There is a lot of talk these days about flipped learning, blended learning, online learning and lots of other ways to integrate online content into law school courses. There are a lot of advantages to blending online and in-class instruction. For one, it frees up class time for law students to begin to gain exposure to essential lawyering competencies during each course while still covering the doctrinal material that professors hope to assign during a typical semester. 

Top Five Things to Consider When Flipping a Law School Course

1.    What topics do you want to flip?

Before you begin, identify the topics that you typically cover for which the flipped classroom model would make the most sense in the course.  

2.  You don’t have to produce all of the videos.

Don’t be reluctant to assign video content produced by other professors. Like other teaching and scholarly activities, such as writing an effective article, practice guide or even blog post, the production of effective and engaging video content takes time.  As a result, I often assign my students to read law review articles and casebooks prepared by other professors.  Assigning videos prepared by other professors is analogous. Indeed, by assigning material prepared by others, our time is freed up to spend on more active teaching activities.

3.  Begin with planning what will be “flipped in” rather than what will be flipped out.

Plan what you want to do with the additional face-to-face time with students that blended learning will afford.  This is the point of having a flipped classroom.  For example, consider adding new activities into the classroom (such as interviewing, negotiation or drafting exercises) that hone practical lawyering skills and competencies.  

4.  Produce chunked, short video content.

Research shows that effective videos do not exceed 8 minutes in length, and some are even shorter. Break up a longer subject matter into a few chunked segments, making sure that each video addresses a discreet legal topic. Remember to make the video engaging and to speak clearly and concisely.

5.  Hold the students responsible for watching the videos.

Start each class with an assumption that the students watched the video. That will create an expectation for the group. Start the class by expanding on the videos lessons and assigning activities/discussions that ask students to use the theories learned from the videos actively through role plays, simulations, small group work or Socratic dialogue.

Best of luck innovating legal education.  Let us know, in the comment section below, how it goes for you.  What works?  What could be improved?  What insights can you share with the community?

And if you want to learn more about blended learning and other innovations in teaching pedagogy, consider attending LegalED's first conference, Igniting Law Teaching, on April 4th at American University, Washington College of Law, in Washington D.C.

I flipped my class yesterday.  And I think it worked!

The class was on persuasive lawyering.  Over the summer I made a video about persuasive lawyering.  It talks about persuasion in relation to classic rhetoric, and the elements of logos, pathos and ethos.  The video is available on LegalED here.

Here is what I did during the 55-minute class segment that I allocate in my syllabus for introducing the topic:

I assigned the video for students to watch as homework.  It is less than 5 minutes long.  Then, when we got to class, instead of starting the discussion of persuasion with a short lecture on the topic, I started with an exercise.  The students were asked to work with a partner to persuade my co-teacher (I am very fortunate to be co-teaching with Harriet Power from our university’s theater department this semester) and I that we should serve wine and cheese during each class.  The student teams had two minutes to come up with their arguments.  Then, each student team had one minute to stand up and persuade us, with each partner contributing equally to the argument.  Most argued about the health benefits of wine, others about how drinking wine would make the students more relaxed and open, which would facilitate better in class discussions, and others pointed out how the professors could benefit from the wine as well, at the end of a long, busy day.  The theme of culture was raised as well; some arguments tied the wine and cheese to our abilities to learn about different cultures through their food and drink.

My co-teacher and I then facilitated a discussion of the arguments in relation to the theory of persuasion.  We used the students’ arguments as jumping off points – we broke them apart to identify what worked and why, relating everything back to the theory the students had learned from the video and the tactics of persuasion – logos, pathos and ethos.  For example, the argument drew on logos when it referred to the research on the health benefits of drinking red wine.  The part of the argument that was more personal about us as professors and how we could also enjoy the wine, was about pathos, appealing to the audience’s emotions. 

I have taught a class on persuasive lawyering about ten times before and this one seemed different; it was better.  Instead of my talking at the students about the foundations of persuasive argument, by flipping the classroom my students could learn the foundational information before coming to class.  That opened up the class for an activity in which the students could actually try it out. 

Another added benefit was that we could provide feedback on the students’ presentation skills as well.  We told them whether their tone was appropriate and authoritative.  By getting the students out of their chairs, we could provide feedback to the students on their posture and stance and how body language can enhance or detracted from the persuasiveness of an argument. 

I hope to make shorter videos on each of the three elements – ethos, pathos and logos – in which I flesh each out in more detail in the coming weeks.

If you have any questions, ask them in the comments section below.  I’d be happy to share more about the experience.  I also welcome comments on the video. 

Flipping learning refers to a growing educational practice (increasingly being adopted in higher education) of using videos to teach doctrinal subjects -- which students watch outside of the classroom -- and then using face-to-face classtime for active, problem-based learning that reinforces what students have learned through online video instruction.  

I think flipped learning could be applied in legal education too.  If students watch doctrinal videos as homework, then classtime can be devoted to activities that reinforce the learning and provide more feedback and assessment.

This website will assemble a growing collection of short videos (each 15 minutes or less) on law and law-related topics (substantive, procedural, practical skills and professional values) so that we can begin to “flip” the law school classroom and devote more face-to-face class time for active, problem-based learning.  A series of videos on contracts is already up and being used by students around the country.  The videos on substantive law could be assigned to students for viewing outside the classroom, thereby freeing up class time for activities that bring in more training on the other competencies proven necessary for successful lawyering, practical lawyering skills and professional values.  This is a blended model of teaching, where we leverage the web for passive learning (listening to lectures) and open up class time for more activities that call on students to use their knowledge in active ways that reinforce and support learning.

We realize that many professors are not trained to teach in this new way.  Our website is designed to support them as they make this transition.  The website also hosts a collection of tools directed at professors interested in bringing teaching innovations into their classrooms.  We are assembling a series of teaching materials (videos, assessment tools, problems and in-class exercises) created, contributed to and curated by world-class teachers in their fields.  The series on pedagogy will be directed at law professors.  These videos will explain how to incorporate more active learning and teaching of lawyering competencies into doctrinal courses with the hope of inspiring others.

Join our growing community!  If you have materials that you would like to share, please let us know.