Advanced legal research

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Advanced legal research incorporating research
into the curriculum and the technology used to
deliver this serviceKathy BuxtonI.T.
ManagerFaculty 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 units 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 units
  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_at_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_at_law.monoash.edu.
  au
• Lex related questions can be directed to me,
  Kathy.Buxton_at_law.monash.edu.au or
  Len.Webster_at_law.monash.edu.au