The LII's Distance Learning Courses
I. Introduction
During the 2000-2001 academic year, Cornell's Legal Information Institute offered two totally on-line law courses to 155 upperclass law students, then enrolled at seven other ABA accredited schools. Though highly interactive, the instruction was totally asynchronous. In other words, at no scheduled time during a typical week, indeed, no specific moment during an entire term did those students and their teacher have to gather in a meeting room or sit in front of a computer screen.
According to both students and teacher the learning experience yielded levels of mastery equal to or greater than realized in "specialized law school courses with comparable credit" taught in conventional fashion. In comparison with the same benchmark, the students reported that they worked harder and experienced more feedback and exchange.
The courses were Copyright and Social Security Law. The participating law schools included: Arizona State, Chicago-Kent, Kansas, Rutgers-Camden, Rutgers-Newark, Seattle, and Vermont. They retained responsibility for course registration, exam administration, and related logistical matters. Students registered not with Cornell but with their home institution. Grades and credits were local. The Legal Information Institute's responsibilities consisted of: preparation and distribution of course materials (free in digital format to the students), all instruction, performance monitoring (the on-line analog of attendance), student evaluation and grading.
II. Course Architecture
The basic components of this latest LII distance learning model included:
- digital readings (with a print-on-demand option)
- scheduled progression through a sequence of topics paced by Web-based discussion and mandatory interactive exercises
- hypermedia presentation (streaming audio linked to assigned texts and supplementary materials)
- computer-based tutorials and exercises (similar to those CALI has long distributed) tightly integrated with the readings and presentation material
- asynchronous but paced teacher-student, student-student written discussion
- short writing and problem-solving assignments submitted via the Net for teacher evaluation and feedback
- an end-of-term exam for final evaluation of student performance
The LII's earlier distance learning course (offered in three successive years starting in 1996) was built around weekly video conference sessions and had to be limited to a relatively small enrollment. One important issue explored with the new totally asynchronous architecture was whether it can accommodate larger enrollments, comparable to those common in conventionally taught law school electives, without loss of interactivity or other qualities important to effective learning.
III. Putting These Courses in Context
The form of distance education most widely practiced by law schools to date represents the simple extension of conventional classroom practice through high-end videoconferencing technology. Classrooms at more than one location are linked to permit a teacher at one of those locations to lecture or conduct more elaborate presentation to students who are assembled at the same time in other locations. With additional investment in technology infrastructure those remote students can participate in discussion with the teacher and each other. The principal advantage of this mode of distance education is that it requires very little adjustment of working patterns or expectations on the part of either teacher or student. It can be used to create highly diverse collections of students (students gathered in classrooms in different countries, for example) and can link faculty members with students they might otherwise be unable to teach.
Major drawbacks to this form of distance education include high-cost at both the sending and receiving end and its requirement that faculty and students assemble in "real-time." The latter can become increasingly problematic as sites are linked across time zones.
The LII's courses rely on less costly technologies and embody patterns of instruction that make substantial use of asynchronous exchange and reusable multi-media materials. The choice reflects a conviction that, long term, this direction holds the greatest potential gains from network-based education. The source of many of the those gains is the high degree of control it gives students over their own learning. Last year's experience only strengthens this belief.
IV. Continuting the Experiment
We are repeating the two courses this year, one for a signficantly different audience. Since both were built around reusable modules, designed with an eye to revision, we have, as we planned, been able to make updating and other changes selectively (without starting over from scratch).
The course architecture also allows re-assembly with appropriate additional material for different student populations. To explore this process and its potential, we have adapted last year's Copyright Law course to produce an offering that introduces the principal issues and features of the field to university students in areas like journalism, art, music, and computer science. This non-JD course is being tested at Cornell during the current term in anticipation of wider distribution.
The Social Security Law course will again be offered to law students during the 2002 spring semester. Participating law schools will include some of last year's group joined by a few others.
V. For More Information
More details on last year's courses can be found in an Oct. 2001 report prepared for the ABA's Consultant on Legal Education. Links to that report and other references are on the right.
Prepared by Peter W. Martin for the Legal Information Institute
Updated Oct. 24, 2001
References
Background
- LII Workshop - June 2001
- LII Backgrounder on Distance Learning - Dec. 1999
- LII's first on-line course: Copyright
and Digital Works: Website
| LII
Report)
The LII's 2000-2001 on-line courses