Write evidence-rich case studies
Want more background?
The idea in everyday life
Explain context, personal contribution, reasoning, work, result, and lessons without burying the proof.
A case study is a decision story: situation, constraints, choices, evidence, outcome, reflection.
One step at a time.
Use the sample or information you have permission to use. Keep your work as you go. You can pause between steps.
- 1
Open with the problem, audience, project length, team, your role, and result in a compact summary.
- 2
Show the important constraints, alternatives, decisions, and why evidence supported the chosen path.
- 3
Add notes to work samples to explain what they show. Use accurate numbers and state exactly which parts you did yourself.
- 4
End with limitations, what changed, what you learned, and what you would test next.
See how it works.
Leo shows why duplicate customer IDs were resolved with a documented hierarchy and quantifies how the correction changed the reported retention rate.
Did you cover these?
- Your work includes three scannable case-study drafts with role attribution, annotated artifacts, evidence, results, and reflection.
- Check this common mistake: Writing a chronological diary of every task instead of highlighting the decisions that demonstrate capability.
- A reviewer can distinguish your contribution and explain one decision, result, and lesson from each case.
What to finish
Three scannable case-study drafts with role attribution, annotated artifacts, evidence, results, and reflection.
Watch for this
Writing a chronological diary of every task instead of highlighting the decisions that demonstrate capability.
How can I tell I understand it?
A reviewer can distinguish your contribution and explain one decision, result, and lesson from each case.
Quick knowledge check
Answer all 3 questions. Get at least 2 right and the lesson completes automatically.
You’ll get an explanation for each answer. Signed in? Your results save to your account.
Pass the check. We’ll save the progress.
Answer all 3 questions above and get at least 2 right. You can review the explanations and try again.
Go to the knowledge checkOptional course overview video · same video as Lesson 1
Building Your Online Portfolio
From Colorado State University Alumni Association. Watch here or open it on YouTube .
Watch for an idea you can use in the practice below. You can pause or skip this optional overview.Tools, templates, and lesson sources
Tools and templates
Tools open in a new tab so you can keep your place here.
Sources and further reading
Explore the references behind this lesson.
Report a problem with this lesson
Tell us what went wrong. Please leave out personal information and private project contents.