Taking the Instruction of Law Outside the Classroom: What Does the Khan Academy Have to Teach Us About Law Teaching?

Abstract

The future of law school requires faculties to focus on new learning models that recognize a growing student need for interactive learning and skill acquisition. Problem-solving is one way of changing the traditional law school classroom, for it allows students to work actively on real life examples during class time under the supervision of the professor. But problem solving can be challenging in larger classes, mainly because the process is time-intensive and students need to have an initial grasp of core concepts in order to learn from the tasks, and this knowledge is normally obtained through a lengthy professorial lecture. To ensure a productive problem solving environment, the author began using the model of the flipped classroom in his Evidence course by creating - video podcasts of 10-20 minutes in duration - that he prepared beforehand and posted on-line. These capsules now provide the foundational law and explanation of basic concepts that is no longer delivered through lectures. The capsules have been widely embraced and have the potential to deliver multiple benefits. In addition to being available on demand (which allows students repeat viewings, and the choice of when to watch), capsules are watched before class, freeing up seminar time to focus on deeper learning objectives and explore additional topics that could never be reached before.