G3: The Best of Both Worlds: Blending Online and Face-to-Face Learning in Teaching Legal Research

Target Audience: Academic librarians who teach legal research

Learning Outcomes:

1. Participants will be able to design a basic blended learning course utilizing in-person class sessions, webinars, and online course management software.
2. Participants will be prepared to identify and assess at least five different integrated learning techniques to actively involve students in learning legal research.

ABA Rule 306 has permitted law schools to offer distance education classes for some time, and students increasingly enjoy the greater convenience of online courses. Legal research classes are emerging as key areas of potential innovation for law schools testing out online and blended courses. Librarians have a unique opportunity to take the lead in pioneering new ways of teaching in this new learning environment. Panelists will draw on their own experience of creating and teaching conventional, online, and blended legal research classes to review what has worked and what hasn’t. This session will include discussion of webinars, online course management systems, in-person sessions, and integrated learning techniques which actively involve students in mastering the concepts of legal research.

Co-sponsored by ALL-SIS and RIPS-SIS.