Legal education and research for Law academics: Innovative teaching and learning

"A digital revolution is changing the model of training in professions from engineering and medicine to business and humanities – and legal education is no different. ‘Massive Open Online Courses’ are seeing hundreds of thousands of learners following courses through videos, podcasts and forums. Global Insight goes back to law school as you never knew it."

"This article presents the results of a survey of Australian law schools (the Law Associate Deans (Learning and Teaching) survey) revealing the widespread adoption of blended learning approaches incorporating elements of both distance education and e-learning. These approaches are mostly used as a supplement to on-campus, face-to-face instruction. Blended approaches are consistent with modern learning theory and the growth of online education."

Abstract (excerept)
In this article we argue that specific factors in Australia, such as geography (which limits physical access to professional legal education), the history and cultures of legal education programmes, and recent changes in the regulatory frameworks for legal education, require law graduates to be equipped with more than the legal knowledge and skills that are currently required for admission to practice. With reference to digital educational theory, we analyse one instance of a program where transactional learning deepens and enhances students‘ professionalism. We then investigate the consequences of programs such as this for the design of regulatory regimes in legal education.

Abstract:
For many years, the question of how to use technology to teach the law has been a minor concern of the legal academy. That era of general indifference to developments in learning technologies is now coming to an end. There are many reasons for the change. Law schools are facing such a host of difficulties — declining enrollments, declining job prospects for graduates, reduced public funding, and understandable concerns about cost and debt — that sometimes it seems the only debate is over whether the situation is best described as a “tsunami” or “a perfect storm.” Against this backdrop, technology offers the attractive possibility of making legal education both more efficient and more effective. This article has two main aims. First, in Part II, it discusses some of the conditions that will push law schools to incorporate more learning technologies into our teaching methodologies in the coming years. Part III provides an overview of some of the learning technologies that have gained prominence, as well as at least limited usage, in law schools in recent years.

Abstract:
The concepts of interconnectedness and multiplexity resonate globally in contemporary higher education, legal practice, and in citizens’ social and economic experience, where engagement takes place daily over distances mediated by information and communications technology. meanwhile, literature regarding student transition identifies student engagement as a key to their retention – yet Australia’s universities are struggling to compete with our students’ employment and caring obligations. Is it possible for lecturers to retain an engaging presence with our students who are more likely than ever before to be distant from campus? How might we provide opportunity and experience to our students, beyond their own community and campus? Is it possible, or even desirable, for us to compete with texting, facebook and other social media used by our students within and without the physical classroom? In this paper, the authors explore the world of blogging and micro blogging (twitter) as a means of mediating engagement with students, lawyers, academics and other interested and interesting people around the world. Through the use of auto-ethnographic case studies of their own experiences with blogging and micro blogging tools, the authors propose that far from being a distraction from student learning, these tools have the potential to open up an international professional collaborative space beyond the physical classroom, for both academics and our students, from their first year experience through to practical legal training and continuing professional development.

Abstract
The relevant classroom formats are face-to-face, virtual, and blended. The traditional classroom environment is face-to-face only. The virtual classroom is positioned on the other end of this spectrum. Blended learning merges these two approaches. A simplified description of the flipped classroom is that the professor’s lecture is delivered at home — and the student’s homework is done in class.

Like everything disruptive, online education is controversial. But the flipped classroom variation is a strategy about which most commentators agree. Law professors are just beginning to explore the related innovations that have flourished in K-12 education within the last half-decade. Undergraduate MOOCs (massive open online courses) are now being streamed to thousands of students across the country and the globe. The elite school content providers thus view online teaching as the wave of the future. The blended learning option will become a sensible step on the path toward cutting delivery costs, while making graduate education available to increasingly debt-averse students.

"Regardless of your teaching style, you can use the “flipped” model to engage your students and accomplish more of your teaching goals. This article discusses the use of the flipped classroom model and offers suggestions for integrating flipped classroom methodologies in law school classes." (Abstract)