LegalED: Igniting Law Teaching

Speaker(s):

MIchele Pistone

Introducing LegalED (legaledweb.com), a new online teaching and learning platform and collaborative network for legal education. Developed by law professors, LegalED assembles on one central online platoform the resources necessary for teachers to blend online and in-calss instruction, to flip the law school classroom and bring more active, problem-based teaching of legal knowledge, practical skills and professional values into every law school classroom. We hope that LegalED is the kind of innovation that can turn declining resources and increasing demands into better educational programs. We liken it to Khan Academy focused on the law, crowd-sourced and curated by law professors. The site also includes a section devoted to law professors and pedagogy, more about this is below.
Student-directed materials: The website will host a growing collection of short videos (each 10 minutes or less) on law and law-related topics (substantive, procedural, practical skills and professional values). The videos are designed as short chunks that can be mixed and matched in many combinations and assigned as homework so that we can begin to “flip” the law school classroom and devote more face-to-face class time for active, problem-based learning. The videos on substantive law could be assigned to students for viewing outside the classroom, thereby freeing up class time for activities that bring in more training on the other competencies proven necessary for successful lawyering, including practical lawyering skills and professional values. This is a blended model of teaching, where we leverage the web for passive learning (listening to lectures) and open up class time for more activities that call on students to use their knowledge in active ways that reinforce and support learning. LegalED is currently partnering with FWD.us to produce a series of educational videos about immigration law with leading law school professors.
For students, the video collection gives students more autonomy and control over their own learning. Once the collection on substantive law topics is built out, students will be able to view the videos at their own pace, from anywhere, as often as needed for mastery. My goal for the project is to move legal education toward more flipped learning (blending online resources with in class instruction that is more active and problem-based). This type of setting is more student-centric and consistent with studies on how students learn best. Moreover, the assessment tools are designed for professors to adapt them for their own courses, to give students feedback as they are learning.
The website will also help professors by facilitating the networked collaboration of professors interested in more active, problem-based learning. By collecting materials on many substantive areas of law in one central location, we hope to break down the silos in which law faculty currently operate and allow for collaboration, thereby reducing redundancy and facilitating innovation.
Professor-directed materials: Because many professors are not trained to teach using online tools, the website is designed to support them as they make this transition. LegalED's first conference, Igniting Law Teaching, was held in April at American University Washington College of Law. Co-sponsored by the Pence Law Library, the conference featured 35+ faculty members doing TEDx-styled talks about law teaching. The videos are currently under production and will be available on the LegalED website in the coming months. We are also assembling a series of teaching materials (videos, assessment tools, problems and in-class exercises) created, contributed to and curated by world-class teachers in their fields. The series on pedagogy will be directed at law professors. These videos conver topics such as: flipping the law schoo classroom, how to incorporate more active learning in our teaching, learning theory, the craft of law teaching, among others. This collection of videos about teaching innovations, will be available 24/7 for professors to watch at their own pace, on demand. The videos will be supplemented by in-class exercises and problem sets and also assessment tools that we hope can inspire others to innovate in their own courses.

Slides: