Trigger questions: their role in problem based learning - Do they add value to the quality of interactive business case study solutions?

The most effective learning is grounded in experience - learning by doing. However, in business schools it is unlikely that many of the students will have had any great exposure to real life business experience. Moreover, the depth of their experiencesis often correlated with the level of the course they are embarking on. Furthermore, it would probably be true to say that in terms of the student body they are generally at the beginning of their careers and their experiential exposure is further limited. To ameliorate these limitations recourse is often made to business case studies that simulate real life situations. Arguably, cases are the most effective and the most efficient way for learning to take place. These cases place the student in the position where they make the decisions, deal with the consequences of those decisions, and learn from the real mistakes they make. The thrust of this paper is to examine, not the use or appropriateness of business case studies in the learning process but rather, the efficacy of the questions that trigger the learning process within the case study