Toolwire and University of East London Re-Invigorate Legal Study
'Virtual Internships' bring law to life for students.
Toolwire, Inc. - www.toolwire.com - and the University of East
London (UEL) - http://www.uel.ac.uk/ - have collaborated to
provide an immersive online learning experience to UEL law
students. The venture is the first of its kind to take place
simultaneously within the UK Higher Education sector and general
legal education.
Toolwire's Immersive Learning Environments engage students with
photorealistic, virtual environments that combine video interaction
and real world context. "Real-life" characters guide students
through an experience that delivers learning content, assesses
progress, and provides remediation. Contextually sensitive
assessments are integrated naturally into the flow of the
storyline, thereby helping to preserve the student
experience.
UEL approached Toolwire in response to The Law Society of England
and Wales' Training Framework Review (TFR). As the Review
states:"The traditional law degree has become somewhat ossified.
The lecture/seminar format is still an underwhelming student
experience for learning."
In addition, the TFR recommended the adoption of clinical
approaches, non-traditional assessment, and work based learning as
an "effective and welcome addition to the learning experiences of
both students and trainees," which was endorsed by the UK Centre
for Legal Education.
UEL sought a learning solution that would enable students to apply
plea mitigation concepts and practices in virtual environments with
real world implications and applications.
"We recognised that Toolwire's development of Immersive Learning
Environments offered an ideal technological solution to create an
experiential learning tool for enhancing legal education at UEL,"
said Sarah Frame, Director of UELconnect.
"Undoubtedly, the strength of the working relationship and
effective teamwork between Toolwire and UEL contributed
significantly to the success of this innovative new course within
such a short timeframe."
Regarding the co-creation and development process, Michael
Watkins, Toolwire's Director of Instructional Design and
Technology, said, "This project began with the same premise as our
experiential learning labs - the best way to learn is to do. During
this process, we took lessons from what we have learned by creating
innovative learning for technology focused environments and
re-imagined them in a real world."
Initial student feedback from the new course has been extremely
positive. In the words of one student, "I feel like I'm doing law,
not just reading it." Another student reported, "It helps build a
picture of what it is actually like to be in a practice."
"Toolwire's Immersive Learning Environments are at the forefront
of new learning technology," said John Valencia, Toolwire's
President and CEO. "By creating immersive, engaging storylines tied
to course learning objectives and outcomes, we have been able to
blur the line between traditional assignments and real-life tasks,
creating an environment where students learn by doing. It's been
exciting to know that together, Toolwire and UEL are infusing new
life into law instruction."
End