JILT 1997 (2) - Migdal & Cartwright
Pure Electronic Delivery of Law Modules - Dream or Reality?
AbstractProfessional and Academic Bodies both in the UK and overseas have properly questioned the quality of so-called distance learning programmes when compared to campus based delivery systems. CD-ROM courseware raises the possibility of significantly improving both the quality and delivery of distance learning materials. This paper details the production and piloting of courseware by the School of Legal Studies at Wolverhampton University aimed at delivering, purely electronically, two law modules in the areas of negligence and medical law. The paper also considers the possible pedagogical advantages of student centred courseware. Key words: Legal Education - Computer-based learning - Improving the quality of distance learning programmes - Student Evaluation This is a refereed article published on 30 June 1997. Citation: Migdal S and Cartwright M, 'Pure Electronic Delivery of Law Modules - Dream or Reality?, 1997 (2) The Journal of Information, Law and Technology (JILT). <http://elj.warwick.ac.uk/jilt/cal/97_2migd/>. New citation as at 1/1/04: <http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/jilt/1997_2/migdal/> 1. Introduction - Why Electronic Delivery?The School of Legal Studies at Wolverhampton University has for many years successfully used student centred delivery methods on its home based undergraduate programmes (see: Cartwright M and Migdal S 1991 ). In addition, the last few years has seen the introduction and rapid growth of paper based distance learning programmes for many of us; at Wolverhampton, for example, we had at one stage some 4,500 students registered on our LLB (Distance Learning) programme. Our perpetual concern with such paper based programmes was the (then) apparently insurmountable practical problem of ensuring the distance learning student had access to the quality and quantity of resource materials that the law library provided for our home based students. In parallel with this has been a concern to enhance the learning experience of the campus-based student. The appearance in 1991 of the original beta version of Iolis, a computer assisted legal instruction package produced by the Moodie P (1997) and also Widdison R (1995) . Iolis, of course, covers a number of undergraduate subject areas and is intended primarily as an additional learning resource. Indeed there are strong arguments against the use of courseware as a complete substitute for face to face tuition. (Paliwala, 1994) However, our primary concern was with those who do not have the benefit of face to face tuition i.e. distance learners. For these courseware as de novo tuition and learning is, we believe, not only viable but a vast improvement on existing systems of distance delivery. Furthermore, we share the view of Widdison and others of the many practical advantages of courseware as a delivery method to campus based students as well; for example, honing legal research and information technology skills and, most importantly, freeing the library of the demands of large numbers of students all trying to access a particular case or article at the same time. Our experiences had led us to question the surface learning consequences of the traditional 'chalk and talk' method of delivery and indeed discard it in favour of a student centred delivery and acquisition approach.We do not argue that such an approach necessarily produces deep learners but we believe that it provides the tools to give individuals the choice. As Widdison states: 'instant and convenient access to large amounts of full text primary sources...will encourage students to explore and become increasingly familiar with the true raw materials of the law rather than the precooked, pre-digested versions'. Our courseware with its combination of full case reports, synopses and commentaries, text, articles and hypertexted study plans dramatically improves the quality of such tools. see generally: Jones R and Scully John (1996) 2. Our ProjectIn 1995 the University allocated £100,000 to a multimedia development fund to be divided amongst three schools, law, languages and business with the objective of each school producing one CD-ROM. £54,000 of this fund went on common programming and other production costs (utilising the expertise of staff and students involved with the University's unique degree in multimedia studies) and the Law School was granted £22,000 of the remainder to cover authoring and video production costs. Accordingly we set out in December 1995 to produce a CD-ROM containing two student based 15 credit rated modules; one postgraduate in medical law the other undergraduate covering negligence. The objective was to produce a delivery programme which whilst replacing face to face tuition tried to retain many of its accepted advantages. As such and unlike IOLIS we made a policy decision to include a significant amount of video and animation; for example, 'talking head' lecturers and case law re-enactments. We took the view that students, particularly distance learning students, appreciated human contact! One criticism that had been voiced in respect of some of the first CAI packages in law was that the human element was missing. The experience on our undergraduate distance learning programme, where audio and video tapes of revision and review lectures are provided, is that students greatly appreciate the, albeit limited, human contact that these tapes provide. Accordingly, we took the view that it was important to present study materials with a human face with which students could identify. We decided that video lectures and video enactments were ways in which we could show that human face. We do not suggest that video is the only or indeed the best method of CAI delivery of materials but we are convinced that the moving image is the best visual medium and, without wishing to be at all flippant, most fun. We soon learned one possible reason for IOLIS excluding video. Whilst it is an acceptable overstatement to say that a CD-ROM can have almost unlimited amounts of text, its video and animation content is limited to about 80 minutes running time and every minute of video dramatically reduces the amount of text space. We were forced to make choices between video and text (a choice that will not need to be made once the new generation of DVD CD-ROMs allowing up to 6 hours of video come on to the market). Accordingly case re-enactments were limited to two and our plan for talking head introductions to each workplan was jettisoned. Needless to say insufficient video was one of the criticisms - Murphy's law? It should be noted at this point that another way in which our product differs from Iolis is that it was not designed to be used as part of a network. Although, we understand, there is no technical reason why the CD courseware could not be run from a network server provided that the individual workstations are equipped with appropriate video and audio facilities, the CD-ROM was primarily designed for use on a individual basis, hence our claim to provide 'a library in your home'. It may be objected that this appears to limit the use of the package to institutions which have sufficient facilities for students to use the CD-ROM on an individual basis and that, as a consequence, institutions will be required to purchase multiple copies of the CD. We would answer these criticisms firstly by emphasising that we see the primary market for the product as distance learning students. Secondly, it is the case that more and more students are coming to university fully conversant and equipped with computer technology. At Wolverhampton 30% of the students on our first year full and part time undergraduate programmes owned or had access to multi-media machines. We ought to add that current and future electronic media productions will be available via the Internet.The present problems in respect to the streaming of video limit the extent to which products which use significant amounts of video can be successfully delivered via the World Wide Web. However, these difficulties are gradually being overcome and we are confident that in the very near future the streaming of video images will be commonplace on the 'Net'. Indeed, we are presently developing employment law electronic teaching and learning materials for delivery on the Internet which include text, audio and video. 3. The End ProductNine months gestation resulted in a beta (prototype) version of a CD-ROM containing:
The following screen graphics illustrate some of the features of the Wolverhampton CD-ROM:
Figure 1: Screen illustrating the use of one of the video enactments on the CD, in this case the House of Lords scene from the enactment of
Figure 2: This screen illustrates the use of the video lecture. It will be noted that the lecture is subtitled and that the student is able to select key words which then appear on the left of the screen. These are 'hot words' which link to further text or video on the topic.
Figure 3: This screen illustrates the Case Digest which is a key feature of the CD
Figure 4: This screen introduces the student to the study options 4. The Financial Costs of the Project4.1 Production CostsThe academic team consisted of the authors of this paper aided by a temporary legal researcher (legal content) and Dr Ian Parkin MB. Ch.B now University Clinical Anatomist at the University of Cambridge (medical content). (Human anatomy was originally only included as additional but hardly essential materials for the medical negligence students. When we involved our medical consultant we were both surprised and pleased to note that the presentation of anatomy in three dimensional animations was somewhat original and would go some way to satisfying the needs of first year anatomy students particularly because medicine, like law, is moving towards more student centred learning. A separate CD-ROM is being made available for such medical students) The completely in-house production team consisted of a computer programmer (using Asymetric Toolbook version 4), a graphic artist (using 3-D studio) and a video production unit. The external costs were those of professional actors (£275 each per day ) and hiring film locations ( use of the 'Paisley' café, for example, cost £200 for a day's filming of Donoghue v Stevenson.) - each case re-enactment cost between £2,500 and £3000 in total- and obtaining a licence to reproduce copyright materials. Volume production of the CD-ROMs cost £500 to produce the Master and £1.75 for each CD for orders up 500 and 85p per CD-ROM if more than 500 were ordered. The inlay cards and jewel boxes added about 50 pence per CD-ROM to the overall cost. (All sums quoted are exclusive of VAT) 4.2 Cost of CopyrightWhilst case synopses and commentaries are deemed by students to be valuable learning aids (cf: the popularity of case books etc) we were convinced that the 'law library in your home' slogan could only be justified if full case reports were included. How were these to be made available? Whilst there is no copyright in the words used by the judges in their judgments, the format in which they are reported whether by Butterworths (All England Reports) or the Council of Law Reporting (all the Official Law Reports) or, indeed, any publisher is copyrighted. Butterworths very kindly gave permission to include copies of their All England Reports and further provided them in digitised form. That permission, quite understandably, is limited to our own students' educational use. The Council of Law Reporting has since indicated that, as a registered charity, it too might well give such limited permission and Context Ltd. who hold the Council's permission to reproduce the Official Law Reports in electronic format would, in such circumstances, provide the cases in digitised format for a relatively nominal sum of money. If we wished to sell the CD-ROM commercially Butterworths made it clear that if permission to reproduce was given at all it would be at a cost which might be prohibitive. Of course, since producing the CD-ROM, the Lord Chancellor's Department has started to put current House of Lords judgments onto the Internet thus ameliorating, to this extent at least, some of the copyright costs. Such case reports can be freely downloaded from the Net onto the CD-ROM program subject only to certain non-financial copyright conditions. The postgraduate module includes articles from the Medical Law Review published by the Oxford University Press. There was no difficulty in obtaining unconditional copyright permission to reproduce these but the cost of £15 per 1000 words was relatively expensive. 4.3 The Human CostsThe personal commitment demanded to see the production through cannot be over-emphasised. Our eagerness caused us to make a cardinal error at the outset namely to assume that the order of things was to produce text and then present it to the programmer for programming! Completely wrong! Involve the programmer right at the beginning, explain the objectives and wait for him/her to tell you how the materials need to be presented for programming purposes. We found that we spent perhaps 100 hours re-formatting the text in the light of the programmer's requirements. That bitter experience has led us to now produce a software package which operates as a program template enabling any one who has word processing skills to author electronic teaching packages. The number of staff hours even excluding the wasted 100 mentioned above far exceeded our wildest nightmares! We had anticipated approximately six months worth of staffing hours (i.e. 1000 hours or so) - proof reading of both content and hypertext links alone has taken 250 hours! Furthermore there are always improvements to be made. One difficulty was deciding when to be content enough with the current position to go to press leaving future improvements to later editions. Whilst authoring, if not proof reading, hours can be calculated with some accuracy what took us by surprise was the time spent managing the rest of the production team - media artists appear to have a rather more relaxed attitude to meeting deadlines than lawyers - arranging actors, film locations and so forth. Many days seem to have gone by with apparently little concrete achievement. 5. UpdatingThe CD-ROM is designed for continuing use. Our hope is that students will find the materials on the CD-ROM, particularly the case reports, of continuing interest and use to them. However, we accept that the CD probably has a two to three year 'shelf-life'. Accordingly we propose to maintain and support the CD by giving users direct access to our home page on the Internet), where they will find a dedicated link which will give them access to updating materials. These will include commentary, cases and links to appropriate web sites. 6. InteractivityWe accept that the real challenge for this type of courseware is to create as far as is possible the interactivity experienced in face to face seminars and we have to concede that there is still some way to go towards the ideal but we believe that we can properly claim that the courseware is interactive. Apart from the interactivity inherent in hypertext links allowing the user to 'criss-cross' (Spiro, 1988) the materials the program permits direct E-Mail links to the tutor. WWW versions of the courseware will dramatically improve interactivity by use of video-conferencing, chat boxes and the like. 7. The Importance of the WorkplansThe workplans form the foundation of the user's studies. The students are advised to work through each of four workplans per module (over a three week cycle) and use the hypertext links therein to navigate around the other features of the courseware. Each workplan contains stated objectives and self assessment questions. The user is able to call up a list of cases, statutes and articles which will assist them in attempting the self assessment question. When ready the user is invited to write their answer to the self assessment question in the courseware's jotter (i.e. notebook). Immediate feedback is provided by suggested outline answers which can only be accessed once a satisfactory attempt at an answer has been made. The outline answers are, in fact, word count generated. Further feedback is available to the student because he can e-mail his answer and/or any queries relating thereto directly to a tutor via the E-Mail icon on each page of the program.
Figure 5: This screen shows a workplan study question and a selection of the materials available to the student to help him or her to answer it.
Figure 6: This screen shows an example of an outline answer to a workplan question, in this case a question about the standard of care in medical negligence cases. The highlighted words are links to the case digest. 8. Piloting the CD-ROMWe have piloted this delivery method this academic year amongst 50 students enrolled on the following three courses: LLB (Full time) LL.B (Part Time) and LLM (Full Time). The undergraduates used the CD as a resource in addition to the other methods of delivery of their negligence module. Our expectation of the LLM students was that they would take the CD away and only contact us on an individual basis with particular problems. In fact lack of student self confidence in this completely novel delivery method led to an almost immediate demand for face to face group contact and we succumbed to seeing the group for two x two hour workshops during each three week cycle. An evaluation was undertaken both by way of a written questionnaire (a copy of which is appended hereto) given to all users and by face to face observations and discussions with users.The response rate was 78% amongst the 15 students taking the LLM module and 22% from the 35 using the CD-ROM as a resource in their undergraduate Tort studies. All LLM students were required to use the courseware; the undergraduate students were mere volunteers. 8.1 Programme ProfileIt should be noted that all students who took part in the evaluation were based at the Wolverhampton Campus of the University as either full or part time students. Students on our Distance Learning Programme have not, as yet, participated. This, we believe, may be of great significance. Those upon whom it was piloted have experienced traditional delivery methods with which they were able to make comparisons. Distance Learning students would not be in that position. 8.2 Age Profile67% of the respondents were over 35 years, 22% between 31 and 35 years and 11% between 18 and 20 years. 8.3 Computer Experience33% of the respondents claimed to have substantial experience in computer use. 56% claimed little experience and 11% had no experience. 8.4 Setting up the ProgramOnly one respondent found this 'difficult'. Almost all said it was 'easy' or 'very easy'. 22% of the respondents took over two hours to become comfortable with the features of the program; 33% between 1 and 2 hours and 22% between 30 and 60 minutes and 23% between 0 and 30 minutes. What is clear is that a face to face session is of use to facilitate the students ability to use the program. 8.5 Design of Screen Menus and Operating AidsWe asked a number of questions concerning such issues as screen design and on-screen aids such as the task bar, scroll bar and print buttons to help us in the design of future versions. There were a number of technical difficulties with this version of the program upon which many respondents commented. These difficulties have now been resolved. With this exception, almost all respondents found these features helpful. One respondent, however, complained about the 'flashy graphics'! 8.6 Value of Program Materials67% of the respondents rated features such as the video lectures, video re-enactments, text, workplans, case reports and synopses and study questions as 'excellent' or 'good'. The remainder found these to be 'acceptable'. One respondent, however, felt that there were too few lectures and that the video re-enactments were unhelpful because they were of the two most famous cases '...that hardly needed to be shown on video'. (There may be a moral here that you cannot cater for first year undergraduates and postgraduates with the same materials.) That student also doubted the quality of the text. The majority however rated the video re-enactments as 'excellent' value and the video talking heads as 'acceptable' .We accept that one could acquire knowledge of the facts of cases much more quickly than the time taken to watch a video re-enactment thereof, but the latter allows for greater depth of knowledge and understanding. During our observations of students using the CD it was clear that they found the video re-enactments very enjoyable to watch emphasising a point made earlier about our wish that the CD should be fun to use. 8.7 The WorkplansThere was a wide variety of responses to the question relating to the time spent working on each workplan. Time spent ranged from below 20 hours to more than 50. 56% of the respondents found the quantity of materials relating to the workplans to be about right. 11% found them too much and 11% found them to be too little. The remaining respondents did not answer this question. One student suggested that '...more guidance on approach at the beginning would have helped. Very easy to wander.' 8.8 Rating44% of the respondents rated the CD as 'excellent' as a learning resource, 11% as 'good', 11% as 'acceptable' and 11% as 'poor'. The remaining respondents did not answer this question. 22% found it to be an 'excellent' substitute for lectures, 33% 'acceptable' and 11% 'poor'. The rest did not answer this question. One respondent remarked that: 'If it is going to be a substitute for face to face lectures - need a lot more video lectures.' 22% found the CD to be an 'excellent'substitute for tutorials, 11% 'good', 11% 'acceptable' and 44% 'poor'. Estimated Savings in Library Time and Photocopy Costs 22% of the respondents considered that the CD saved them less than 25% of time in the law library as compared to a traditionally delivered module, 11% felt it saved them 25-49%, 34% saved 50-74%, 22% saved 75-90% and 11% saved them 100% of time. As regards photocopying costs, 22% felt they saved less than 25% compared to a traditional module. 22% saved 25-49% of costs, 11% saved 50-74%, 33% saved 75-99% and 11% saved 100% of their costs. A number of respondents suggested that what they saved in photocopy costs they lost in printing out the materials - reflecting an interesting but, perhaps, understandable preference for hard copy for revision purposes. 8.9 The MaterialsNo respondent thought there was 'too much' in the way of full case reports. 56% of the respondents thought there was 'too little' and 34% thought it was 'about right'. The amount of video lectures were found to be 'about right' by 44% of respondents and 'too little' by 44%. 22% considered there was 'too much'. 66% of respondents thought that there was 'too little' by way of case synopses and 34% thought this was 'about right'. (It should be noted that on the latest version of the CD all cases referred to in the text are supported by either a case synopsis or a full case report or both.) The amount of text was thought to be 'too little' by 34% of respondents and 'about right' by 64%. 8.10 General Observations44% of respondents agreed with a statement that they needed additional materials to support their studies, 44% 'strongly agreed' with this. 12% 'strongly disagreed' with this statement. All respondents 'agreed' or 'strongly agreed' with a statement that they needed additional face to face tuition. 67% of respondents 'agreed' or 'strongly agreed' that the CD represented good value for money. 33% 'disagreed' or 'strongly disagreed' with this. Because the courseware covered the complete LLM module the price indicated to such students was £40 whereas the indicator to the undergraduate students was only £15 because the courseware only covered part of the traditional tort module. One student noted that: 'The quantity of material for the money represents outstanding value.' 44% of respondents would not purchase another CD package in respect of other studies. 78% of respondents felt that the program would be improved with the addition of multiple-choice type self assessment questions. 8.11 Evaluation ConclusionsAs can be seen from the above statistical analysis, there were a wide range of reactions to the CD from the wildly euphoric (one student told us he thought the CD was 'Marvellous - Splendid - 1st Class') to the bitterly critical. However, the preponderance of responses were very positive. Some of the negative responses may have resulted from early technical difficulties, since resolved, that some students experienced. Some may have resulted from simple resistance to change and innovation and the fear of technology. All made comparisons with the 'placebo' of traditional lectures. It may be significant that the majority of users were over 35. Some students simply did not like using a computer. One told us that: 'After a while, eyes would get sore, shoulders aching - a health hazard!' In addition, we may have underestimated the extent of 'techno-fear' and the blind panic that some students experienced when faced with an on-screen error message! Some students were very resentful of the time they found themselves spending on becoming familiar with the hardware and software. Time, they felt, which should have been spent on study. One student said that 'I feel for me that valuable studying time was used getting familiar with the technology.' But he went on to say: 'However, this in itself I consider not a bad thing as I have had some useful IT experience as well as learning Medical Negligence...' The clear message from this experience was that students felt they needed a considerable amount of support in understanding and making use of the technology. In addition to the above, the most significant findings of the evaluation were that: a) the vast majority of students using the CD did not see it as their only source of information but as an extremely useful additional resource.
b) There is still resistance to materials in electronic form. Students seem to need and want hard copies of the information. It surprised us that some students took the disk and then made hard copies of the entire contents!
c) An obvious and predictable finding was that however well designed the study materials are, students still place a very high value on personal contact with tutors and other students.
We would remind the reader, however, that those who took part in the evaluation did so as on-campus students and consequently had the normal expectations of campus based students to the availability of teaching and learning facilities and contact with tutors/lecturers. As stated at the outset our objective was to improve the service to distance learning students. Such students have a different set of expectations in respect of their studies and we would, accordingly, expect much more acceptance of the lack of face to face contact. 9. ConclusionsThere is an on-going debate about the value of Computer Assisted Learning (see: Moodie P (1997) and also Widdison R (1995)). The title of this paper poses the question whether there can ever be pure electronic delivery. Our general answer, at present, is a qualified 'yes'. Distance learners presently learn by delivery of purely paper based materials. Electronic delivery via CD-ROM is a significant improvement on this. And because of the increasing costs of full time education and the uncertainty of law-based jobs on qualification we are convinced that the next millennium will see a significant and increasing demand for 'home based' tuition. As far as home based students are concerned we believe pure electronic delivery can be successful provided firstly, that the user is already computer literate and secondly, has previously used a CD-ROM as an additional resource to their law studies. What is surely beyond argument is that the CD-ROM is an extremely valuable learning tool as a resource alongside more traditional delivery methods. Whatever one's personal views multimedia delivery is ignored at one's peril. It is here to stay and to play an increasingly important part in the lives of both law students and practitioners. Delivery via CD-ROM will meet an expectation for computer enhanced education from those now exposed to such as they proceed through both primary and secondary education. It will also meet the expectation of practitioners that students taking up training contracts know how to use electronic resources. Our message must be 'Go out and prepare for the age of electronic legal education'. 10. The Evaluation Questionaire MEDICO-LEGAL LIBRARY
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