The Journal of Technology in Student Affairs
16th Annual Virtual Case Study Competition
This edition of The Journal of Technology in Student Affairs is dedicated to 16th Annual Virtual Case Study Competition for Masters level students in student personnel administration, counseling or higher education administration graduate programs. Cash prizes were awarded to each member of the winning teams. This year's scenario dealt with developing a Disability Services program aimed at providing personal, social, and academic integration into the campus community. VCS scenario and competition guidelines are listed at the bottom.
We received a record 69 submissions from 43 different schools. Western Illinois University and Indiana State University were our most prolific participants with a total of seven teams entered each. Thank you to every student who took part in this year's contest and to the staff advisors who helped coordinate their efforts. We also appreciate the efforts of our team of judges who tirelessly, yet enthusiastically reviewed each entry.
1st Place: $200 per team member
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
(Laura Galloway, Katie Zimmerle, Keyona Castleman, Graham Knight)
2nd Place: $150 per team member
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
(Ariana Mollers, Liz Baldwin, Allysa, Clagett, Ilyssa Padrid)
3rd Place (Tie): $100 per team member
TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
(Corey Earle, Brett Fuller, Gayle Lebowitz)
TEXAS TECH UNIVERITY
(Michael Snook, Erica Laborde, Wesley Maynard, Elizabeth Oltman)
Following are links to all final presentations. The team captain/leader as well as the type of file is noted in the file name. PowerPoint files can be viewed using some open source applications or with Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer. PDFs can also be viewed through some open source applications as well as using Adobe Reader.
VCS SCENARIO:
Ever since high school you have loved going to Broadway. It didn’t matter if the show you saw was an extravagant, high-stepping musical; a laugh out loud comedy; or a contemplative drama. Now, as a Dean of Students within a reasonable commute to New York City you have been able to satisfy your theatrical cravings.
One of the productions you recently attended was a staging of the book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. You remember, when you first read the book, you were taken with the story of a young boy, on the autism spectrum, who sets out to solve the murder of his neighbor’s dog. Through his adventure many issues bubbled to the surface. But you were most taken with the description of this teenager and how he saw the world and reacted to it. The Broadway production was incredible in how it was able to bring to life what was written on the page.
When you returned to campus you invited the Director of Disability Services to lunch. You knew she had read the book. Your motives were two-fold. First, you wanted to discuss the show since you thought she would be interested. Second, you wanted to talk with her about the significant increase of students on the Autism Spectrum attending the institution. She had kept the campus Executive Council appraised of the numbers. However, services for this population had not evolved. You wanted to see what could be done to work with this ever-growing group of undergraduates.
Your lunch went quite well. You were able to maintain your Atkins Diet regiment—burger with no bun, veggies and side salad, no dessert—and had a lively discussion about the book and play. The two of you also decided the opportunity to address the increasing population of students on the Spectrum was a good one. It was agreed to set-up a committee comprised of the Director of Disability Services, an individual from residence life, a faculty member, someone from the Office of Student Activities, and mental health services. The charge would be to provide assistance and advice in the development of a Disability Services program aimed at providing personal, social, and academic integration into the campus community. With the Board of Trustees committee on Growth and Development meeting in just a few weeks, the timing is ripe to present a plan, along with a budget, to the governing body. Due to time constraints it is agreed the length of the PPT or PDF file would be between 15-25 slides.
Specifically, you are charged with creating an engaging and informative PowerPoint (or PDF) presentation (but not Prezi) that shows how the campus should create such a program, being as specific as possible.
CRITERIA:
Judges will be utilizing the following criteria:
- practicality of approach
- innovation of approach
- organization of presentation
- rationalization for chosen responses
POINTS TO REMEMBER:
- Your group should utilize relevant student affairs literature, if appropriate, for the presentation.
- Utilization of outside sources, URLs, articles, etc. are encouraged, but cannot include input from individuals outside the team.
- Submissions should be well-thought out and organized.
- Submissions must be a self-contained PowerPoint file. Please submit only one file per entry. All material to be considered by the judges must be contained in that file. This includes graphics, videos, etc.
- However, you can include a 3-5 page .doc with your presentation that would help flesh out your slides. Do not add to the Notes section of each slide.
- You must include the name of your School, your Team Leader, and the names of all team members on the first slide.
- The file name of your submission must include the name of your school and team leader. We often receive more than one submission per school so this important to enable the judges to distinguish entries. We recommend using a naming format like UniversityofLearning-smith.ppt. Do not just call it "submission.xxx
- Submissons are to be made to Stuart Brown at Stuart@StudentAffairs.com
- Max file size is 1.5MB. There are no exceptions.
- The deadline is Friday, February 24, 2017 at 9:00PM EST.
- If your team decides to withdraw, please let us know by emailing Stuart Brown at Stuart@StudentAffairs.com.
- If you have questions, please contact stuart@StudentAffairs.com