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The Top Five Reasons Why JDEdge is Right for Your Law School
1. Learning in Law School is Different
With the Socratic method, the case method, legal analysis, and more, law school learning is different from all other disciplines. It’s a whole new experience and language for students. Even if incoming 1Ls attended other graduate programs beforehand, they won’t have been exposed to the rigorous teaching and learning methods of legal education.
If law professors want students to start law school and hit the ground running, students need an introduction to law school teaching methods and professors’ expectations. The overviews and practice experiences that JDEdge provides especially help level the playing field for first-gen students who don’t have any exposure to law school culture. JDEdge helps make law students’ first few weeks of school more productive because they know what is expected of them and what they need to do to meet those expectations.
2. Law School is Scary
Students enter law school with a lot of anxiety. The JDEdge curriculum helps demystify law school teaching and learning, helping students enter their program with confidence, so they can focus on the important things: learning and building community. Once they complete the modules, students will start the semester already having …
- Read and briefed two cases;
- Attended their first law school class;
- Synthesized and outlined rules; and
- Completed an essay exam.
These “firsts” will help reduce anxiety and increase confidence. There is also a whole lesson on where to go for help, as law school is inevitably an adjustment for everyone.
3. JDEdge is Flexible and Deferential
Law schools have the power to decide whether to assign the whole program or focus on particular lessons. Students can complete lessons before they come to campus, during orientation, as part of first semester academic support programming, or at any point during their time in law school. How much they do is up to each individual law school. With the new JDEdge Dashboard, faculty and staff have easy access to information about assigned work and student progress, helping schools implement JDEdge exactly in line with their needs.
AccessLex knows that law schools and faculty are particular about how information is taught (as they should be!). JDEdge makes it clear that students should always prioritize what their professor says, as that is what matters most. JDEdge is designed specifically to be a supplement, not a substitute, and the adaptable resource will never conflict with existing law school teaching and programming.
4. Metacognition Aids Learning
Once students understand the general structure and specific exercises involved in law school, they can generally absorb any doctrine that their professors seek to teach. Developing metacognitive skills – figuring out how they learn best – early on can help students succeed in all their classes.
Through JDEdge, students will develop the ability to identify highly effective learning techniques, determine which study methods work best for them, skillfully self-assess their written work, and develop plans for continued improvement. Consequently, students will be better able to absorb the doctrine from cases and classes, because they already know what they’re supposed to do with it. Faculty will see higher quality exams if students have a strong sense of how to prepare for those exams starting from day one.
5. JDEdge is Free
JDEdge is a free service brought to you by the largest legal education nonprofit. Law schools will never be charged for it, and students will not only gain excellent preparation for law school success – they will gain an introduction to a wealth of free AccessLex resources and programming to support them throughout their legal education and beyond. Give your students an edge on law school success with AccessLex!