Case Studies Guide
An outline for how your group can share your experiences.
In this section of CommunityNet Aotearoa, iwi, community/ voluntary and Maori organisations can share their experiences of running projects and organisations.
It offers a place where organisations can learn from each other. People sharing their experiences help to grow a strong community sector in which organisations and programmes achieve their goals.
Case studies can be submitted by any tangata whenua or community organisation. The case study could be about a project or initiative, an organisation, or about building relationships such as partnerships.
The intellectual property of the contents of each case study (including logos, photographs, text, etc) belongs to the organisation that prepared it. A copyright statement will accompany each case study. Fair use of material is permitted, however reproduction of a case study requires the consent of the copyright holders.
Case Study Format
The format for presenting case studies is flexible. Any of the following formats would be considered:
It may be possible for you to convert material you already have into an online case study. We can provide only limited advice on how to do this, and we regret there is no budget to help with the costs of preparing case studies.
How to Submit a Case Study
As the format is very flexible, we prefer you to contact us before you start or submit a case study. We then can discuss the best ways of submitting a case study, and we can make suggestions about what you want to put forward.
Case Study Guidelines
A case study is most useful when it provides easily-understood material for other groups. Diverse audiences may read your case study. The main thing is to keep it simple, and not too long.
Possible headings:
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Why did you begin the project or organisation?
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When did it start?
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Who was/ is involved?
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How was it set up? Who funded it? What planning was necessary?
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How does it work and what does it do?
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What form of evaluation or monitoring are you doing? What feedback have you had from stakeholders? Have clients/ users provided feedback?
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What did you achieve? What worked? What challenges did you face? What would you do differently next time? What were the critical success factors?
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What are your next steps?
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Could you recommend any useful resources?
Contact details
Would you be happy for people to contact you with questions or seeking support? If so, clearly state who the contact person is, and how they can be contacted. You might like to check the website's privacy statement.
If your organisation has a website, include details.
Contents
Make sure the case study that you've supplied fairly relfects the perspective of your organisation. Some people on your board or other staff maybe not agree with how you have described a process or project. You need to check your case study through appropriate channels.
Also, if specific people or circumstances are referred to in the case study, please ensure express permission has been given for these references.
Graphics
Photographs, press clippings or other graphics give life to your case study.Check you have permission of the copyright holder if you get a picture or other material from someone else, including newspapers and other websites.
Include meaningful captions with each photograph submitted.
Multi-media
Multi-media is not a friendly format for people using older computers and slow Internet connections. To make sure a wide audience can benefit from multi-media careful planning is required. Even on a fast modem it takes 4-5 minutes for 1 MB to be downloaded.
A page linking to many examples of the use of multimedia can be found at the New Zealand History website (scroll down to the Sound and Video section).
Guidelines for audio
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Use RealPlayer or MP3 files
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RealPlayer files are preferred because they allow greater compression
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Maximum size: 1 MB
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Provide a transcript of the audio clip.
Guidelines for video
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Provide low quality and high quality resolution versions
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Low quality versions maximum size: 1 MB
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Break long clips up into several parts
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Include some stills so that people can get an idea of the content of the clip without having to download it
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Provide a description and transcript of each clip.