ALiSEA recently held a three-day training workshop on writing case studies, taking place from April 1-3, 2024, in Vientiane. The workshop aimed to equip participants with the skills and knowledge to develop effective case studies, fostering knowledge sharing amongst ALiSEA members.
The training, led by Francois ENTEN, GRET Headquarter, welcomed 14 participants from ALiSEA member across Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The curriculum focused on three key objectives:
- Shared Understanding: Establishing common ground on the purpose and format of case studies, along with the production process. Participants gained valuable insights through feedback from ALiSEA knowledge managers, ensuring consistency and quality in future case studies.
- Selecting a Compelling Subject: Equipping participants to identify specific areas within their work – a field, project, situation, technique, method, or approach – that would serve as the foundation for their case studies. This focus on real-world scenarios ensures the cases will be relevant and practical.
- Building a Strong Case: Participants learned how to construct a clear and well-supported argument within their case studies. The training emphasized the importance of utilizing documents, data, and results readily available to the participants and their teams. This data-driven approach ensures the credibility and validity of the case studies.
By strengthening case study writing skills among its members, ALiSEA is fostering a more robust environment for knowledge exchange. These case studies will serve as valuable resources, offering practical insights and best practices that can be adopted and adapted across the organization.
The training resonated with participants, providing valuable guidance for developing impactful case studies. Ms. Kien Dang, a participant from Vietnam, expressed her appreciation: “I would very much like to express our very sincere gratitude for helping out/inputting (for us) from the larger topic (attempted to write about Transition) – to narrow down to the sub-topic on Co-creation of Knowledge.”
Ms. Dang’s experience highlights the importance of the training’s focus on selecting a specific and manageable subject. By honing in on the co-creation of knowledge within the broader topic of transition, Ms. Dang is well positioned to develop a focused and insightful case study. This exemplifies the training’s effectiveness in equipping participants to translate broad topics into actionable case studies.