Presenters: Val Bremner and Colin Jamieson
Mooting is generally accepted as providing a valuable opportunity for law students to acquire practical legal skills whilst engaging in experiential learning which meets the requirements of learning outcomes, accrediting bodies and further equips students with essential practical skills including oral advocacy, legal analysis and problem solving all of which are important requirements for legal practice. The value of this form of learning is particularly high for those students who are coming back to studies having trained in non-law fields, or studied another undergraduate degree, which do not have the underlying skillset as law degrees. Mooting is a good way to help see the differences in approach required and to develop from there.
An increasing number of those “returning” students are seeking to study online and this can pose particular challenges in the delivery of mooting and similar types of learning experience, especially when those students are spread across multiple time zones. Moreover, there is real benefit from the shared experience of students working together: whether they are on campus or online. One challenge is sharing opportunities with distance learners and on campus students by using educational and other software to produce a rounded and deeper experience.
This presentation explores the development, effectiveness, student perception and challenges of using technology to support online mooting. The analysis includes an evaluation of real-time communication tools in use at The Law School, Robert Gordon University for Mooting (including Skype, Blackboard Collaborate and Zoom). Additionally this presentation evaluates the various methods and software applications that students used to collaborate and prepare for the Moot, including Microsoft SharePoint and Moodle.
This presentation concludes that while there are challenges, in terms of facilitation and meeting the needs of a diverse student population, the current level of technology enables online mooting to be a viable and positive learning opportunity within the experiential learning framework which achieves demonstrable results in terms of teaching skills online.
