Tell us a bit about yourself and your work in NUS.
I am an attorney trained in the United States, and am currently an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law and Deputy Director of the Faculty's Legal Writing Programme. I started practicing law in the US as a litigation attorney, and did civil defense with the California Attorney General's Office. Our family lived in Okinawa, Japan for five years, where - in addition to acting as a staff attorney for a branch of the US government - I first taught law. The teaching was exciting because I got a chance to share what I had learned as an attorney with students. After moving to Singapore, I initially engaged in private practice but then joined the Law Faculty's Legal Writing Programme in its inaugural year, AY 2002-03. I am now Deputy Director in charge of the first year course, LC1006 Legal Analysis, Writing, and Research. I also teach a graduate course for civil law students in common law torts and contracts.
What does the module Legal Analysis, Writing and Research entail?
Legal Analysis, Writing and Research (LAWR) focuses on how to engage in legal reasoning, how to write and organize legal analysis, and how to conduct legal research. In the first semester, LAWR teaches the skills involved in writing objective legal analysis and research into common law or "case" law. In the second semester, LAWR teaches statutory interpretation and research as well as persuasive legal analysis directed at opposing counsel and courts. Students end the year by engaging in a moot court where they stand and deliver an argument to a mock appellate court and answer questions about the argument from instructors, who act as judges.
LAWR is a skills course and so the teaching methodology is experiential. We don't do much lecture. Students practice the skill they are learning in class exercises and assignments. The course also uses what we call a spiral method of learning, which refers to the repetition of skills in different contexts with ever increasing levels of difficulty. This method ensures that students understand fundamental course concepts and can apply them to new situations.
When and how did you get to know about IVLE?
Eleanor Wong, the Director of the Legal Writing Programme, is an extremely proficient and enthusiastic user of technology in the classroom. She arranged for an introductory lecture by CIT's IVLE staff for all Legal Writing Instructors when the programme was first started. Since the programme was in its beginning stages, we were looking for ways to integrate technology with it, and IVLE was one of those ways.
What features do you use most?
We use IVLE in a number of ways, but a main use is student submission of assignments via the Workbin. Previously we had students submit their assignments via our Law Faculty Student Counter, but the Workbin feature has allowed us to set a deadline outside of office hours. This, in turn, allows us to strike a better balance between the compulsory course work requirements in the first year. For example, we can set a Saturday deadline for our written assignments, which frees up Sunday for students to do other things, including studying for other courses. We can also set a deadline in the evening, which inhibits the submission of poor quality work done in the wee hours of the morning.
We also use the Assessment tool as a database for hundreds of questions on legal research. We use the database to generate tests that require students to apply their knowledge of library research skills.
Assistant Professor Lim Lei Theng, Deputy Director in charge of the second year Legal Writing Programme and also an impressive IT user, fashioned a Survey on student workload when the Law Faculty looked into the issue during the last academic year, and administered it to a portion of the student body [via IVLE]. The results were quite informative and were used by the Faculty Curriculum Committee as the basis for recommendations.
In my graduate class, I post class teaching notes for students who want to view a copy. Students give detailed presentations in this class, and they upload their presentation materials on IVLE, which other students then use as a study guide.
Has IVLE changed your teaching style? If yes, how so?
Our teaching style has always been experiential, so IVLE hasn't changed our style, but it has allowed to be interactive in the way we desire. Every one of our Legal Writing Instructors has their own IVLE website. Documents such as syllabi are posted on IVLE, as well as instructions for exercises, and students upload documents created in our exercises to IVLE as well. We also maintain "instructor only" websites where instructors can access documents supporting class exercises, research projects, etc.
How do your students take to IVLE?
Students easily master the steps required to access IVLE.
Besides IVLE, what how else do you use technology in teaching and learning?
We utilize video a fair amount in LAWR classes to help students improve presentation skills. We start working on introductory concepts of professional demeanor in Semester 1, where we tape students doing either a client interview or a research presentation. Then we use these tapes as a basis for improvement in Semester 2, when the students do a moot court argument. We also use student tapes for as a basis for staff instruction and development.
What is the scope for using technology in teaching Law modules?
The scope is quite broad. In previous years we have used Conversant Media, a programme that allowed instructors and students to insert feedback comments on videotapes of student presentation and argument, and we're very interested in other applications as well. The Singapore courts are encouraging attorneys to use technology in innovative ways to present arguments and make court proceedings more efficient, so instructors are using technology and encouraging students to do the same.
