Web-based Course in Legal Skills Courses

Abstract

Law professors increasingly are using the Internet to supplement their course materials and enhance their teaching skills. They are using it to create interactive, educational computer software, to provide a forum for peer review of student work products to encourage collaborative learning, to provide a structured out-of-classroom learning environment, to foster a tighter community of educators, to extend office hours, to supplement and update class materials, and to promote faculty collegiality. But does Web-based instruction work in the classroom? This is the question to answer.

In this article, the authors focus on several skills-based law courses and examine the effectiveness of a few technologies in their traditional classroom. Part I explores the various learning style theories that were researched during the course of the project to explain their successes and failures. Part II discusses the pedagogical attributes of Web-based instruction. Part III reports on their use of learning theory and technology in skills-based courses. In part IV the authors assess their exploratory efforts, and in part V they suggest future directions.