Inside Higher Ed, Faculty and Pedagogy in the Hybrid J.D.:
Largely online J.D. degrees, long restricted by the American Bar Association, are growing in number this fall. Five universities have so far received permission, in the form of “variances” from the ABA, to operate an accredited J.D. program outside of current distance education restrictions.
Two of those universities, the University of Dayton and the University of New Hampshire, started their inaugural hybrid J.D. terms this fall. They are joining Syracuse University, which began offering a program in January of this year, and Mitchell Hamline School of Law, which launched its program in 2015. Southwestern Law School received a variance from the ABA but chose not to offer the program, the admissions office said.
The two new degree programs offer an early look at the pedagogy and the faculty role in online legal education at the J.D. level. …
Diane Klein, a professor at the University of La Verne College of Law and president of the American Association of University Professors chapter there, said that some of the most salient concerns around online education for faculty surround intellectual property, student success and faculty labor. …
Victoria VanZandt, a professor of law at Dayton since 2005 who teaches residential and online classes and is dean of the online J.D., … said that many faculty members in legal education are not enthusiastic about online learning. “You’ll find extreme resistance within law school faculty [to online education], and the reason I say that is we’re entrenched in tradition,” she said. “I do think it is the future of education. I don’t think it’s for everyone.” …
Andrew Strauss, dean of Dayton’s law school, … said that even if the ABA granted more variances, many law schools would not be able to get an online J.D. approved by their faculty, for reasons he believes are affected by nostalgia. “There is a mythology around legal education that people are pretty invested in,” he said. Leaving home, being called on with no warning, sweating in front of the class and telling your friends how terrible the experience was is all part of the mythology, he said. “It’s part of this sort of club that lawyers feel like they’re a part of. I think that there’s some kind of sense of sort of emotional attachment to the status quo and that people are reluctant to, sort of, to want to change that.” …
The ABA has said that observers should begin to expect even more of these programs. “Technology has evolved to make distance learning even more a more robust pedagogy,” the association said in a statement. “As the council has had experience with variances that provide it with some confidence that well-designed distance learning programs lead to acceptable to excellent outcomes, Standard 306 [which describes standards for distance education] has been amended to provide increased opportunities. It is likely that evolution will continue and even more space for distance learning will become permissible without the need for a variance.”
Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:
- ABA Approves First Hybrid Online J.D. (Dec. 19, 2013)
- Syracuse Law School Seeks Approval For Nation’s Second Hybrid Online J.D. Program(Apr. 20, 2016)
- Ben Barton (Tennessee), Syracuse’s Hybrid Online J.D. Program Is Not The Reboot Legal Education Needs (Apr. 23, 2016)
- Loyola-Chicago, Mitchell Hamline, And Seton Hall Offer Weekend J.D. Programs (Dec. 4, 2016)
- Mitchell Hamline Revamps Weekend J.D. Program To Require Students To Be On Campus Only 7 (Rather Than 13) Weekends Per Semester (Dec. 6, 2016)
- ABA Rejects 2U-Syracuse Initial Proposal For A Hybrid Online J.D., While Other 2U-Syracuse Graduate Programs Are Flourishing With Over 1,700 Students (May 7, 2017)
- Mitchell-Hamline Hybrid-J.D. Program To Graduate Its First Class (Jan. 3, 2018)
- Seton Hall’s Innovative Weekend J.D. Program (Jan. 13, 2018)
- Touro Law School Offers New York’s First Hybrid J.D. (Jan. 18, 2018)
- ABA Approves Online JDs At Syracuse, Southwestern (Feb. 14, 2018)
- The Uncertain Landscape For Online Legal Education (Feb. 19, 2018)
- Syracuse Law School’s New Hybrid J.D.: 75% Online, 25% Residential/Externships (Feb. 22, 2018)
- Dayton Is The Seventh Law School To Offer A Hybrid Online J.D. (May 29, 2018)
- Denver Is The Eighth Law School To Offer A Hybrid Online J.D. (Aug. 23, 2018)
- New Hampshire Is Ninth Law School To Offer Hybrid Online J.D., First With IP Focus (March 14, 2019)
