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TJSL’s Distance Education Program Recognized for Course Design

September 17, 2012

Distance Education
Distance Education
Distance Education
Distance Education

Six months ago Associate Dean William Byrnes and Program Director of the Graduate Programs Jason Fiske took on a new task:  to become the most pedagogically advanced distance education program in the nation.  Last Thursday through Sunday the new program format and course design were on full display as 30 invite-only Deans, Associate Deans, and faculty from a representative mix of law schools exploring distance education components descended on Thomas Jefferson School of Law.  The Working Group for Distance Education in Legal Education convened to complete a white paper on best practices for distance education programs for law schools.

On Friday Jason Fiske presented on the design that was co-developed by Byrnes and Fiske.

“It was a great opportunity for us to put on display the full spectrum of what our school has to offer, from the distance education’s innovative course design to our outstanding building facilities,” Byrnes said.  “This really places our school as the thought leader in the top echelon of schools for innovative legal education.”

By the end of the weekend, the group had decided to feature the TJSL Graduate Program course design in a Work Group report to the ABA.  LexisNexis will also feature the course design in an e-book that will be supported by Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

Participants of the group included, by example: Harvard’s Berkman Center, Boston University, Villanova, Vermont, Loyola, UC Hastings, BYU, LSU, Stetson, and Thomas Jefferson School of Law, among many others.