Course Consortium Committee

Mission Statement

This Committee will explore the potential for SEALS to develop a platform, protocol, or best practices guidance to facilitate the exchange of courses among schools interested in providing collaborative courses offered through online education. The primary uses of such collaborations include the need to create opportunities to foster international partnerships; to extend online course opportunities to schools that do not offer such programs; to offer certain subjects that have been banned or restricted by state laws (particularly those involving Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, topics); and to enhance the breadth and range of course content and expertise to all law students. The initial work of the committee will be to explore the key parameters any proposal should include and assess the interest for the collaborative infrastructure.

Members

Jon Garon, Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law (Chair)
Areto Imoukhuede, Florida A&M University
Greg Brandes, Monterey School of Law
Jane Cross, Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law
April Dawson, North Carolina Central University School of Law
Derek Fincham, South Texas College of Law
Andrea Funk, Colleges of Law
Olympia R. Duhart, Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law
Beth L. Haas, University of Miami School of Law
Angela Winfield, LSAC
Stephen Burnett, AllCampus
Michael Gregory, emDigital
Nicole Dyszlewski, Roger Williams University School of Law
Patrick R. Hugg, Loyola University New Orleans | College of Law
Fred Slabach, University of Mississippi School of Law

Annual Reports

2025 Annual Report

The topical scope for the Committee has shifted in response to the transformation of electronic education demands within legal education. The number of laws schools with acquiescence to offer more than fifty percent of the education online has grown to 21 schools, which is more than ten percent of all law schools. Seven of these are fully online with no requirement for an in-person residency. Hybrid programs are pervasive in other law schools who offer up to fifty percent of the educational offering online.

At the same time, the growth of generative and agentic artificial intelligence has started to impact the practice of law and will inevitably have a similar impact on legal education. Many law schools are now offering courses focused on artificial intelligence, legal technology, and related topics. The potential to misunderstand, misapply, or overly rely on AI generated content also requires that all law school programs address how AI should be both taught and regulated. The Student Division of the American Bar Association has introduced a resolution for the August 2025 House of Delegates urging the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar to do just that.

The empirical data about online legal education has become more detailed which provides additional insights into both online and in-personal education. Law school faculty members have immersed themselves in training on pedagogy and technology to make their education more effective, and the SEALS programs have been an important part of that overall focus.

In addition, through collaboration with the Working Group on Distance Learning in Legal Education, the Committee is facilitating a new book project, “Online Legal Education in the United States: A Curated Collection of the History, Pedagogy, and Development of Online and Distance Learning in U.S. Law Schools.” The book will bring together diverse voices exploring both the history and development—as well as the present and future—of online legal education. Contributions may include data-driven analyses, case studies, or commentaries addressing intellectual, pedagogical, legal, policy, and practical questions. For more information on the book project, please contact a member of its editorial board, Sara Berman, Greg Brandes, and Rebecca Purdom.

Finally, the Course Consortium Committee, which served as an outgrowth of the Electronic Education Committee, worked with the Faculty Hiring Portal Committee to add the ability for member schools to identify teaching needs for individual online courses on a per-course basis and allow faculty members to coordinate online teaching of individual courses at other schools. This project allows schools to ‘borrow’ the expertise they need to develop online programs, affords faculty opportunities to teach in their fields of research, and potentially creates a new way for schools to collaborate in online education.

We always welcome new members to the Committee. Following the conclusion of SEALS, we will review the feedback on this year’s programs and explore how to enhance the programs for next year. If you would like to join the Committee, please email the chair, Jon Garon (Garon@nova.edu).

2024 Annual Report

The trajectory for online education has been one of growth, both quantitatively and qualitatively again this year. The number of law schools offering fully, or nearly fully, online education has continued to grow, and the ABA is considering the elimination of the requirement for a physical building or any in-person requirements for all law schools. Just last year, the ABA expanded the number of credits of online education available to as much as 50 percent of a student’s course of instruction.

As a result of ongoing expansion, the Committee will be providing a wide array of programs at the 2024 meeting to discuss the growth of online education and the increased provision of fully online legal education. For this year, the Committee has developed a strong slate of five discussion programs for the SEALS 2024 program.

1. Distance Education Workshop: Online & Hybrid Learning Pedagogy Best Practices and Standards Development (Sunday, July 21, 2024, 3:00 pm – 5:30 pm)
2. Distance Education Workshop: Use of Generative AI, Extractive AI, and other Technology in the Training of Legal Professions (Monday, July 22, 2024, 3:30 pm – 6:30 pm)
3. Keeping up with the Pedagogy (Tuesday, July 23, 2024, 3:30 pm – 6:30 pm)
4. Distance Education Workshop: Building Community and Inclusion Using Online Legal Education (Wednesday, July 24, 2024, 8:00 am – 10:00 am)
5. Assessing Learning to Achieve Student Competency (Wednesday, July 24, 2024, 9:30 am – 12:00 pm)
6. Distance Education Workshop: Online Education Basics for Aspiring Faculty (Thursday, July 25, 2024, 3:30 pm – 6:00 pm)

The Committee emphasizes the use of discussion groups to involve both the named speakers and all the session attendees in exploring what is working and what needs improvement in the online and hybrid teaching environment. The sessions will enable participants to highlight insights from empirical research being conducted in the evolving online modality; identify best practices to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in our courses; provide guidance on assessment; and offer a primer for both newer faculty and faculty new to online education. This slate creates a “conference-within-a-conference” for those focused on online learning and adds a range of topics for those who wish to make online education part of their broader SEALS experience.

Last year, the Committee also started a projected focused on the potential to develop a consortium of law schools to take advantage of online technology to improve access to courses not available to students at their home institution, to counter-act the limitations being placed on some schools over limits on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and to broaden opportunities for students, faculty, and law schools. That work has involved multiple committee meetings and a positive reception by the SEALS Board of Trustees. That project is ongoing, and all input is welcome.

The Committee is already considering the evolution of programming for SEALS 2025. Last year saw changes in ABA Standards while this year, there is a new emphasis on technology driven by the growth of artificial intelligence and legal technology. This evolution requires law schools to expand their training to meet the ABA requirements that law schools “use appropriate and readily accessible technology that supports course learning outcomes, have appropriate training and support for technology, and [ensure] effectiveness and quality.” To help with this ABA mandate, the Committee will be adding discussions on the adoption of technology in education for in-person, hybrid, and fully online courses.