Air Gondwana and Mosswood Manor : blended learning environments utilising second life machinima to teach negotiation skills

Seminal reports into higher education in Australia and overseas have recognised negotiation as an essential skill of a practising lawyer and have recommended that all law schools include instruction in negotiation theory and practice in their curricula. Effective negotiation training includes the elements of instruction, modelling, practice and feedback. Ideally such training takes place in the context of small groups. However, this does not necessarily mean that negotiation cannot be taught effectively in the context of large groups. This paper discusses two related blended learning environments that provide instruction in negotiation theory and practice as part of the graduate capabilities program of the undergraduate law degree in the School of Law at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. Air Gondwana, which forms part of the curriculum of the two first year Contract Law subjects, and Mosswood Manor, which forms part of the curriculum of the second year Trusts subject, utilise a common narrative concerning the family of a wealthy industrialist to facilitate learning of negotiation skills. The programs both combine online and in-class components, the online components utilising machinima (computer graphics created without the need for professional software) to depict the narrative. This strategy has enabled the creation of effective, engaging and challenging learning experiences for large cohorts of students studying by different modes (full-time, part-time and distance external). The use of a common narrative, including the same characters and settings, in the two programs also provides a familiar environment in which students advance their learning from one level of attainment to the next.

Entertainment industries at university : designing a curriculum

Universities have not traditionally trained students to work as producers in the entertainment industries. This key entertainment role involves balancing creativity, business and legal skills in order to generate and run entertainment projects. Queensland University of Technology has recently introduced a program to train students for these jobs. The program is interdisciplinary, drawing on expertise from the Creative Industries, Law and Business faculties. This Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) article details the course learning outcomes developed from extensive industry and academic consultation, and addresses some of the difficulties involved in developing such an interdisciplinary teaching program.

The aesthetic system of entertainment

Entertainment Industries is the first book to map entertainment as a cultural system. Including work from world-renowned analysts such as Henry Jenkins and Jonathan Gray, this innovative collection explains what entertainment is and how it works. Entertainment is audience-centred culture. The Entertainment Industries are a uniquely interdisciplinary collection of evolving businesses that openly monitor evolving cultural trends and work within them. The producers of entertainment – central to that practice– are the new artists. They understand audiences and combine creative, business and legal skills in order to produce cultural products that cater to them. Entertainment Industries describes the characteristics of entertainment, the systems that produce it, and the role of producers and audiences in its development, as well as explaining the importance of this area of study, and how it might be better integrated into Universities.

Entertainment industries : entertainment as a cultural system

Entertainment Industries is the first book to map entertainment as a cultural system. Including work from world-renowned analysts such as Henry Jenkins and Jonathan Gray, this innovative collection explains what entertainment is and how it works. Entertainment is audience-centred culture. The Entertainment Industries are a uniquely interdisciplinary collection of evolving businesses that openly monitor evolving cultural trends and work within them. The producers of entertainment – central to that practice– are the new artists. They understand audiences and combine creative, business and legal skills in order to produce cultural products that cater to them. Entertainment Industries describes the characteristics of entertainment, the systems that produce it, and the role of producers and audiences in its development, as well as explaining the importance of this area of study, and how it might be better integrated into Universities.

The relationship between entertainment producers and higher education providers

Cameron, Verhoeven and Court have noted that many screen producers do not see their tertiary education as being beneficial to their careers. We hypothesise that Universities have traditionally not trained students in producing skills because of the division of labour between Faculties of Art and Faculties of Business; and because their focus on art rather than entertainment has downplayed the importance of producing. This article presents a SOTL (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning) whole-of-program evaluation of a new cross-Faculty Bachelor of Entertainment Industries at QUT, devoted to providing students with graduate attributes for producing including creative skills (understanding story, the aesthetics of entertainment, etc), business skills (business models, finance, marketing, etc) and legal skills (contracts, copyright, etc). Stakeholder evaluations suggest that entertainment producers are highly supportive of this new course.

The New Lawyer

This text is designed to implement the Threshold Learning Outcomes (TLOs) for law in the first year, and to incorporate Sally Kift’s First Year Curriculum principles: http://tls.vu.edu.au/portal/site/trans/Resources/KiftTransitonPedagogySixPrinciples_16Nov09.pdf This is a learning-centered text book intentionally designed for first year students and written by experts in legal education and the first year experience. It is written in a tone and style that engages and communicates effectively with first year law students, without compromising its rigour. It provides students with opportunities to contextualise and make sense of their learning by connecting that learning with what they already know, and with current contemporary issues and affairs. This work is designed to ease students through the transition from a diverse variety of backgrounds (such as high school, work or other disciplines) to the first year of law. It provides practical guidance about adjusting to law school and to university. Students are asked to regularly reflect upon why they are studying law. The book also prepares law students for success in their latter year studies in law by ensuring that they are equipped with the necessary threshold concepts and foundational skills to do well: for example, research skills (particularly, online research skills), reasoning skills, written communication skills, negotiation skills, and self-management skills. A range of practical tips on studying law are provided throughout the book. The work also asks students to engage with developing an emergent sense of professional identity – including what it means to ‘think like a lawyer’. In supporting the students to engage with the concept of professional identity, the work begins a process of preparing students for transition from law school to legal practice. This is achieved by providing explanations of how the material being presented relates to the practice of law, as well as practical information relating to employability skills as a new graduate. This work has a number of learning and teaching objectives to enhance the quality of student learning in their first year of law by engaging, motivating and supporting that learning. First, the work is designed to engage first year students with their legal education and with a future sense of professional identity. It does this through its: • Dynamic writing style • Engaging format • Inclusion of contemporary issues and events • Flowcharts, checklists, mind-maps, tables and timelines • Inclusion of real-world problems and dilemmas. Second, the text motivates student learning by promoting active learning. It does this by: • Demonstrating, and asking students to practice, what they need to do – that is, the work is not simply focussed on telling students what they need to know • Including regular self-directed learning exercises throughout each chapter, such as practical exercises for the development of important foundational legal skills • Including exercises that promote student collaboration, and that require students to apply their learning to practical situations, and • Incorporating a range of interesting active thinking points and research activities. Third, the book supports student learning by encouraging reflective learning and independent learning. It does this by including: • Specific content on how to be a reflective practitioner and an independent learner • Exercises that require students to engage in independent learning, particularly in relation to legal research skill development • Exercises requiring students to reflect upon what they have learned, and encouraging students to keep a reflective learning journal • Exercises requiring students to reflect upon their own views and beliefs • Reflection on whether students have achieved the learning objectives articulated at the beginning of the chapter. The work also: • Demonstrates respect for student experiences, views, opinions and values • Acknowledges student diversity • Recognises the importance of being globally minded law students and lawyers • Supports law teachers in using the work in their classrooms through the provision of comprehensive teaching materials.

A collaborative model for learning and assessment of legal placements

This paper will report on the evaluation of a new undergraduate legal workplace unit, LWB421 Learning in Professional Practice. LWB421 was developed in response to the QUT’s strategic planning and a growing view that work experience is essential to developing the skills that law graduates need in order to be effective legal practitioners (Stuckey, 2007). Work integrated learning provides a context for students to develop their skills, to see the link between theory and practice and support students in making the transition from university to practice (Shirley, 2006). The literature in Australian legal education has given little consideration to the design of legal internship subjects (as distinct from legal clinic programs). Accordingly the design of placement subjects needs to be carefully considered to ensure alignment of learning objectives, learning tasks and assessment. Legal placements offer students the opportunity to develop their professional skills in practice, reflect on their own learning and job performance and take responsibility for their career development and planning. This paper will examine the literature relating to the design of placement subjects, particularly in a legal context. It will propose a collaborative model to facilitate learning and assessment of legal work placement subjects. The basis of the model is a negotiated learning contract between the student, workplace supervisor and academic supervisor. Finally the paper will evaluate the model in the context of LWB421. The evaluation will be based on data from surveys of students and supervisors and focus group sessions.

Air Gondwana : Using ICT to create an authentic learning environment to teach basic negotiation skills

In recent years greater emphasis has been placed by many Law Schools on teaching not only the substantive content of the law but also the skills needed for the practice of the law. Negotiation is one such skill. However, effective teaching of negotiation may be problematic in the context of large numbers of students studying in a variety of modes and often juggling other time commitments. This paper examines the Air Gondwana program, a blended learning environment designed to address these challenges. The program demonstrates that ICT can be used to create an authentic learning experience which engages and stimulates students.

The impact of “empirical facts” on legal scholarship and legal research training

Lawyers have traditionally viewed law as a closed system, and doctrinal research has been the research methodology used most widely in the profession. This reflects traditional concepts of legal reasoning. There is a wealth of reliable and valid social science data available to lawyers and judges. Judges in fact often refer to general facts about the world, society, institutions and human behaviour (‘empirical facts’). Legal education needs to prepare our students for this broader legal context. This paper examines how ‘empirical facts’ are used in Australian and other common law courts. Specifically, the paper argues that there is a need for enhanced training in non-doctrinal research methodologies across the law school curriculum. This should encompass a broad introduction to social science methods, with more attention being paid to a cross-section of methodologies such as content analysis, comparative law and surveys that are best applied to law.

Assessing reflection skills in law using criterion-referenced assessment

This paper focuses on the assessment of reflective practice, an issue that has not been fully explored within legal education literature. While the issue of how reflective practice should be taught is one that requires careful consideration, it is beyond the scope of this paper to consider both the teaching and the assessment of reflective practice. Part II of this paper conceptualises reflective practice, and Part III explores the benefits of reflective practice in legal education and the use of reflective writing to assess experiential learning in a legal context. Part IV considers the diverse issues that arise in assessing reflective practice and whether there is an objective method for assessing reflection. Part V of the paper examines the assessment of reflective practice in the context of an exemplar undergraduate law subject that uses a reflective report to assess students’ experiential learning during a court visit.14 Finally, Part VI offers a rubric to facilitate criterion-referenced assessment of reflective practice and thereby provides a framework for assessing reflection skills. It is suggested that the rubric is transferable not only to other law subjects but also to subjects in other disciplines.

Entry into Valhalla : contextualising the learning of legal ethics through the use of Second Life machinima

An ability to recognise and resolve ethical dilemmas was identified by the Australian Law Reform Commission as one of the ten fundamental lawyering skills. While the ‘Priestley 11’ list of areas of law required to qualify for legal practice includes ethics and professional responsibility, the commitment to ethics learning in Australian law schools has been far from uniform. The obligation imposed by the Priestley 11 is frequently discharged by a traditional teaching and learning approach involving lectures and/or tutorials and focusing on the content of the formal rules of professional responsibility. However, the effectiveness of such an approach is open to question. Instead, a practical rather than a theoretical approach to the teaching of legal ethics is required. Effective final-year student learning of ethics may be achieved by an approach which engages students, enabling them to appreciate the relevance of what they are learning to the real world and facilitating their transition from study to their working lives. Entry into Valhalla comprises a suite of modules featuring ‘machinima’ (computer-generated imagery) created using the Second Life virtual environment to contextualise otherwise abstract concepts. It provides an engaging learning environment which enables students to obtain an appreciation of ethical responsibility in a real-world context and facilitates understanding and problem-solving ability.

Reality bytes : technology in real world legal education

The use of technology for purposes such as communication and document management has become essential to legal practice with practitioners and courts increasingly relying on various forms of technology. Accordingly, legal practitioners need to be able to understand, communicate with, and persuade their audience using this technology. Technology skills are therefore an essential and integral part of undergraduate legal education, and given the widening participation agenda in Australia and consequent increasing diversity of law students, it must also be available to all students. To neglect this most crucial part of modern legal education is to fail in a fundamental aspect of a University’s obligation not just to its students, but ultimately to our students’ potential employers and their future clients. This paper will consider how law schools can facilitate the development of technology skills by using technology to facilitate mooting in settings that replicate legal practice. In order to assess the facilities at the disposal of universities, the authors surveyed the law schools in Australia about their equipment in and use of electronic moot court rooms. The authors also conducted and evaluated an internal mooting competition using Elluminate, an online communication platform available to students through Blackboard. Students were able to participate wherever they were located without the need to attend a moot court room. The results of the survey and evaluation of the Elluminate competition will be discussed. The paper will conclude that while it is essential to teach technology skills as part of legal education, it is important that the benefits and importance of using technology be made clear in order for it to be accepted and embraced by the students. Technology must also be available to all students considering the widening participation in higher education and consequent increasing diversity of law students.

Enhancing opportunities to feed forward ; developing problem solving skills using web based scenarios

Universities often struggle to satisfy students’ need for feedback. This is an area where student satisfaction with courses of study can be low. Yet it is clear that one of the properties of good teaching is giving the highest quality feedback on student work. The term ‘feedback’ though is most commonly associated with summative assessment given by a teacher after work is completed. The student can often be a passive participant in the process. This paper looks at the implementation of a web based interactive scenario completed by students prior to summative assessment. It requires students to participate actively to develop and improve their legal problem solving skills. Traditional delivery of legal education focuses on print and an instructor who conveys the meaning of the written word to students. Today, mixed modes of teaching are often preferred and they can provide enhanced opportunities for feeding forward with greater emphasis on what students do. Web based activities allow for flexible delivery; they are accessible off campus, at a time that suits the student and may be completed by students at their own pace. This paper reports on an online interactive activity which provides valuable formative feedback necessary to allow for successful completion of a final problem solving assignment. It focuses on how the online activity feeds forward and contributes to the development of legal problem solving skills. Introduction to Law is a unit designed and introduced for completion by undergraduate students from faculties other than law but is focused most particularly on students enrolled in the Bachelor of Entertainment Industries degree, a joint initiative of the faculties of Creative Industries, Business and Law at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia. The final (and major) assessment for the unit is an assignment requiring students to explain the legal consequences of particular scenarios. A number of cost effective web based interactive scenarios have been developed to support the unit’s classroom activities. The tool commences with instruction on problem solving method. Students then view the stimulus which is a narrative produced in the form of a music video clip. A series of questions are posed which guide students through the process and they can compare their responses with sample answers provided. The activity clarifies the problem solving method and expectations for the summative assessment and allows students to practise the skill. The paper reports on the approach to teaching and learning taken in the unit including the design process and implementation of the activity. It includes an evaluation of the activity with respect to its effectiveness as a tool to feed forward and reflects on the implications for the teaching of law in higher education.

Peer assisted learning, skills development and Generation Y : a case study of a first year undergraduate law unit

The majority of current first year university students belong to Generation Y. Consequently, research suggests that, in order to more effectively engage them, their particular learning preferences should be acknowledged in the organisation of their learning environments and in the support provided. These preferences are reflected in the Torts Student Peer Mentor Program, which, as part of the undergraduate law degree at the Queensland University of Technology, utilises active learning, structured sessions and teamwork to supplement student understanding of the substantive law of Torts with the development of life-long skills. This article outlines the Program, and its relevance to the learning styles and experiences of Generation Y first year law students transitioning to university, in order to investigate student perceptions of its effectiveness – both generally and, more specifically, in terms of the Program’s capacity to assist students to develop academic and work-related skills.

Auditor obligations in an evolving legal landscape

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to look at auditor obligations to their clients and potentially to third parties such as investors, with a focus on the quality of financial disclosure in an evolving legal framework. Design/methodology/approach – The article outlines and compares established and emerging trends relative to information disclosure and contractual performance in parallel contexts where information asymmetry exists. In particular, this article considers the disclosure regime that has evolved in the insurance industry to address the substantial imbalance in the level of knowledge possessed by the insured in comparison to the prospective insurer. Abductive reasoning is used to identify causal constructs that explain the data pattern from which the theorised potential for judicial revision of the interpretation of “true and fair” in line with “good faith” in legal regulation is derived. Findings – The authors conclude that there is little doubt that a duty of good faith in relation to auditor-company contractual dealings and potentially a broader good faith duty to third parties such as investors in companies may be on the horizon. Originality/value – In the context of stated objectives by organisations such as the International Federation of Accountants to reconcile ethical and technical skills in the wake of the global financial crisis, there is an increased need to rebuild public and investor confidence in the underpinning integrity of financial reporting. This paper offers a perspective on one way to achieve this by recognising the similarities in the information asymmetry relationships in the insurance industry and how the notion of “good faith” in that relationship could be useful in the audit situation.