While several law schools are expanding remote summer offerings, many still consider in-person instruction to be the gold standard.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, many law schools found themselves unprepared for the new virtual world of instruction. But as time went on, schools adapted, with a number of them offering online summer courses in 2020 and 2021.
While a portion of educators and administrators still long for the days of yesteryear and believe things will return to the old normal, others in legal education say online offerings, especially in the summer, are here to stay and will only become more robust.
Some experts argue that online instruction allows schools not only to accommodate students’ schedules but also to expose students to a broader array of educational and networking opportunities.
Since 2015, long before the pandemic, students at Mitchell Hamline School of Law have been able to take virtual and blended courses, including summer courses.
Jim Hilbert is vice dean of academic and faculty affairs at St. Paul, Minn., school. He said he believes the pandemic has reduced, or even eliminated, previously held stereotypes about online classes.
“I think the last two years has demonstrated that students can not only master difficult legal subjects via virtual modalities but they can do so without many of the constraints associated with brick-and-mortar learning,” Hilbert said. “As a result, the stigma of online education has largely vanished, and students will continue to demand not only robust, but high quality, remote options.”
Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Ore., offered some online courses as early as 2015. However, Judy Asbury, assistant dean of communications and external relations, said the school continues to view in-person learning as the gold standard.
In 2020, school administrators were forced to move all summer classes online because of COVID-19 restrictions. Although the summer of 2021 didn’t require the same all-virtual format, students were able to choose from a number of online options, including Indian Law
“One of the silver linings that came out of COVID was that we were able to bring in professors and legal experts from around the country to contribute to the course, which enhanced the experience for students,” Asbury said.
This summer’s online offerings will include Indian Law, Animal Law, Environmental Law and Administrative Law courses.
“While we remain committed to inperson learning, we recognize the benefits of offering supplementary learning online, especially in the summer when students have externships and jobs,” Asbury said.
Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University began offering asynchronous online summer courses to its students in 2018. While plans for this year’s summer program had not been finalized at press time, Alison Price, senior associate dean at the Arlington, Va., school, said administrators recognize the importance of providing greater flexibility to students through remote coursework, especially during the summer.
“A large percentage of our students are engaged in externships or are part-time students with full-time jobs and families,” she said.
Administrators at Fordham University School of Law in New York are also in the process of deciding how to deliver their summer 2022 courses. While the school resumed a substantial amount of in-person instruction during the 2020- 21 academic year, its summer courses remained virtual in 2021, said Joseph Landau, associate dean for academic affairs.
University of Hawai‘i at Manoa – William S. Richardson School of Law is offering only one asynchronous online course this summer — the Bar Exam Toolkit — and there are reasons for that.
“Because of the pandemic, we shifted to an online summer program for the first time in 2020,” said Spencer Kimura, director of LL.M. and summer law programs. “While the format made things easier in some ways, what we discovered is that trying to hold classes on Zoom posed a unique set of challenges because of the time zone.”
Although the law school continued to offer courses online during the summer of 2021, Kimura said the school is pushing for a return to in-person learning.
“We believe that in-person learning is still the most effective method,” Kimura said. “Despite the flexibility and convenience of online classes, students do miss out on a lot. For example, a lot of the discussions between students and professors take place before and after class.”
While some remote classes offer scheduling advantages, there are drawbacks when classes are presented in a hybrid environment where everyone is live but only a portion of the students are physically in class and the rest are on Zoom.
“Teaching in a hybrid environment is very difficult, since you have to scan your physical space while checking a Zoom screen for student hands and incoming chat messages,” said Rajesh K. Reddy, director of the Global Animal Law program at Lewis & Clark Law School. “With asynchronous, it is harder to connect with the students to determine whether they are understanding the material.”
As a result, students who opt to do their coursework online may find themselves tackling more written assignments and/or taking more quizzes, Reddy said.
“We use virtual discussion boards where students are required to post at least two or three times a week so I can determine if they are truly grasping the material,” he said. “It is more work for the students and the professor, who has to read and respond to the comments. In a shorter summer term, the need for professors to offer feedback more quickly is intensified.”
But there are also some positives to the additional assignments. Craig Johnston, a law professor at Lewis & Clark, said having students post to discussion groups forces them to commit themselves to their positions and thoroughly engage with the material.
Fordham’s Landau sums it up best:
“As we think about the future of legal education and how best to respond to student demands, it is critical that we be mindful of the different kinds of benefits that come from various online formats and make our decisions accordingly.”
[Editor’s Note: This story originally ran in the Spring 2022 issue of The National Jurist magazine.]
