Shackel on E-Learning in the Law Curriculum

Associate Dean Dr. Rita Shackel of the University of Sydney Faculty of Law has published Beyond the Whiteboard: E-Learning in the Law Curriculum, QUT Law and Justice Journal, 12, 105-132 (2012).

Here is the abstract:

This article discusses the development of an e-learning tool (the E-CAT) for teaching case analysis skills. The paper canvasses a range of issues that impact development of e-learning strategies in higher education and more specifically within the law curriculum. Of primary consideration are the pedagogical issues raised by the use of e-learning strategies and the need to balance clear educational objectives against the cost, time and technological limitations in developing and adopting e-learning tools and e-based teaching strategies. The paper argues that e-learning tools should be carefully crafted to promote active, critically engaged and reflective experiences for students that are consistent with the aspirations of higher education. The paper establishes the E-CAT as a pedagogically driven e-learning tool, which encourages deep and autonomous student learning and offers a model that can be adapted to teach a range of legal skills to students with diverse learning needs.

The article was published in a special issue of QUT Law and Justice Journal on the topic: Legal Education.

Loughnan & Shackel on the Travails of Postgraduate Research in Law

Dr. Arlie Loughnan and Dr. Rita Shackel, both of the University of Sydney Faculty of Law, have published The Travails of Postgraduate Research in Law, 10 Legal Education Review 99 (2009). Here is the abstract:

The face of postgraduate legal research in Australia has changed considerably in recent years. Certainly the number of students undertaking postgraduate research degrees at Australian law schools has burgeoned. Research degree programs in law include Masters by research, PhDs and SJDs. The rise in the numbers of postgraduate research degree students, together with an expanding array of research projects and methodologies, has generated new challenges for the postgraduate scholar, their supervisors and faculties seeking to support such students. These challenges arise in three areas: the intellectual challenges of postgraduate research in law; the personal aspects of the postgraduate research experience; and the supervision process and relationship. This article examines each of these areas, and argues that law faculties, postgraduate research supervisors and students need to reflect on the nature of contemporary postgraduate legal research, the purpose of and rationale for undertaking a postgraduate research degree in law and the unique and multifaceted challenges that must be met in developing, supervising and successfully completing a postgraduate degree project. With the current or prospective postgraduate research student in mind, this article points to some modest suggestions for enhancing law students’ research degree experience.