extending the academic classroom to the workplace max young university of luton

Extending the academic classroom to the workplace

Max Young

University of Luton

The project

Law for LifeLaw for Life was a free legal training was a free legal training package targeted specifically at package targeted specifically at employees who in the course of their employees who in the course of their work are required to understand and work are required to understand and apply the law regardless of whether or apply the law regardless of whether or not they have received any formal legal not they have received any formal legal training.training.

What was Law for Life?Law for LifeLaw for Life (part funded by ESF) delivered (part funded by ESF) delivered legal information and training on Contract legal information and training on Contract Law, Sale of Goods, the English Court Law, Sale of Goods, the English Court System and Unfair Dismissal.System and Unfair Dismissal.

Law for Life Law for Life was piloted in 2000 & fully was piloted in 2000 & fully implemented in 2002.implemented in 2002.

Law for LifeLaw for Life was designed to be studied was designed to be studied primarily at the workplace.primarily at the workplace.

Aims

To deliver free legal skills training to small To deliver free legal skills training to small and medium sized businesses in the Eastern and medium sized businesses in the Eastern Region using PC-based distance learning Region using PC-based distance learning packages. packages.

To develop a web site which will act as a To develop a web site which will act as a comprehensive resource to support the comprehensive resource to support the programme.programme.

Benefits to delegates

Development of skills and abilities in key legal business areas, which will improve business competitiveness.

An enjoyable learning experience!An enjoyable learning experience!

Design

Motivation.

Relevance.

Engagement.

Design

In the design of Law for Life account was taken of the 'learning styles theory' which looks at whether learners learn by a deep and/or surface approach, or a holist or serialist approach, or by a combination of all approaches to learning.

Design

Learning is a mixture of all types; a mixture of holist and serialist, a mixture of deep and surface.

Those who adopt a ‘deep’ learning style to a subject better understand that subject.

Design

DDiscovery learning: learners have control of their own learning ie learners have control in building up their own knowledge structures.

Design

Constructavism: students learn best when they “construct” their own understanding of the world around them. Constructavist teaching is student-centered and attempts to create contexts in which students actively grapple with big issues and questions instead of being passive recipients of “teacher knowledge”.

Design

"Attempts to equate and to match what are presently called 'learning styles' with various instructional methods and media have produced, for the most part, rather inconclusive results. The state of the art at this time is such that we may be wasting time and resources trying to devise instruction suited exactly to the learning needs of each student."

Design

However, ideal as it might be to design a learning package that is adaptable to all learning styles, the pragmatics of any learning package must not be lost sight of in the package design.

Design

Law for Life was delivered as a web-based package.

In using such a delivery system account was taken of the potential users familiarity with using 'the web' and the interaction between the user and the package made possible by means of familiar hypertext links.

Design

Bearing in mind the above observations on adaptable learning styles there was a slight worry that students would find the serial nature of the Law for Life programme somewhat unsatisfactory.

In fact the interviews with participants showed that they appreciated the user led design.

Access to legal advice

Very often SMEs do not have any in-house legal advisors.

Research estimates that 70% of SMEs do not provide any training for their employees in any aspect of their work.


SMEs rely on informally trained (or untrained) personnel, in areas requiring legal expertise.

Local SMEs tend to adopt a pragmatic approach to legal matters, addressing them as and when they arose.

Law for Life was developed as a direct response to these findings.


Of the 248 people who registered:

67% use a local solicitor.12 % use a London solicitor.6% in-house legal expert.17% rely on their accountants.12% rely on their company secretary.6% Bloke at pub.

Access to legal adviceHow often do you seek legal advice?

Several times a week 9%Once a fortnight 9%Once a month 16%Once every 2 months 9%Once every 3 months 15%Once every 6 months 21%Once a year 15%Never 9%

Awareness of own company's terms and conditions

Before Law for Life 75% were aware of the existence of their company's standard sales/purchase terms and conditions.

After Law for Life 93% were aware of the existence of their company's standard sales/purchase terms and conditions.

To what extent do you understand your company's 'standard sales/ purchase terms and conditions'?

Before LfL After LfL

Comprehensive understanding

34% 62%

Basic understanding

54% 37%

Don't understand

11% 2%

How confident are you of your understanding of legal matters relating to: Contract law?

Before LfL After LfL

Very confident 2% 20%

Confident 24% 75%

Not confident 74% 5%

Retention

Target number of 200.

Recruited 232.

Non-completers 101.

Non-completers

Main reason for not completing the course were professional –

delegates simply did not have time to complete when weighed against their own business priorities.

Reason for non-completion

60% stated that they would have liked to complete the course.

16% stated that they had personal reasons for not completing the course, eg illness.

8% cited technical issues that prevented them from completing the course.


11% stated that the method of online learning was not suitable to them at the time, or that they would have preferred reading hard-copies as they found that reading the text online was tedious and tiring.


Another reason for non-completion was that they tended to complete sections of the course that were most relevant to them, and disregard the rest –

a constructavist approach?

Workplace practices

Each interviewed participant was asked to cite an example of a change in their work practices that they considered a direct result of taking Law for Life.

Workplace practices

45% of delegates agreed or tended to agree that the Law for Life course helped to improve their general management strategies.

Workplace practices

42% of delegates agreed or tended to agree that the Law for Life course helped to improve their company’s overall level of adaptability.

Workplace practices

28% of delegates agreed or tended to agree that the Law for Life course helped to improve their company’s entrepreneurial strategies.

Workplace practices

27% of delegates agreed or tended to agree that the Law for Life course helped to improve their company’s competitiveness.

Workplace practices23 companies made investments in their company as a result of the Law for Life course.

17 had invested in further staff training.

1 had invested in further R & D.

4 had recruited new staff after completing the course.

Participants' comments

'Overall I thought it was an excellent course, ground breaking and well presented. Keep pushing back the barriers.'

'Brilliant, this course was well structured and very clear.'


There's always one!

'I had to purchase a high specification PC and a monitor to take the full benefit of the course.

I do not regret this decision for one moment now that I have completed the course.'


‘I would like to have the opportunity to explore employment law in more depth with a course modelled on this one.’

‘A couple of in-person get-togethers for students would have made it feel more like a course and allow the opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences.’


‘Most of the pages I printed to read later, and printing out a page which only contained one small paragraph is a waste of paper.’

‘I would have liked a final assessment series of questions on all the subjects to confirm the retention of the knowledge gained. It was a very good course and I enjoyed partaking.’

extending the academic classroom to the workplace max young university of luton

Documents

design of law

design law

design learning

package design

contract law

project law

learning needs

life account