The weekly classes cover a variety of law-related topics and require the course participant to read the weekly online course readings, use the Internet to learn the skills taught each week and participate in interactive online discussion groups with the instructors and hand in short written assignments based on the material covered. In addition, it is expected that assignments will be based on what is freely available on the Internet. Material about the topic, pointers to important sites, and short assignments are provided at the website. Students work with the lessons and then submit their assignments to a WebBoard for discussion with the instructors and other students. There are also optional, scheduled live-chat sessions.
Students receive individual attention from the instructors.
Please allow between 5 - 8 hours each week to comfortably cover the material. Aimed at librarians, lawyers, articling students, researchers, government employees and other persons needing or wanting to conduct legal research on the Internet. The first class introduces legal research by discussing the legal system and the rule of law, including the legislative and judicial process. The impact of the Internet on legal research will be covered, as will legal terminology and law-related reference tools on the Internet, including search engines, directories, listservs and dictionaries. Course participants will be given online readings and some simple introductory online assignments.