Behind the scenes of the case: a report on building an active teaching methodology

Abstract This article presents a proposal for an active methodology developed in the classroom. The article reports on planning experience, construction, and applying a case methodology developed by students from the Management of Forms of Accommodation course in the Undergraduate Program in Tourism at Paraiba Federal University (UFPB) in Brazil. The case methodology allowed students to be immersed in an environment of debate, analysis, and decision-making, foreseeing obstacles and situation-problems they would have to deal with in their working lives. This case elaboration experience was divided into three phases: (1) direct participant observation in loco, with the immersion of the students at the location that is the object of the study; (2) direct participant observation in the classroom, after the immersion, to build the case methodology; (3) group interview for the validation of the case elaboration experience and adaptations if needed (Post-case). The result of this work was positively evaluated by the students and indicated the need to intensify the use of active methodologies in the classroom. With this in mind, it is hoped that this study will inspire new experiences on the part of professors to stimulate the involvement of students with teaching cases.