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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Collaborative Web-based Course Materials:
Bypassing Publishers and Benefitting Students

Lydia Pallas Loren, Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College

In the summer of 1999, nine law professors from across the United States participated in a collaborative project to develop and share web-based teaching material for courses on cyberspace law. Designed with the goal of creating web-based materials that would be flexible for different courses relating to law and technology, the project, known as "Learning Cyberlaw in Cyberspace," would be accessible to students at no charge, and could be easily updated and modified as changes in the law occur. Learning Cyberlaw in Cyberspace represents an experiment in collaborative web-based publishing which bypasses traditional publishers and attempts to utilize the benefits of the web to further the education of law students. The project resulted in 10 learning "modules" posted on the web at http://www.cyberspacelaw.org, as well as other site features which make the materials attractive for use in courses relating to the intersection of law and cyberspace.

As the project coordinator for Learning Cyberlaw in Cyberspace, I have experienced first hand the challenges faced in attempting such a collaborative project. I believe the web presents new opportunities for the dissemination of knowledge which should be embraced in the educational community. Therefore, column describes the project in more detail, highlighting some of the hurdles in achieving this type of web-based collaborative effort and describing how to overcome some of those obstacles. Ultimately, the benefits of collaborative web-based course materials are tremendous. I welcome your comments on the project at loren@lclark.edu

Why Create Web-based Reading Materials for Students?

Fundamentally, the Learning Cyberlaw in Cyberspace was designed to solve problems faced by those teaching in the developing field of cyberspace law: compiling, selecting, and editing appropriate and current reading material in a rapidly evolving field of law. Authoring a standard law school casebook can take years and involves gathering materials, carefully editing them, and providing notes to assist students in understanding the diversity of the material presented. To date, no traditional law school textbooks for cyberspace law have been published. The absence of a casebook for this course is attributed primarily to the rapidly changing nature of the law in this area. By the time any casebook on cyberspace law made it to press through traditional publishing channels, it would be outdated. The lack of a text has made teaching in this demanding field even more challenging. Not only must professors in this field keep pace with the changes in the law and in the technology, they must continually create appropriate reading materials for their students. Constantly developing new material is extremely time-consuming, not unlike trying to write an entire textbook . . . . every year.

A "divide and conquer" approach, in which several professors work together to create course materials, effectively solves this work-load dilemma. The web facilitates this divide and conquer approach. No publisher approval is required for decisions on who will contribute or on the content of their contributions. Using the web to create such a collaborative project allows a group of professors to efficiently divide the topics, discuss their modules while developing them, and make the end result quickly available to everyone. Also, delivering each individual's contribution to the project as a separate topic module on the web site permits flexibility for professors assigning the materials created.

An additional reason motivated the creation of Learning Cyberlaw in Cyberspace. Using cyberspace to teach a class in cyberspace law makes sense! Using web-based course materials allows students to experience directly some of the issues addressed in the course. A specific example is the right to anonymity. If a class on cyberspace law implements an email lists or a web-based threaded discussion list, students can confront directly the issues raised by anonymous postings. Addressing in class whether anonymous postings should be permitted allows the students to understand the importance of anonymity, and its dangers as well.

Organizing a Collaborative Web-based Project

The difficulties in organizing this project were minimal. Except for an announcement made at an AALS meeting of professors teaching in this field and a few phone calls, the project was coordinated entirely through cyberspace. The project coordinator solicited contributors via the main email list for those teaching in the area, "cyberprof," run by Professor Mark Lemley at the University of Texas (MLEMLEY@mail.law.utexas.edu). Once the ten contributing authors were selected, the process of determining what topics should be covered and assigning those topics was accomplished through email. The collaborating professors also used a password protected web based threaded discussion site to converse about module design and materials.

Each professor was assigned a subject module for which they were to collect, analyze, and edit relevant case decisions, statutes, treaties, and articles. Additionally, for each subject module the professors were encouraged to create discussion questions and, in some cases, hypothetical case studies. This divide and conquer approach allowed each collaborating professor to devote the necessary time and direct their full attention to creating a concise set of readings for one aspect of the field of cyberlaw.

Technically, each professor created the text of the subject modules in the word processing program of their own choice. The modules then were submitted to the technology coordinator for the project, Sarah Crary Gregory, Legal Reference/Electronic Services Librarian, Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College, who then formatted the modules into html and posted them on the project site. This method of module creation allowed individual professors, even those who know nothing of html, to concentrate on the substance of their modules without having to worry about the technological issues of html. The technology coordinator also created a consistent look for all of the modules.

Assuring Contribution to the Project

Well, most likely at this point at least some readers are asking, what about money? Typically, if a professor invests the time and energy in creating publishable course materials, royalties result from book sales down the road. While the royalties may not always be the main impetus in the publication of a law school course book, the carrot of a royalty check often can spur people to finish a project to which they commit.

With the commitment to having these materials openly available on the web at no charge to students, there would be no royalties to disperse. Instead, in the case of the Learning Cyberlaw in Cyberspace project, a web development grant from the Northwest Academic Computing Consortium provided a stipend for contributing authors. As web publishing projects show their viability and versatility, more granting institutions may be interested in promoting learning through providing funds which take the place of royalty payments collected from students. The one time grant payment permits free access by hundreds, if not thousands of students. In this age of skyrocketing costs for higher education, grant supported course material that is publicly available via the web is a wise strategic investment in education.

While the grant funds paid stipends for the initial modules, updating those modules and creating new ones is not a part of this particular grant. After the creation of the initial set of modules, only a limited number of modules will need modification or replacement each semester. Because many of the modules in existence at any given time will be current, those areas of cyberlaw that have undergone change will be the only areas in which a professor will need to focus on creating new materials. New grant funds could be sought to pay for additional modules, but the "Learning Cyberlaw in Cyberspace" decided to try a different approach: encouraging voluntary contributions by those using the materials.

Making these materials available to anyone to use in their courses at no charge provides a benefit to those teaching in the field. In return, the project asks that professors using these materials contribute a module in the future. While this is not a requirement for use, our hope is that Cyberprofessors will recognize the value of the open availability of these types of materials, and will want to contribute a set of materials on a discrete topic related to cyberspace law. The site provides a template for the creation of future modules and instructions for using the template. In this way, we believe the project will be self-sustaining.

Whether this method of future module creation will work remains to be seen. In the first month after the posting of the initial modules, the project coordinator has received emails suggesting additional modules and, more importantly, offers to create those modules by professors planning to use the materials. As more professors become aware of the project and begin using the modules, hopefully they will offer to create new modules as the field of cyberspace law evolves.

The End Result

The end result of this collaborative project is a set of readings that can be utilized by professors around the world in their courses concerning cyberspace law. Each subject module is designed as a self-contained unit of instruction to allow any professor teaching a course related to cyberspace law the flexibility to use as many or as few of the modules as they would like and in any order they choose. The topic modules and their authors are:

In addition to these modules, the Learning Cyberlaw in Cyberspace project contains an area devoted to a password-protected "faculty discussion forum" accessible to any faculty member teaching cyberspace law topics. This discussion forum uses web-based threaded discussions to create a place in cyberspace where those using the materials can share their experiences and benefit from the collective wisdom of numerous professors teaching in this field. This discussion forum is divided into separate fora for each of the module topics, making it a constantly evolving, unique form of a virtual teacher's manual.

As an additional benefit, this project will assist in reducing the cost of higher education. Textbooks for a typical law school course can range as high as $100 to $150 per course. Even the cost of photocopying anthologies created by professors can be significant to students. Not only are the Learning Cyberlaw in Cyberspace materials available free of charge to the students, but, as an evolving set of materials, they will be far more valuable over time than a static and quickly out-of-date textbook.

We believe that the Learning Cyberlaw in Cyberspace project creates a valuable resource for professors and students. This resources is created not only by initial participants in the project who created the original set of topic modules, but also by the continuing contributions of those using the materials, through participation in the virtual teacher's manual and through the creation of new topic modules. The multimedia technology of the world wide web offers educators a tool for course material collaboration that previously was cumbersome and benefitted only those professors who collaborated. The Learning Cyberlaw in Cyberspace project utilizes the dynamic nature of the technology of the world wide web to keep pace with the challenges and changes that technology creates in the field of law while providing reading materials for students free of charge.

© 1999 by Lydia Pallas Loren. 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...

  • Brilliant! Why can't this initiative extend to other areas of law and particularly to comparative studies which could come together with relative ease by internet collaboration. As to the funding issue, that might be a tougher nut to crack.

    Ruth Farrugia
    Faculty of Law
    University of Malta
    MALTA

  • Actualy, during this week I had two great surprises: first, the JURIST site; second, this obvius, bat wonderfoul iniciative - learn cyberlaw in cyberspace. At moment I' working in Prof. Allen's article, about contracts made by autonomous computer. I'm realy ansoius to read the ready modules of LCC. I'm sorry for my poor english, but I think that is suficcient to say CONGRATULATIONS !!!

    Ricardo Magaldi
    São Paulo University - USP
    São Paulo/BRAZIL

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