Case Studies
In many courses, it's important to look at scenarios to assess critical thinking skills. Case studies are a great way to use problem-based learning to assess troubleshooting and critical thinking skills. Of course you can do the traditional format for case studies and have students read about the case and perhaps write a paragraph solution or maybe even discuss in class; however, there are many other technology-mediated ways to turn this into a very dynamic learning activity.
Present the case in a multimedia way -- think "digital storytelling". After all, case studies are truly "stories". Try a tool like Screencastomatic which allows you to record your screen and narrate. You can post it to your discussion board where students can comment on the story with their own verbal or text feedback as well as annotations to the images or media.
Have students create their own multimedia case studies. They can grab images from Creative Commons and videos from YouTube. Provide them with a topic and scoring rubric. The final outcome can be presented to the class for discussion in any one of these tools:
example of an animoto case study --though K-12 example, it provides some good ideas.
***NOTE***
Another bright idea is to have the students present their case to experts in their field. The Ultrasound program director at GateWay is having his students present their cases at hospitals to radiologists and sonographers in the field -- the experts are getting continuing education credits for attending! A win-win!
Great resource for case-based teaching & learning.