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On April 26, 2019, Syracuse Law Review will bring together legal education experts from across the country for a ground-breaking symposium exploring the impact of online education on law schools and the legal profession. The one-day symposium—“Online Learning and the Future of Legal Education”—will explore the challenges and opportunities presented by online learning.

The symposium comes at an important moment in legal education. Around the nation, law schools and law professors are pioneering new forms of online teaching. Many law schools now make select courses available online or have launched online master’s degree programs. A handful of schools—including Syracuse University College of Law—are even bringing their JD programs online. This new reality raises important questions and theoretical challenges for legal education and the practice of law more broadly.

The symposium will result in the first Law Review issue devoted entirely to exploring these questions. Authors presenting papers addressing the impact of online education on the legal profession include:

• Jack Graves, Professor of Law and Director of Digital Legal Education, Touro Law Center
• Andrew P. Morriss, Dean, School of Innovation and Vice President of Entrepreneurship and Economic Development, Texas A&M University
• Eric S. Janus, President and Dean, William Mitchell College of Law
• Nina Kohn, David M. Levy Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Online Education, Syracuse University College of Law
• James McGrath, Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Academic Support, Bar Passage, and Compliance, Texas A&M School of Law
• Michael Hunter Schwartz, Dean and Professor of Law, University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law
• Victoria Sutton, Paul Whitfield Horn Professor and Associate Dean for Digital Learning and Graduate Education, Texas Tech University School of Law
• Noelle Sweany, Clinical Associate Professor, Educational Psychology, Texas A & M University Department of Education and Human Development
• Kellye Testy, President and CEO, Law School Admission Council and Professor of Law, University of Washington School of Law
• David Thomson, Professor of Practice and John C. Dwan Professor for Online Learning, University of Denver Strum School of Law

In addition, the symposium will feature a lunchtime conversation on the regulatory and accreditation landscape for legal education with Barry Currier, Managing Director, Accreditation and Legal Education, American Bar Association. The conversation will be moderated by Syracuse University College of Law Dean Craig M. Boise.

To learn more about the Symposium and to read the full schedule and list of papers, visit law.syr.edu/online-learning-symposium-2019.

On Jan. 7, 2019, Syracuse University College of Law matriculated 32 students into the inaugural JDinteractive (JDi) class in a ceremony in the Melanie Gray Ceremonial Courtroom, Dineen Hall. JDinteractive is the nation’s first fully interactive online law degree. The ABA-accredited program combines live, online classes with self-paced classes and short residencies. JDi is designed to deliver the College of Law’s J.D. program to well-qualified students who cannot relocate for a residential program but who desire a high-caliber legal education.

The diverse and academically accomplished JDi Class of 2022 will spend the week of January 7-11 on the Syracuse University campus as part of its first residency. During the residency, students will take an intensive and immersive course designed to introduce them to the American legal system. JDi students also will meet with members of the College and University community, including Chancellor and President Kent Syverud, and enjoy a traditional Orange Nation tailgate party before watching Syracuse Orange play Clemson Tigers in an ACC basketball game.

In welcoming the JDi Class of 2022 to the College of Law and to the University, Convocation speaker Adam J. Katz L’04, Assistant US Attorney for the Northern District of New York, said, “You are pioneers. You are students who embody the College of Law’s long-held dream of expanding its legal education beyond Syracuse, and we landed one heck of an inaugural class!”

Members of the JDi Class of 2022 are illustrative of the experienced, talented, and service-oriented students JDi has been designed to attract.

• Among the cohort are 15 military and military-affiliated students, including senior and non-commissioned officers and military spouses.
• JDi students come to the program with substantial professional accomplishments in a broad range of fields—from health care to finance to social justice. The program welcomes medical professionals; paralegals; business owners and executives; real estate professionals; an environmental engineer; a border patrol guard; a social worker; and leaders of not-for-profit organizations.
• JDi students also exemplify a commitment to community service. In addition to military servicemembers, the cohort includes caregivers, community advocates and mentors, a choir director, and a volunteer football coach.
• Additionally, a number of students start the JDi program holding other advanced degrees in science, business, and social work.

JDinteractive aims to increase diversity within the legal profession by making a high-quality legal education accessible for students for whom one might otherwise be out of reach. The inaugural class demonstrates this diversity:

• 41% are first-generation College students.
• The average age of JDi students is 35.
• Students arrive in Syracuse from 20 states, as well as from Germany, Tanzania, and Japan.

“Congratulations to the inaugural JDinteractive Class of 2022. This professionally accomplished, service-minded group of students joins a truly groundbreaking program that raises the bar for online legal education and expands access to legal education in general,” says Syracuse University Chancellor and President Kent Syverud. “I commend College of Law Dean Craig Boise and University College Dean Mike Frasciello for forming a partnership that harnesses the online learning expertise developed by University College to translate the J.D. program into a format for working adults and others who seek a high-quality online law degree program. I am particularly pleased that service members and military spouses are represented in this cohort. I wish all the students and the program well, and I look forward to tracking their progress.”

“The matriculation of the JDi Class of 2022 marks a banner day for the College of Law. Designed with 21^st-century practice in mind—like our residential J.D. program—JDinteractive will provide our online law students the knowledge and skills to thrive in the modern legal community,” says College of Law Dean Craig M. Boise. “I could not be happier that these academically impressive students have chosen to be the pioneers of our program, and I am excited to see what they, as the newest members of the College of Law family, will achieve.”

Delivering the College of Law’s outstanding legal education beyond its Central New York campus, JDinteractive incorporates both an interactive learning platform and technology-enabled services. JDi is a year-round, 10-semester course of study designed to be completed over three years and three months, with students taking an average of nine credits per semester. Online students take the same required courses as residential students, select among elective courses, and are provided with hands-on experiential learning and skills-building classes. To accommodate the schedules of students with work or other commitments, evening and weekend classes are offered.

A hallmark of JDinteractive is that more than half of class time takes place in “real-time,” with online students and professors interacting live in a virtual classroom. Self-paced class sessions with interactive exercises complement these live sessions. Students also attend in-person, short-residency courses on campus and at satellite locations. In addition, JDi students have the opportunity to participate in student organizations and to complete a legal externship—gaining critical practical legal experience—before graduation.

“Over the past four years, College of Law faculty and staff have worked to develop a program that we believe will set the standard for online legal education,” says Associate Dean for Online Education Nina Kohn. “We’ve designed JDinteractive to combine the best of what happens in Dineen Hall’s classrooms with the power of technology to create an even more personalized and flexible approach to teaching and learning.”

In February 2018, the American Bar Association granted the College of Law a variance from ABA rules that limit online legal education to offer JDinteractive. As part of the variance process, the program’s design was closely reviewed by legal education experts.

Thirty-four thousand electronic titles. Forty-seven licensed database systems. An interactive classroom for research training. Cameras and microphones at the ready. Marshaling these substantial academic and research resources, the librarians at the College of Law Library are preparing to welcome the inaugural class of JDinteractive online law degree program students when they arrive on campus for their first residency session in January 2019.

While they’re in Syracuse, JDi students will meet the librarians and library staff, get registered for online databases, and learn and practice the search techniques that they will use throughout their degree program.

One of the features that distinguishes legal reference is that it’s almost never “short answer.” When a librarian meets with a student in Dineen Hall, they are sure to say, “Please, sit, so we can talk about the research problem you’re trying to solve.” Because JDinteractive emulates the first-class academic experience students receive in Syracuse’s residential J.D. program, that’s also the reference experience JDi students will have remotely—using interactive video and split screen technology so librarians and students can see both each other and the online research tools they’re learning to use.

What about traditional legal research tools for the online students? With 103,000 print titles and more than 1 million legal documents in microform, the College of Law Library has a wealth of resources to offer students through its Digitization on Demand and Document Delivery programs. In addition, specialized treatises will be sent to JDi students in upper level courses, the same way that libraries use Interlibrary Loan to share books with users.

“The services provided by the Law Library mirror the research environment that law students will find in law practice,” says Library Director Jan Fleckenstein. “Because all of our students—residential and online—have access to a wide range of online research tools, as well as librarians skilled in helping them navigate the legal information environment, they will be well prepared to do effective legal research throughout their careers.”