William Mitchell Goes Online — Is This the Future of Legal Education?
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Starting in 2015, William Mitchell College of Law will begin offering a hybrid curriculum that involves online classes punctuated by intense classroom time. This pretty much puts William Mitchell on the cutting edge of legal education.
The History of (the Lack of) Innovation in Legal Education
In October, the ABA Task Force on the Future of Legal Education released its draft report and recommendation. In the report (pdf), the task force urged the ABA to encourage law schools to innovate and make better use of technology in education. William Mitchell’s Dean Eric Janus observed that most legal education happens more or less the same as it always has: 50-minute blocks of time, three times a week, with students trapped in a classroom.
“The ABA has been a little conservative over the years in terms of its standards and allowing for innovation.” —Dean Eric Janus
Maybe that’s because innovation is discouraged in the legal academe, says Sara Glassmeyer, CALI’s Director of Community Development (though she was not speaking on behalf of CALI). Glassmeyer said that one of her former law students went to an American Association of Law Schools (AALS) Workshop for New Law Teachers, where he was explicitly discouraged from trying anything new. She said many professors even use the same books they were taught from. So, either law schools are not very open to trying to new things, or they aren’t very open about the new things they are trying. Glassmeyer said her attempts to assemble a list of innovative law school programs has been an exercise in frustration.
There are some law schools out there innovating. I have written about Case Western’s “Client-Ready” Practical Skills Program and the similar program offered by Washingon & Lee. And Glassmeyer pointed out that some unaccredited law schools are handing out online law degrees. But William Mitchell is definitely out front not only for seeking a variance from the ABA that will allow it to deliver about half of its curriculum online, but along with Case Western and Washington & Lee, for talking about it.
Read original articleTags: ABA Task Force, William Mitchell, William Mitchell College of Law
