Victoria Duke, Indiana Tech Law School: “Bringing Exercises in Large Classes”
Victoria Duke is an Associate Professor at Indiana Tech Law School, and at the 2014 Igniting Law Teaching conference she presented within the Active Learning Pod with her presentation, “Bringing Exercises in Large Classes.” In her session, she addresses the problem that many doctrinal professors experience, which is that they hold a belief that incorporating skills into their classroom would take away from their lesson plan. The interviewing mode of instruction can address this problem. Divide the classroom into groups. Provide them with a fact pattern. Tell the students that they are lawyers preparing to interview a client. The proposed questions to the client should elicit the client’s responses to trigger elements of the rule.
This video is part of a video collection from the Igniting Law Teaching, hosted by LegalED at American University Washington College of Law. Responding to the calls for legal education reform, the conference -- the first of its kind -- created a forum for professors experimenting with cutting edge technologies and techniques in law teaching with the goal of spreading their ideas to the broader community. The talks were modeled on TEDx Talks, with each speaker on stage alone, giving a well scripted and performed talk about an aspect of law school pedagogy. The goal of LegalED is to curate a growing collection of short, 10-minute videos on law school-related pedagogy that will inspire innovation and experimentation by law professors to bring more active learning and practical skills training into the law school curriculum. This videos, and others like it, are available on LegalED, a website developed by a community of law professors interested in using online technologies to facilitate more active, problem-based learning in the classroom, in addition to more assessment and feedback.
Victoria Duke is likely one of the few law professors who have experienced the law by traveling three intertwined legal career paths. Private practice, adjudicating cases in municipal court, and teaching, at one time in her life, was only a snippet of her day. At Indiana Tech School of Law, Professor Duke teaches Torts, Advanced Torts, and Juvenile Law. These multiple legal paths lead her to understand that the goal is not teaching, but rather providing a learning opportunity. Hence, she developed the love for innovating education through experiential learning.
LegalED aims to harness the power of the internet for legal educations. It facilitates blended or flipped learning – by migrating lectures to the web, LegalED frees up classtime for active learning that challenges students to learn the essential lawyering competencies while they are in law school. Professors may assign the videos in any combination for students to view outside of the classroom for active learning that challenges students to learn the essential lawyering competencies while they are in law school. LegalED seeks to develop and maintain a vibrant online community of teachers and students of the law, creating a central hub for the community. Through the video collection, teachers can be inspired to borrow, adapt, and bring great teaching moments into their own courses. With an internet platform, LegalED opens up formerly isolated classrooms by sharing showcasing, celebrating and inspiring innovative teaching. Simply put, the vision of LegalED is to inspire innovation in legal education. Join the movement!
The LegalED 2015 Igniting Law Teaching conference will take place on Friday, March 20th, from 9am to 6pm. Register to attend in person or live stream the event.