Integrating a simulation case study into CS2: developing design, empirical and analysis skills

Case studies are widely used in business and medicine to help students learn from the successes and failures of practitioners in the field. This paper discusses the potential benefits of case studies in computer science and how case studies differ from projects. We describe our preliminary experience with developing a network simulation case study for an object-oriented CS2 course and present some of ideas for teaching such a case study through close coupling of lectures with laboratories. The teaching materials for this case study are available on the web.