JURIST - Goldstein: The Web-Based Class

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The Web-Based Class

Robert J. Goldstein, Pace University School of Law^*

In constructing a new classroom building at Pace University School of Law, the issue of wiring each student's desk with a direct connection to the Internet was hotly debated. As a strong advocate of the Internet I reflected long and hard on the purpose of this expensive and elaborate plan. Although the sometimes-annoying clicking of a student's laptop keyboard has been a staple in many classrooms, a rationale and a methodology for making the computer and the Internet an integral part of the classroom has been elusive. In anticipation of using the state-of-the-art classroom when it was finished, I crafted this semester's course in Conservation Law into a "web-based" course. That course was constructed to plunge headfirst into using the Internet as a tool for teaching law students, and as an experiment to determine the value-added of computers in the classroom.

The impetus to construct a web-based course was based on two initial premises: (1) the use of the Internet is rapidly becoming a recognized and irreplaceable part of the practice of law; and (2) research from the web would tap untraditional sources, forcing students to "think outside the box" and would become the basis for lively and informed classroom discussions.

A web-based course means different things to different people. The course was not designed for distance learning, although it could be used that way. The pioneer in that area, Cornell Law Professor Peter W. Martin, has used an Internet "broadcast" in teaching courses in conjunction with materials offered on a web-site. That course was enabled by using a simple camera, mounted on a personal computer, and a software program offering video and audio connections over the Internet, called CU-SeeMe™. Pace has offered two semesters of Comparative Environmental Law courses taught simultaneously in Singapore and New York using the Internet. A student in Norway woke in the middle of the night to participate in the class.

The web-based course is not asynchronous learning; nor is the Internet used as a tool simply for facilitating communications. Lectures and presentations, however, are preserved and can be reviewed by students, or anyone on the Internet, when time permits.

The course is not focused solely on the use of the Internet in research, although most of the materials assigned, and most of the students' research can be done on the web.

What this course attempts to do, is to integrate the potential of the Internet with the presentations by the teacher so that they complement each other.

Resources and Realities

To require participation in a class that will use the Internet, each student must have free access to that medium. While students at Pace are not required to own personal computers or laptops, they each have unlimited access to on-campus computers and their on-line functions. Each student has an e-mail account, and can use data storage space on the law school's servers.

Conservation Law was scheduled as an evening course, given from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. This meant that evening students, as well as day students would participate. Since the evening students would have less time available to access the Internet, this limitation had to be taken into consideration.

The classroom assigned was also important. The first room assigned was large enough to seat the students, but inadequate for a screen presentation; a move was required to a new room to allow students to comfortably view a screen presentation. Due to conflicting demands for equipment within the law school, the device allocated to this class for projecting computer images onto the screen required reducing the lighting in the room. The room had no lighting controls to individually switch banks of lights. Lowering the lights would be a serious liability for a class that was held so very late in the evening.

The classroom was wired for network access and had the necessary power requirements to handle all the hardware, but because this was not a "dedicated" classroom, the equipment would have to be set-up and removed by a computer-technician for each class.

A Web-Worthy Subject

In addition to being the first time that I used the Internet in such an interwoven fashion, it was the first time that I taught the Conservation Law course. This provided opportunity as well as challenge. I had been unable to find a printed text that covered the subject areas that I intended to include in my syllabus. The field of conservation law is growing so rapidly that developments render printed material quickly obsolete. This is due, in no small part to the globalization of conservation law, and the rapidly developing body of conservation science. No static text could be the basis for the course as I wished to teach it.

The information resources of the Internet are amazing. News items are available well before they reach print and entire libraries of literature are electronically reproduced. For legal research, statutory law is readily available and cases are becoming a staple of legal Internet sites. Almost anything not encumbered by copyright can be found.

Some core background material for the course, including classic readings by Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt, and Gifford Pinchot, were easily located on the Internet. A valuable and comprehensive site on the history of conservation was available from the Library of Congress.

Most of the statutes, regulatory material and cases that I needed were also freely available on the Internet; and most conservation organizations, government agencies and political positions were represented on the web.

Course Preparation,

The first step in preparation for the class was the construction of a web-site for the course, linking the materials necessary to provide the students with information at their fingertips. The assembly of these materials required repeated searches, and it was necessary to read and review all the materials found to compare them with print versions, verifying their accuracy. That task that would occupy most of the semester and it helped identify those institutions whose data was reliable.

The reliability of Internet data is a significant issue. The Pace Virtual Environmental Law Library, contained the first iteration of an index created to evaluate legal resources on the Internet that were linked from the Library. The index has applicability in areas beyond the statutes, regulation and case law cataloged, and was pertinent to every document offered to the students.

Merely providing students with readings from the Internet was not the intent, especially since spending hours in front of a computer screen would prove quite fatiguing and could not possibly be a healthful way of reading voluminous material. Downloading and printing of the material was an option, but one that had other implications, including copyright violations and the excess use of paper.

An innovative way to use the Internet was not merely as a casebook presented on a screen, but rather as a gateway to find the answers to questions that required multidisciplinary research to answer. The assignments would, therefore, not merely be readings, but would pose questions and direct the student to sources of a diverse nature, where they could reason and formulate answers without restrictions posed by the confines of a casebook, or even a library.

There were materials that students were required to read, but most of the assignments would consist of a combination of questions posed, required readings, and suggested sources for data that would allow students to develop and formulate their own reasoned responses.

Internet research assignments formed the backbone of classroom participation, and the course requirement was structured with grading significantly based on participation. The remaining requirement was a legal-research paper.

Putting it to Work

Each class was composed of a lecture, Internet and PowerPoint™ demonstrations, and class discussions. Points in the lecture were illustrated by the use of graphics, charts and tables. These were linked to Internet sources for the data, and students were "escorted" on research expeditions through informative web-sites. The students' response to the use of these mixed media in the classroom was overwhelmingly positive.

Students would have been even more engaged in the class by having computers in front of them, to enhance their ability to see these demonstrations, to allow them actual "hands-on" practice on the Internet, and to enable them to bookmark sites that we used. Students would also be able to provide a greater degree of feedback by use of a desk computer than that available in the traditional classroom setting where only one person can speak at a time. Using the computer, all students could respond to queries from the teacher.

The students also responded well to the assignments. Most considered them thought-provoking, and likened them to the research that they would be doing in the "real world." Reactions to the assignments, however, were not unanimous. One student remarked that the assignments were "endless," noting that she had become so engrossed in the topic that she was researching, she spent a disproportionate amount of time on a "mere two-credit course." Another noted that unless readings were required, she would not do them.

Notwithstanding those comments, class discussions indicated an insight by all students into materials beyond the basic research contemplated, especially with regard to areas of their personal interest in conservation issues. While these represent entirely anecdotal responses to the course, more demonstrative proof was needed to: (1) show that the students were actually doing the research I assumed they were; and (2) that the assignments were actually enriching the classroom experience.

To establish the validity of my perceptions, the students were given written exercises. One exercise required that the student choose a resource (natural or cultural) that warrants preservation, with personal significance to the student. In doing this exercise they were to define "preservation" and describe how they would preserve their chosen resource. When the exercise was due, I surprised the students by having them present their answers orally to the class. The quality of the presentations convinced me that the students had both done the research, and connected it with the lecture material.

Students were also given anonymous evaluation forms with questions formulated to evaluate the relationship between the assignments and the lectures, as well as the value of the use of the Internet. The responses again indicated that the students were excited by the use of the Internet and viewed the combination of that use and the lectures, as a positive educational experience.

Conclusions

With the semester's end in sight, every indication is that the students' classroom experience was enriched by the use of computer and Internet media during class. The enhancement of this experience by the use of individual computers in a "wired" classroom is well justified. In using Internet assignments, the students have also developed research skills in a medium that was new to many of them prior to enrolling in my class. This training will benefit students confronted with research issues in the future, as the Internet is the future of research. —————————————————————————————
^* Professor of Law; and Director of Environmental Programs

© 1999 by Robert J. Goldstein. All rights reserved.
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The views expressed in this column are solely those of its author, and do not reflect those of JURIST, its Advisory Board, its staff or its host institutions.
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Talkback

Where you have the last word...

I appreciate Prof Goldstein's taking the trouble to share the results of his teaching experiment in this way. His experience is helpful to those of us thinking about how we can best use the Internet and other computer resources to enhance our teaching.
Dorsey D. Ellis, Jr.
Washington University School of Law

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