Abstract:
The 21st Century legal market demands a new set of skills from young lawyers. This is recognised by employers and has resulted in recommendations for changes in how the law and legal skills are taught and assessed. This poses challenges for law schools and faculty who face an already packed curriculum, increasing student numbers and greater demands from the students themselves.
This session will present initial results of an experiment in using an approach to online learning to design and deliver education in dispute resolution skills to law students. The session will draw on user and learning analytics gathered by the presenters and identify what, from a student perspective, makes for useful and engaging online learning in relation to dispute resolution skills.
Attendees will be invited to share their own experiences of online learning, and will leave with new strategies and ideas for using technology to help integrate skills into the 21st Century legal curriculum.
Speaker:
Ms. Sabine Walsh, Co-founder and Head of Learning, Mediator Academy
Sabine is Head of Curriculum Innovation and Learning Design for the education technology company Mediator Academy. She worked as a lawyer before building a busy practice in mediation and teaching and training in the area of mediation and ADR. She has designed and delivered courses in the higher and professional education sectors and for public and private organisations.
She is an academic writer and commentator on mediation and is co-editor of the EU Mediation Handbook (Kluwer). She has just completed a 3-year term as President of the MII, Irelands national mediation body and during her term as President was instrumental in helping get Ireland’s Mediation Act 2017 across the line.
Sabine is passionate about mediator education and has designed and coordinated two postgraduate programmes in mediation and conflict in one of Ireland’s National Universities. Sabine joined Mediator Academy full-time as Co-founder in 2019.