Abstract Accepted for SLSA Conference 2015

This is the abstract submitted and accepted for the Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference in April 2015 (in the Legal Education strand)

Could you make it a bit more MOOCy?

Dr Simon Sneddon, University of Northampton

Key words: MOOC; Connectivism; Blended Learning

This paper takes as a starting point one of Paul Schrag's views of the future; that one of the only ways law schools are going to survive is by “incorporating MOOCs” into their offering, by blending the delivery and using MOOCs for information delivery and live teachers for face-to-face sessions.

The paper argues that while HEIs are moving toward blended learning, the starting point, however, is generally the traditional lecture and seminar module, with additional online resources and some online assessment. Stephenson wrote that “Experience has long been considered the best teacher of knowledge. Since we cannot experience everything, other people's experiences, and hence other people, become the surrogate for knowledge” and Siemens (2005) also said that connectivism has implications for the design of learning environments. This paper suggests that the use of MOOC elements accessible to students and non-students can help to incorporate elements of connectivism more directly into law teaching.

The author co-developed an International Law MOOC in 2013/14, and this was deconstructed and evaluated by existing final year undergraduate law students, who were asked to judge the attraction, perceived usefulness, suitability for existing modules, and levelness of each element. Their responses are being used to design cMOOC-style elements within the final year of undergraduate law modules that are open to both students and non-students, and will allow all participants to interact.

The paper concludes that Schrag’s view, while perhaps a little apocalyptic in nature, is nonetheless an extremely useful starting point for the future of delivering legal education.

REFERENCES:

Schrag, P., MOOCs and Legal Education: Valuable Innovation or Looming Disaster, Villanova Law Review, [Vol. 59: p.83, 2014]

Siemens, G., 2005, Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, http://www.itdl.org/journal/jan_05/article01.htm

Stephenson, K., n/d, What Knowledge Tears Apart, Networks Make Whole, http://www.netform.com/html/icf.pdf [Reprinted from Internal Communication Focus, no. 36]