LESSONS FROM THE WEB

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In this monthly column, law professors comment on the many academic opportunities and challenges presented by Web technology.

As with all JURIST columns, you're invited to Talkback. This month...
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Interactivity Remains the Key to Successful Online Learning

Jack R. Goetz, President and Dean, Concord School of Law

Since its inception in 1998, Concord has generated much attention for its accessibility mission: to provide a high quality legal education for working professionals, family caretakers and others whose circumstances prevent them from pursuing a legal education at a fixed facility law school. The mission itself, although considered “noble” and “core” to Concord’s corporate parent and its administration, has been the subject of debate even on these web pages. Those at Concord generally believe that the critics are “ill-informed” on the educational opportunity Concord offers, and the critics generally state that Concord is “ill-informed” of the necessities of an American legal education. However, proponents and critics alike who have studied Concord agree that whatever success Concord has achieved to date has derived from its unique educational platform. Our ability to create the interactivity necessary to sustain an active and sophisticated worldwide student base has been the pride and joy of this founding dean. The following concepts remain key to Concord’s instructional design and can be employed by any law professor who is interested in pursuing web-based teaching.

Concord Professor as Catalyst

Legal education has traditionally been measured by inputs. For example: how many books are in the library? How many hours must a student spend in class? Concord's focus, by contrast, is on the output: what has the student learned? Concord's faculty and curriculum construction are obsessively focused on ensuring that students actually absorb what is being taught, and regular assessments ensure that the goal is being reached. What may not be apparent to the casual observer is that Concord has pioneered a very evolved professor training program. The skills needed to be an effective online law professor go beyond scholarly know-how: a professor must have mental dexterity and technical aptitude in order to collaborate with students and colleagues online. Much effort goes into ensuring that students, faculty and administrators can interact just as well as, or arguably even more so than their fixed facility counterparts. An equal amount of law professors from fixed facility schools have succeeded in the Concord environment as those who have not. But the distinguishing characteristic of the successful online professor is a deep concern for the quality and speed of the feedback delivered to the student, and an understanding that these two concepts are not mutually exclusive.

Early critics of Concord voiced concern that students were learning in “isolation.” While that is literally true, we have found that through catalytic devices such as student rosters, discussion boards and the like, online students can be as active as their fixed facility counterparts in the formation of study groups, list servs, and an academic community.

Using the Computer Wisely

A student never says that it is easier reading material and viewing streaming videos on the Internet than it is reading a book or watching videos on television. Therefore, a good Internet program will not force curriculum through a medium that is more difficult for the student unless it has a good academic reason. To do the contrary is an easy invitation to lose the interactivity of your class and their retention of the material. In Concord’s situation, we decided early on that casebooks are better in their natural form than an “e-book” on the Internet. However, the streaming video provides ease of update over a “home video” as well as gives the school an ability to track the student usage of the lecture that would not be easily attainable otherwise.

Using technology wisely also involves recognition of the differences between a fixed facility class and its online counterpart. The latter has a far greater need for constant quizzing and assessment, not just as a means of measuring student retention, but also as a means of validating a student's learning experience. For instance, Concord 1st Year students will tackle more than two dozen essay exams and hundreds of multiple choice questions throughout their coursework…and many of the student evaluations indicate that they would like to see even more.

To receive the maximum benefit from the curriculum’s integration of assessments, the instructional design must be carefully planned. Concord provides instantaneous computer-analyzed feedback on student performance, with cross-references back to the casebook or hornbook and directions to study material that address a student's individual needs. Students also receive regular feedback on written assignments via e-mail. The fact is, use of the technology in grading quizzes and assessments results in rapid feedback for the students, increases learning and retention levels, and provides for greater student satisfaction in terms of validation for progressing through the material.

Tracking Student Progress:
The Worst of “Big Brother” Put to the Best of Uses

As a law student, how many times did you get a message from your Dean saying, “I noticed you haven’t been keeping up with your class on the assignments, and I'm concerned that you may fall behind the pace you need to keep. Let's discuss how we can get you back on track.” If you read that message and think that it involves more “coddling” than is necessary in law school, then you may be too indoctrinated to teach young adults who do not have significant additional responsibilities other than the study of law, or you may not be the type of professor who would enjoy Internet teaching. But for those of us who teach adults who manage significant pressures and responsibilities outside of law school, that message may become the catalyst for a healthy dialogue between the administration and the student about priorities and ability to master a high level curriculum. The ability to send that message depends upon an intricate tracking and high level reporting that allows Deans to have instant access to that information. It is the “worst of Big Brother” being put to the best of uses. This interaction and the subsequent dialogue results in a retention rate of approximately 70%, which is on par with many other law schools, and impressive by distance learning standards.

As Concord enters its third year, the debate about the quality of an online legal education will surely continue, and it may be a while before the entire legal community voices its support. However, the Concord platform, with its dedicated online professors using Concord's methods of providing feedback, assessment, encouragement, and ongoing dialogue, will continue to be the backdrop for a quality legal education to hundreds of students who cannot attend a fixed facility school.

© 2000 by Jack R. Goetz. 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...

  • Concord has gone where no law school in the nation has dared to go and offers an opporunity to thousands of bright, hard working citizens to obtain a law degree that until Concord was beyond their grasp. The legal academy should welcome this fully functional internet driven law school with open arms.

    Anonymous

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