New Approaches to Law Education: Making the Case for Web-based Learning

Web-based instruction and online learning are changing customary practices in education. As conventional patterns for content delivery are influenced by new and improving technologies, educators are challenged to keep up with modern innovations while maintaining pedagogically sound teaching methods. These challenges are further exacerbated by issues of time, money, quality and access. They are felt campus-wide, even among law professors, the “traditionalists of traditionalists in academia” (Frederick, 1998). This paper discusses the collaborative efforts between the Dean of the University of Tennessee’s College of Law and a university instructional technologist. It examines the process used to design and develop costeffective Web-based instructional materials, and the role of online learning in reshaping traditional law education.