Teaching case study competition

We are an open-education nonprofit with a mission to ensure that those who educate current and future public service leaders embed key digital-era skills into their curricula and training programs. We are funded by the Public Interest Technology Infrastructure Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies and Schmidt Futures.

With the exception of the TPSDA team and board members and their families, all are welcome to submit. The only stipulation is that applicants must be 18 years of age or over at the time of submission. Proposals and the resulting case study must be in English.

We will be looking for teaching case proposals on digital-era government topics that complement the eight units of the Teaching Public Service in the Digital Age syllabus. You can find the units by clicking on the links below.

Unit 1 - What is digital-era government

Unit 2 - Components of digital systems

Unit 3 - Iteration

Unit 4 - User focus & design

Unit 5 - Data 1: Uses & opportunities

Unit 6 - Data 2: Harmful uses

Unit 7 - Working in the open

Unit 8 - Overcoming legal, financial, and operational barriers

The submission should:

• Provide a narrative with a beginning, middle, and an end, that details a real-world digital government initiative or dilemma that transpired in a given public sector setting    

• Describe the problem a public manager is trying to solve as the key ‘protagonist’ of the case, and explain the various options they might be able to pursue, and the considerations they weigh in choosing between those options.  

• Be written from the viewpoint of this public manager and their interactions with other stakeholders in/of the organization, in a way that allows students to apply a theory or approach described in one of the units so that they can then decide how they would solve the problem the public manager is facing and include supporting data that might help to find a solution.

When reviewing the proposal, highest marks will be awarded to entries that:

• Demonstrate that it helps advance the teaching of at least one of the eight units of the Teaching Public Service in the Digital Age syllabus

• Describe a problem a public manager is trying to solve as the key ‘protagonist’ of the teaching case, and explain the various options they might be able to pursue, the stakeholders involved and the considerations they weigh in choosing between those options.  

• Clearly define a distinct problem that public servants had to tackle and overcome (note: these teaching cases do not have to be of successful initiatives; instructive failures are valid).

• Show that the authors understood the meaning and importance of the learning outcomes and key arguments found across the Teaching Public Service in the Digital Age syllabus and demonstrate how the concepts and theories of the syllabus can be applied to the problem statement by offering considerable value to educators using one or more of the syllabus units.

• Demonstrate that the teaching case is based on research via interviews with people inside the government or other document reviews, not just external journalistic coverage of events. 

• Are accompanied by a thoughtful teaching note that shows that the author has engaged with the challenge of how to develop an understanding of key ideas with students.

• Adds to the breadth of the syllabus units based on regional representation, government sector, level of government, type of public administration, and the diversity of contributors. 

Submissions from multiple authors will be considered. However, a principal / corresponding author must be identified at the time of submission. Where applicable, TPSDA will award a contractual arrangement and prize money to the principal / corresponding author, and the onus is on that person to share the prize money with their co-authors.

If your proposal is shortlisted, you will be invited to draft your teaching case and the Teaching Public Service in the Digital Age team will work with you to finalize it. 

Final teaching cases will be reviewed, and winners will be chosen by the Teaching Public Service in the Digital Age Board and Executive Director. 

Yes, but you will be responsible for reshaping the material so that it does not infringe on preexisting intellectual property requirements and can be published under an open access licence. 

Case studies need to be written by you. We do not accept entries that have been created by generative AI, Large Language Models or related tools. You may still use spell-checking or similar tools.

You should provide references as part of your response. References can be in any format you choose, and these do not count towards the word limit.

Shortlisted entrants will have access to written feedback and support from Professors Ines Mergel and Amanda Clarke.

No extensions will be given to the deadline by which the winner is required to deliver the case and teaching note. In entering the competition, you are confirming your ability to deliver the finished book within the given time frame (approx. six weeks).

If you have any questions at all you can email competition@teachingpublicservice.digital.