Tuning in not zoning out: teaching students legal skills via a multimedia learning hub

contributors | abstract | presentation | biographies

Contributors

Sanmeet Kaur and Emily Allbon (City University)

Format

Paper presentation.

Abstract

Law has been taught relying on the lecture/tutorial format for years, yet the environment in which we teach has moved on. The type of student to whom we teach and the tools available to us have altered considerably. Student perceptions of their learning environment have changed, which we argue is at least partly due to the ‘connected’ world in which they reside, in which the visual is king. Our research seeks to examine how we respond to and embrace this change whilst managing student expectations. In their research, Prosser and Trigwell established that where students perceive their environment to be supportive of learning approaches aimed at developing understanding, they are more likely to develop a greater understanding (Prosser and Trigwell, 1993). Thus, we have started to create a legal skills hub promoting a form of resource-based learning. Rather than adopt a transmission model of education in teaching legal skills, the emphasis here is on law teachers becoming facilitators (Ramsden, 1992).

By focusing in on five key skills that students need to develop in their legal studies, we have investigated what particular mediums should be used to teach to whilst managing the learning expectations of e-savvy students. We have carried out a pilot survey on a small sample of LLB and GDL students to identify the potential methods of online teaching that they would respond to. We will use a mixture of quantitative and qualitative research methods including round table discussions, questionnaires, interviews and user testings to gather information on student perceptions and preferences on the use of multimedia to teach legal skills. We argue that each skill must be aligned with the correct teaching method or mode of multimedia to effectively teach the skill to this online generation of students.

A flavour of the types of resources we have created can be found here: Mooting – the basics and Keeping up to date with law.

Another emphasis of our resource is getting our students involved, enabling them to learn from each other. In the context of mooting this is shown in footage of round table discussions and real-life simulations of moots. This is consistent with the approach of experiential learning, in that our knowledge and understanding results from learning from experience (Usher, 1993).

Key to such a resource is both greater user control offered to students, allowing them to navigate through the resource at their own pace. We expect that this will also create a positive impact in terms of the National Student Survey (NSS).

Recent research has flagged up the challenges we face in teaching students legal research. With confidence around IT and technology often masking a naïve belief in the power of the search engine, combined with difficulties recognising quality resources, creates students who do not possess the critical and analytical skills to assess the information they find on the web (Nicholas and Rowlands, 2008). The depth of the student engagement with resources is in question, with Brabazon (2008), suggesting only surface learning is taking place, and Nicholas Carr (2010), who in his latest work looks at the effect of the internet on the brain, concurring by stating that students can become shallow rather than deep thinkers. Our new legal skills hub seeks to engage students right from the off, with interesting and, dare we say, fun, multimedia resources which will stimulate them into getting more out of their lectures and tutorials, as well as their independent research time.

Such investment in resource-based learning and educational media, allows students to meet learning outcomes in a more flexible way, ensuring that the post classroom learning is as effective as possible (Laurillard, 1993).

Presentation

Short biographies of panel members

Sanmeet Kaur is a lecturer in law. She teaches Legal Method, Contract Law, Tort Law and Competition Law across the LLB, GELLB, GDL and LLM programmes. She was nominated for a student voice award in 2010 for her commitment to teaching. Whilst her research interest focus on State Aid Law, Competition Law she has developed a research interest in learning and teaching as a result of teaching students across the law programmes and changing teaching style to suit the student group.

Emily Allbon has been Law Librarian at the City Law School for 10 years and is a chartered librarian and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Emily was named ‘Best Legal Information Professional in an Academic Environment’ at the BIALL/Lexis Awards for Excellence in 2005. In 2003 Emily created ‘Lawbore’, a student portal for law students which she consistently develops and updates. Lawbore now incorporates many forms of technology designed to aid student learning and engagement (gateway, wiki, blog, twitter, video and talking slide shows). Lawbore was recommended in The Times in January 2009.

Last Modified: 3 February 2011