contact: Dr. Gil Sylvia, gil.sylvia@oregonstate.edu

Project Summary: Empowering fishermen to take responsibility for management is a fundamental requirement for successful fisheries co-management and self governance. Success requires that stakeholders and managers share baseline competencies. Fisheries stock assessment is the scientific basis for setting future allowable catch; but, industry members and other stakeholders have few opportunities to be effectively involved in this process. Communication difficulties due to the technical complexity of stock assessments create a barrier to stakeholder involvement and diminish transparency. Effective participation of stakeholders depends upon their understanding stock assessment fundamentals and the science-based decision-making process. 

Traditional stock assessment training builds from general biology and fishery science. A promising approach is the field-researched, decision-focused case method used by the top business, law, and management programs. Adopting this method will more fully engage stakeholders in discovery of fundamental principles through analysis of real data and familiar fisheries. Few decision-focused teaching cases exist on fisheries management, none are specific to stock assessment. Few fisheries educators are trained in case method, and use of case method with stakeholders and managers has not been evaluated. This project develops two field-researched, decision-focused cases on West Coast stocks (Canary rockfish and Pacific sardine) and integrates these into an experiential training curriculum for Pacific Northwest fisheries stakeholders and managers requiring knowledge on basic principles of stock assessment.

Project objectives include:

1. Develop fisheries management teaching cases to advance fishery education and improve co-management. 

2. Provide training to enable more effective stakeholder participation in the stock assessment process. 

3. Develop best practices guidelines for development and dissemination of the stock assessment training curriculum in the PNW and other regions. 

Needs assessment and evaluation of the case methodology as a training tool are important components of this project

2004

IIFET 2004 Ad Hoc Workshop, Developing Case Studies for Fishery Management Training, Sunday, July 25, 2004, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, Tokyo, Japan  

<Click here to see workshop report>

To advance understanding of this case instructional methodology, Training Managers for 21st Century Fisheries steering committee members Gil Sylvia, Michael Harte, and Laurie Jodice created a case development workshop for  the IIFET 2004 conference in Tokyo, Japan. The idea was to start the process of developing rigorous, well constructed teaching cases  in fisheries economics and management that can be built into a comprehensive resource library for use in training fisheries managers. 

The workshop curriculum focused on teaching methodologies and best practices for problem selection as well as structuring and publishing decision-based teaching case studies.  The workshop also focused on development of cases which incorporate economic data, models, and analysis techniques and which engage students/trainees in a specific reality-based decision process. During the workshop, participants were able to apply principles learned to creation of a case study focused on fishing vessel buyback. 

By the end of workshop, participants had the background necessary to promote the case study teaching method as an training tool and initiate creation of key fisheries management case studies relevant to critical problems and governance systems in their home nation or region.    

The workshop developers partnered with Dr. Lew G. Brown, University of North Carolina at Greensboro who is an expert in case method training in business management (read Bio on Lew Brown).

The workshop was sponsored by Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station, Oregon State University;  NOAA Fisheries; and Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology. In addition to Sylvia, Harte and Jodice, the workshop development committee included NOAA Fisheries economists Eric Thunberg, Cindy Thomson, and David Tomberlin.

• See workshop agenda 

• See pre-workshop case study survey

• Pre-workshop Readings

1. Demonstration case #1 - “Trap-Ease America: The Big Cheese of Mousetraps.”  (download PDF)

2. Demonstration case #2  - “XYZ Design Company: A Problem of Ethics?” (download PDF)

3. Demonstration case #3 - Fisheries vessel buyback (drafted by Eric Thunberg). This case was used to allow application of principles to a fisheries management case in development.  (download PDF)