Advisory Board Newsletter

A message to our Advisory Board

Legal Aid University (LAU) has made significant progress since our last update. Besides establishing our technology platform and completing several units of curriculum, we have learned valuable lessons about distance learning that will feed back into future development. We've found that while there are many "e-learning" programs out there, very few approach it the same way we do (see "What makes Legal Aid University unique?" below). While the path has been arduous, the goal will be worth the effort: high-quality educational experiences that will help legal aid attorneys seek justice more effectively than ever before.

Milestones: Winter 2003-2004

Our key achievement this past winter has been refining our teaching mission. We've spent many hours re-working our core training programs, revisiting our basic assumptions about both training and legal aid work, and wrestling with how to provide our participants with a meaningful learning experience through a Web-based medium.

What makes Legal Aid University unique?

In some ways, legalaideducation.org is simply a new tool to achieve our goal: helping legal aid attorneys become better and more effective advocates for social justice. Our goal through Legal Aid University isn't merely to save money or time, though we hope such benefits do accrue. Rather, we believe that an online platform affords us new capabilities and methods of teaching that our face-to-face training sessions can't.

Lessons Learned

Codifying our in-person curriculum to an online environment has challenged us to reexamine the effectiveness of our existing courses.

Advisory Board Newsletter A message to our Advisory Board Legal Aid University (LAU) has made significant progress since our last update. Besides establishing our technology platform and completing several units of curriculum, we have learned valuable lessons about distance learning that will feed back into future development. We've found that while there are many "e-learning" programs out there, very few approach it the same way we do (see "What makes Legal Aid University unique?" below). While the path has been arduous, the goal will be worth the effort: high-quality educational experiences that will help legal aid attorneys seek justice more effectively than ever before.
Milestones: Winter 2003-2004 Our key achievement this past winter has been refining our teaching mission. We've spent many hours re-working our core training programs, revisiting our basic assumptions about both training and legal aid work, and wrestling with how to provide our participants with a meaningful learning experience through a Web-based medium. Read more...	What makes Legal Aid University unique? In some ways, legalaideducation.org is simply a new tool to achieve our goal: helping legal aid attorneys become better and more effective advocates for social justice. Our goal through Legal Aid University isn't merely to save money or time, though we hope such benefits do accrue. Rather, we believe that an online platform affords us new capabilities and methods of teaching that our face-to-face training sessions can't. Read more...
Lessons Learned Codifying our in-person curriculum to an online environment has challenged us to reexamine the effectiveness of our existing courses. Read more...