Interactive Exercises (Before or After Class)

 

Debra L. Quentel, Director of Curriculum Development, Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction – CALI^® – http://www.cali.org

   

I.                   What is CALI^®?

A.      A. CALI is U.S. 501(c)(3) non-profit consortium of law schools that researches and develops computer-mediated legal instruction and supports institutions and individuals using technology in legal education.           

B.    The CALI^® topic grid project is about creating teaching materials that allow faculty to choose how to teach. 

C.    CALI^® hosts the CALI Conference for Law School Computing^®. - an annual conference for law school IT, librarians and faculty.

D.   CALI^® distributes over 300 interactive lessons in 28 areas of the law.  Lessons are designed to engage students in the material and to allow students to spend more time learning concepts and applications of rules.

                                                             i.      Lessons can be accessed from the CALI^® CD or web site.

                                                           ii.      Register at CALI's web site.

                                                        iii.      Lessons are free to law students and faculty at member institutions.

II.                 What is a CALI^® lesson?

A.    Lesson range from a review of a single idea in a course, to a self-contained unit on that material, for subjects that are often skipped due to time constraints.  

B.    An opportunity for students to return to material covered in class and work through related materials at their own pace.

III.              What is inside a CALI^® lesson? 

A.    Material is often presented in a depth and level of detail as determined by the student's choices.

B.    Mini-Socratic dialogues permit the lesson to interact with the student in a manner similar to a one-on-one conversation during office hours.

C.    Branching questions challenge the student to defend his answer or to reconsider why it might not be right.

                                                             i.      Model branching questions follow some distinct styles.

1.     Novice mode

2.     Stick to you response

3.     Expert

4.     Fill-out your knowledge

                                                           ii.      Branching questions mean a different lesson each time the student works through it.

D.   Lessons consider how students learn and how faculty teaches.  Lessons are not designed to replace the classroom experience, but to be a tool for faculty and students to use to assist with learning.

IV.              How do other faculty use CALI^® lessons?

A.    Inside the classroom to show a different analysis of the law and to encourage debate or as a group exercise.

B.    Outside the classroom as assigned reading.

                                                             i.      Lessons are assigned to supplement course materials

                                                           ii.      During your office hours, lessons give you “neutral” ground to address a student's confusion.

                                                         iii.      Lessons permit faculty to cover material that would be skipped due to time constraints. 

   

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C.    Faculty can link a CALI^® lesson directly to their syllabus.

D.   Lessons can be modified for your course to reflect your teaching needs.

V.                Writing your own interactive tutorials

A.    CALI Author is a free authoring tool available for faculty members, staff, and students at member institutions.

B.    Faculty members are invited to contact Deb Quentel dquentel@cali.org at CALI with questions about authoring issues.

VI.              Authoring interactive tutorials with CALI Author requires you to learn a few skills with the software.

A.    Creating a new page

B.    Saving your file & backups

C.    Scoring

D.   Disabling next page

E.    Popups

F.     Jump links

G.   Tool bar buttons

H.   Branching questions

I.       Changing the color of feedback boxes

J.     Shared feedback

K.    Inserting images

L.     Hotspots in images

M.  Creating menus and sub-menus

N.    Changing destination of pages

O.   Importing pages

P.     Exporting to html and distributing your lesson to your class.

VII.           Question types available in CALI Author

A.    CALI Author probably has more question types than you need for any one lesson.  Additionally, several question types accomplish the same teaching goal.  There is variety to allow faculty members to select the question type that best suits their teaching needs.

B.    Question types include:

                                                             i.      Topics – permits the author to create a menu structure including primary and secondary (and beyond) levels of structure.

                                                           ii.      Book page – allows for basic text, images, “animation,” and video/audio.  Book pages provide explanatory material or establish facts for hypothetical.  As with other question types, book pages permit the creation of links to other.

 

                                                        iii.      Multiple-Choice comes in several “flavors.”

1.     True – False – simple buttons

a.     Provides for Individual Feedback

b.     You can change the choices.  For example, buttons could be statutory material – 106A / 106 – or text – William / Betty. 

c.      Branching is permitted. 

d.     Shared response allows you to have he same feedback appear as a “tag” paragraph to personalize feedback for that choice. 

2.     List of Choices – Multiple Choice (Standard)

a.     Please set only one choice as the correct answer (if there is more than one correct answer the student may miss it)

b.     Branching is permitted. 

c.      Each choice has individualized feedback.

d.     Shared response allows you to have the same feedback appear as a “tag” paragraph to personalize feedback for that choice.

3.     Multiple set

a.     Good for building material

b.     Individual feedback for each choice selected

c.      All buttons in a column must have the same choice.

d.     The page is scored by the first click of any choice anywhere on the page.

                                                          iv.      Text

1.     Text select

a.     Requires students to read text carefully

b.     Teaches students to locate key language

c.      Only contiguous words can be selected

2.     Essay

a.     Answer is not computer graded – sorry!

b.     Allows students to write an essay and compare their answer to the model answer, as provided

3.     Short Answer

a.     Looks for an exact match of pre-set words or phrases

b.     Encourages proper terminology usage

c.      Permits branching

                                                            v.      Popup pages – provide additional material, such as definitions, or reminders about previous fact patterns

                                                          vi.      Categories, like multiple-choice questions, have several varieties.

1.     Draw lines

a.     Match 2-6 items

b.     Hints are permitted

c.      Red herrings are permitted

d.     Encourages students to compare & contrast, and to evaluate items and relationships between points.

2.     Classify

a.     General feedback once all choices are made

b.     Good for showing relationship of material

c.      Branching is permitted

3.     Check boxes

a.     Use when more than one answer is correct

b.     One set of Feedback for correct and one set for wrong

c.      Good for Policy, selecting parts of a statute

d.     Permits Branching

4.     Check box set (similar to check boxes with “bonus” feature.)

a.     More than one answer is correct

b.     “Bonus” feature: each choice has individualized feedback (the big difference between Check Boxes and Check Box Set

c.      Good for asking students to evaluate several items at once, such as facts, elements, or reasons why x is true

d.     Branching is not permitted

5.     Drag boxes

a.     One answer for right and one for wrong

b.     Good question type to use to highlight differences between items

c.      Order of boxes selected can be set – for example, the question can require students to list the elements of a test, in the correct order.