Law School 3.0: Shifting the Paradigm of Student Engagement

As administrators at an online law school, we work with a demographic that is different from many brick and mortar law schools.  Most of our students are over the age of 30 and almost all of our students are employed full time, which presents a challenge with retention.  Although retention is an issue in many online programs, it is of grave concern in graduate programs where adult students have various factors that compete for their time.  This is especially true for high pressured law programs, where even full time students have difficulty staying on track. Thus, online law schools, and schools with online programs, must be especially attuned to this issue and create opportunities to keep students engaged and motivated to succeed in virtual learning spaces.

 Our presentation will discuss how Concord Law School has leveraged technology to engage and motivate students to actively participate not only in their courses but also in the larger law school community.  During our presentation we will discuss our process of preparing at risk students for the rigor of law school through a virtual pre-admission program, strategies we have used for outreach and engagement of current students and discuss best practices for online student engagement.