Volume 7 Issue 1

Computer assisted learning in law (in the sense of digital lessons rather than databases or electronic casebooks) bears as many faces as there are styles of law teaching. It is an eclectic discipline (if that is not to beg the question entirely as to what members of its community are spending time and effort upon). This is the story of one such attempt to answer the question. The discussion is idiosyncratic rather than an attempt to lay out instructional theories and design conventions. It does not therefore purport to offer a paradigm. Rather it details, with the not unnatural benefit of hindsight), some of the factors which contribute to the process of teaching in a digital environment.

The anecdotal basis of the paper is the author's work in CASI, a suite of programs on the application and interpretation of statutes. CASI (computer assisted statutory interpretation) is written for a first year law class of over 500 students who compete for 200 places in the undergraduate Bachelor of Laws programme. The suite consists of three modules, offering analysis and application of a statute (Gift Horses), modelling the judicial process of statutory interpretation (Happy Families) and integrating both those processes in an examination context (Panic Stations). The project has been undertaken by the author in collaboration with Marjan Lousberg, CBE consultant, Computing Services Centre, University of Otago, New Zealand.

This article is based on a paper delivered to the Australasian Computer Assisted Learning in Law conference, Sydney, September 1995.

* Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Otago, New Zealand (donnab@otago.ac.nz)