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Advanced legal research – incorporating research into the curriculum and the technology used to deliver this

service

Kathy BuxtonI.T. Manager

Faculty of Law

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The Team

• The team included the following people:

– Lisa Smith & Kay Tucker (Law Library, they taught all the classes)

– Andrew Crockett (law academic)

– Kerryn Jackson, Adam Spellicy, Kathy Buxton (The I.T. Team)

– Len Webster and the EDFLU team (Education Development and Flexible Learning Unit)

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About Monash law school

• The law faculty at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia) has 2,500 undergraduate law students and 500 postgraduate students.

• We have 60 general staff and 120 academic staff

• The law degree in Australia is an undergraduate degree, students may complete a straight law degree or a combined degree with another faculty.

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Legal Research Training

• Law Students complete an Introduction to legal research in their 1st year, this is done in the compulsory Legal Process subject

• The law library conducts the training which includes:

– Introduction to Library services, use of Library catalogue

– legal research using Library databases & web resources

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Legal Research Training

• Sessions involve:

• 2 sets of hands-on, 1½ hour computer lab classes (max. 21 students per class)

• 27 classes over 2 weeks in March: 396 attendees, approx. 87% of Legal Process students

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Quizzes

• At the completion of the unit students complete online tutorials and a number of quizzes in WebCT.

• The quizzes cover Library catalogue, case law, legislation and Library databases

• These quizzes do not contribute a grade mark for their subject, lecturers do require proof of completion of the work.

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Pilot Project

• The project ran over 1st semester, 2004

• To be successful we have found that it is more effective if legal research is incorporated into a compulsory law subject and students receive a mark for their work.

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Advanced legal research training

• Advanced Legal Research in Skills, Ethics & Research D unit – part of Administrative law subject

– Compulsory for all LLB students enrolled from 2003 onwards

– 3 credit point unit

– November 2003 intensive summer pilot completed by 14 students

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Advanced legal research training

• Conducting the advanced legal research course during the later years of the degree is beneficial for the following reasons: – To reinforce and build upon existing legal research

skills

– equip students with skills necessary for entering the workforce

• Articled Clerk

• Government/Law Reform agency

• Further study/academia

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Technology used

• The University developed an on-line learning environment called Interlearn, the law faculty then developed this further and it evolved into a package called Lex.

• We use a number of different technologies to deliver this course, including the monash portal, Webct and Lex

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Monash Portal

• The monash portal is used by students to access all the information they need whilst at monash.

• Subjects that students are enrolled in appear on the left hand-side of the portal. Students click on their subject to access any online material for that course.

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WebCT

WebCT is used for:

• Online Review Exercises - multiple choice questions

• Survey (end of Unit)

• Journal, Case law & Legislation revision tutorials

• WebCT is linked from LEX

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Lex

• LEX enables students participating in an online learning environment to experience the interaction and collaboration with peers and teachers that is often attributed to a face-to-face, small group or tutorial environment.

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Lex

• is an online learning tool

• introduces & organises material for the Unit

• provides a way of submitting assessments

• provides a discussion forum

• provides Notices

• Allows teachers to Mark online

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Lex

• Content is separated into three hierarchical components – modules, sections and activities.

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Lex

• A module is the broadest grouping of information within the curriculum covered by a unit’s LEX materials. Together the modules should form a framework for understanding the unit, which enables the student to identify the "bigger picture". contained within them.

• Sections are logical groupings of information within the larger module, and contain the individual activities which students are required to complete.

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Lex

• Organiser is the overview of the Subject, this is the front page of the subject.

• It provides a visual overview of the subject.

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Navigation bar links

organiser – this link takes you to the unit’s organiser screen. The organiser page is your access point for the subject study material and the assessable activities that you are required to complete.

search – this button enables students to read other participants’ responses to shared activities. Students can search for the responses by student name and/or activity name.

contacts – this link takes you to a list of unit staff and students with e-mail links. discussion – this link allows students to enter the discussion forum for this

subject, where all students and the unit presenter can engage in online discussion.

notices – this link takes you to important notices that have been posted by the teacher..

logout – this logs you out of the LEX online learning system.

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Lex - Section

• Each section has:

– an introduction to the topic

– preparation – readings, Web links, Notes pages

– activities

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Lex - Activities

• Activities are the smallest units within the LEX structure and represent the individual items of work that the students must complete, activities can be individual or shared. If shared then all students in the unit can view each others work.

• There are four types of activities within Lex, they are:– Instruction to do something outside of lex, i.e. go to another

website or read articles, etc.

– Textbox only activity, a student types in a response in the textbox

– Feedback box, this is a textbox and a posting to a newsgroup

– File upload – Longer type of text response that is uploaded as a document

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Lex - Activities

• All activities are initially marked with a

• When the response is saved (and sent to the teacher) this will change to a

• When feedback is available students will see a

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Assessment Tool

• The Assessment tool homepage provides a tabular view of the subjects assessable activities. The students are listed vertically in the table and each cell within the body of the table represents the status of a student's response to one activity.

• Response status is shown as:

• the student has not saved a response to the activity

• the student has saved a response to the activity (it does not mean they have submitted their "final" response, simply that they have saved a response of some kind).

• the teacher has saved a mark and/or feedback for the student

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Assessment Tool

• From the table teachers can assess a single student's response to a single activity by clicking the image in the relevant cell (see A in the image below).

• Teachers can also assess a single student's response to all activities by clicking the "All activities" link in the last column (see B in the image below).

• Alternatively, a teacher can assess all student's responses to a single activity by clicking the "All students" link at the bottom of the table

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Assessment Tool

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Marking online

• When a student has recorded a response, the teacher clicks on the green tick corresponding to the activity they wish to assess.

• The screen will display the introductory text and activity description that the student was presented, followed by the student's response.

• A sample student response with teacher feedback recorded is displayed in the next slide.

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Assessment Tool – Providing feedback & Marks

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Further information

• The law library conducted the training and setup the learning environment for this project, You can contact the law librarian, Lisa Smith at Lisa.Smith@lib.monash.edu.au if you would like more detail on the project.

• Andrew Crockett is the Director of Skills & Ethics and published a paper on this project in the Staff and Educational Development International journal in December 2003. He can be contacted at: Andrew.Crockett@law.monoash.edu.au

• Lex related questions can be directed to me, Kathy.Buxton@law.monash.edu.au or Len.Webster@law.monash.edu.au