Online Bar Support: an XBlog Series

NOTE: On Friday, May 1, 2020, Professor Antonia Miceli (Professor and Director of Academic Support and Bar Examination Preparation at Saint Louis School of Law) moderated a panel hosted by Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law on online ASP programming prior to the recent shift to remote learning and lessons learned in the transition to distance learning.  Panelists included Dr. Susan D. Landrum, Assistant Dean for the Academic Success and Professionalism Program at Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law; Melissa Hale, Director of Academic Success and Bar Programs at Loyola University Chicago School of Law; Quentin Huff, Associate Director of Bar Success at Wake Forest Law; and Anne Johnson, Adjunct Professor of Law at Mercer University School of Law. 

Most educators would encourage slow and steady preparation to produce the best of online pedagogy. The pandemic has left no such luxury of time. Suddenly, we are all having crash courses in virtual learning, virtual conducting of business, virtual shopping, virtual socializing, virtual medicine, and, well, virtually everything. 

Law schools have adapted well to this emergency. But there are important differences between what some scholars are calling Emergency Remote Teaching and the best of what intentional, planned online learning can offer. So, while there is every reason to embrace Emergency Remote Teaching, there is also every reason to continue empirical research and to engage in improved science-based learning that will help law schools implement the most effective online learning in their law schools when it is needed or desirable. We therefore encourage readers from law schools engaging in online bar support interventions to apply for a bar research grant to assess the efficacy of the programming currently in place so that all law schools may learn and improve as a result of study findings. The Bar Success Research Grant Program opens for Letters of Inquiry (LOIs) on May 1.