Learning Law through a Lens

Abstract

In 2009 the Australian government funded the Learning and Teaching Academic Standards ('LTAS') project to identify and define academic standards and learning outcomes by discipline area, including law.1 The LTAS project identified six 'threshold learning outcomes' ('TLOs') for Australian graduates in the Bachelor of Law ('LLB') and Juris Doctor ('JD') degrees. The Council of Australian Law Deans subsequently endorsed the TLOs. TLO 5 relates to written and oral communication skills. In this article we examine two separate, but related, visual media projects that facilitate and support the development of this crucial learning outcome in law students at the University of Western Australia. In the first project Kate Offer created short films of courtroom scenes from a fictitious trial, loosely based on the Harry Potter books, which she used in large lectures in the core unit, 'Evidence'. For the second project, Natalie Skead made a film using the virtual reality platform, Second Life, which she used in small group teaching in the core unit, 'Equity and Trusts'.