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Enhancing Business Communication Skills By Teaching Business Cases Online #1361

Knight (2019) explores how business case discussions were conducted with his undergraduate students in Japan in classes held on campus in university classrooms. The COVID-19 pandemic led to the necessity to teach business case discussions online using synchronous and asynchronous approaches, and Knight (2021) investigates how his teaching of business case discussions changed using a checklist of items from Harvard Business School (HBS). The presenter discovered that Knight’s (2019, 2021) approaches for teaching business cases (online) could also be used with relatively low-level English language learners in undergraduate Business Communication classes and with high-level English language learners in a University Extension course for adult business professionals. When leadership is conceptualized as involving communication to create and to achieve visions/goals (Knight, 2013), business cases can be taught online by placing students in learning teams who communicate with each other to identify business problems and propose solutions. In this way, the students are developing their business communication and leadership communication skills. The presenter will discuss his experience of teaching business cases online and explain how threaded discussions can be used to show evidence of improved skills and to enhance discussions and presentations.