Thread by @petersankoff

In writing about legal education this morning, I did a terrible job of keeping my tweets together. In a nutshell, I might be OK at online learning, but I suck at Twitter. @ericadams99 could even follow my tweets. So, I'm now going to post as a single "thread" - largely for him.

I'm just going to focus on the "sessional" part, rather than the 10 advantages of online learning, though I may throw a few key points from there in too.

The move online has me now re-thinking the entire concept of what a teaching module actually is, something I started doing years ago with the flipped classroom. It's more about trying to do the best with the math.

This one's a bit tricky, but I'll explain. Let's say I am tasked with teaching 60 students at 10-11 am twice a week. Well, I know what that's going to look like. I'll arrive at 10. I'll lecture or do some variant of that, and I'll meet with students after. That's law school.

But online, I don't have to think that way. My approach is as follows. I have 120 minutes and 60 students. How can I best teach those 60 students knowing that I can teach asynchronously and synchronously. What if I do two recorded lectures for 40 minutes?

Better yet, what if I combine with
@Steven_Penney
and we each do one lecture for 20 minutes. Now I have 80 minutes left to meet with 60 students. How about I meet with 30 students for 40 minutes? Again, this does not need to be a constant.

Now, before the naysayers jump in (this is, after all, twitter), let me say this. Could I do the same thing in person? Sure - to an extent. I am talking here about the advantages of online, not the disadvantages, and the loss of real connection with students is a big MINUS.

And as someone who loves mentoring and connecting with students, this is not a small thing. Real learning and growth takes place in these interactions.

But my point here is that while most of what I'm saying "could" happen in person - it rarely does. The reason is that the incentives for changing are all wrong. But the compelled shift to online has now provided different incentives. And while I recognize that for many...

Of my colleagues the shift to online will be difficult, challenging, and time-consuming. I repeat what I said on Day 1 of COVID (with @cforcese). If you approach this with a spirit of "what can we do here", you'll be amazed at what you might be able to do.

I am not the ordinary law professor - but personally, I absolutely cannot wait to see what my fellow colleagues and I will come up with. The mandatory shift online, I predict, will create massive advances in pedagogy, and, in some cases, surpass what we were doing before.

Sessionals: Huge problem - I agree. Being discussed
@UAlbertaLaw and to me this is a real challenge. For it to have any chance of success, law faculties cannot leave sessionals "in the wind". Either we move NOW to put resources in place to help them succeed, or it won't work.

Let me add. I have sympathy for the faculties here. They are facing incredible pressure on all sides. They are scrambling to cope with the new reality and dealing with (many) recalcitrant Profs. Plus all the usual concerns (leave, retirements, etc.).

If I were the Dean at a CAD law school, I would immediately designate my most tech savvy online faculty member (every school has one), as my liaison for online learning, tasked with helping sessionals move online in the best way possible.

I would compensate this person by removing them from all other administrative responsibilities (frankly, for 2020-21 I would do everything in my power to de-emphasize normal admin roles as much as possible - not the time), and course release. I would also give them an admin...

Staff member to help them with the task - in terms of reach outs. They should start by information gathering. Going through every sessional & assessing needs/fears. From there, they should start to think about individualized solutions. I believe there are ways to make it better.

And of course, an individualized approach recognizes many of the concerns you are raising @karendyck. Identification of these concerns at an early stage (read: now), is about the only way of making a difference in September.

But for this to happen, law schools need to act quickly. My impression is that many are still in a state of shock, trying to process what the F just happened. We don't have time for shock. The transition needs to happen quickly.

BTW, I'm tagging my own Vice Dean @ericadams99, who has to deal with these concerns. I'm not on your committee Bud (and that committee had better be meeting on a super advanced schedule), but these are my 2 cents where sessional are concerned. The quicker we act, the better.

Anyway, consider that my contribution @ericadams99! I hope that's some assistance to the massive challenge we all face.... (Or just more useless advice that is impossible to implement....)