A Faculty Collaboration Leads The Way

Towards the end of November, Dean Michael A. Simons shared a message of gratitude with St. John’s Law faculty and staff. “Later tonight, we will conclude the in-person portion of our semester, which involved hundreds of students, taking over 60 different classes, taught by almost 60 different full-time and adjunct faculty,” he wrote, adding “And, of course, none of this would have worked if we didn’t also offer almost half of our classes online.” As Dean Simons noted, teaching and learning the law in this new normal “took a leap of faith.” It was also a leap of reinvention facilitated by a unique faculty collaboration.

Months earlier, as the public health crisis shuttered New York, Dean Simons convened the Law School’s new Online and Hybrid Learning Task Force to think through the challenges of teaching in remote and in-person environments, identify practices faculty could adopt, and develop actionable recommendations for the fall semester.

Co-chaired by Associate Dean for Library Services and Associate Professor of Legal Research Courtney Selby and Associate Dean for Experiential and Skills-Based Education and Professor of Legal Writing Rachel H. Smith , the Task Force included:

• Renee Nicole Allen, Assistant Professor of Legal Writing • Jennifer Baum, Associate Professor of Clinical Legal Education • Catherine Baylin Duryea, Assistant Professor of Law • Robert A. Ruescher, Professor of Legal Writing • Eric Shannon, Adjunct Professor of Law and Senior Director of

Student Services • Jeff Sovern, Professor of Law

The group was a mix of junior faculty and senior faculty who teach a variety of courses at St. John’s—large 1L, large upper-level, skills, seminar, clinical, and writing. A few came with online teaching experience that predated the pandemic, and some had online learning experience.

“Each of us had knowledge and insights to share and so, so much to learn,” says Dean Selby. “We needed to have the opposite of a stuck mindset to move across multiple iterations of tools and platforms, and our work was better because we taught, and learned from, each other. Perhaps most importantly, the task force was a relatively diverse and inclusive group, which allowed us to think about the challenges faced by a broad range of students and faculty.”

Working through the summer, the Task Force gathered input from colleagues and students, collected and reviewed resource materials, and coalesced around a set of ideas. The members then drafted recommendations to distribute before the start of the semester. “We decided to make general recommendations that would be useful to all faculty and specific recommendations for each type of class,” Dean Smith says. “Some suggestions deal with the nuts and bolts of teaching online, while others with how to accomplish broader goals. We didn’t expect anyone to follow all our suggestions. Faculty could adopt and adapt them as they liked.”

Reflecting on her Task Force role, Professor Renee Allen says: “Being fairly new to St. John’s, collaborating with the group and the faculty at large provided opportunities for me to get to know my colleagues better, something that was cut short during my first year as a result of the pandemic.” The Task Force also had the benefit of Professor Allen’s experience as an online learner. “I recently completed an online master’s degree in educational psychology with a concentration on adult learning,” she explains. “The faculty used a combination of teaching methods—lecture, short videos, discussion boards, breakout rooms, group presentations—to keep us engaged. So, I felt pretty confident about my ability to ease any skepticism my colleagues had about online learning.”

Professor Allen also tapped that experience as she revised her courses to accommodate remote learning. “With so many COVID-related deaths and after the social unrest last summer, I was most concerned about my students’ physical and mental health as I approached the fall,” she shares. “I think I would have felt the same way if we were in person, but I tried to be mindful of what it’s like to start law school in a mostly remote environment. I was careful to provide opportunities for students to learn, and get the writing practice and feedback that’s essential to a legal writing course, while also getting to know me and each other.”

While Professor Allen and the other Task Force members crafted their recommendations with remote teaching and learning in mind, they knew that faculty teaching in person during the fall semester would also rely on the guidance. As part of its mandate, the Task Force explored options for teaching large 1L classes. Giving the new students a sense of belonging to a Law School community was a top priority, as was facilitating connection and collaboration.

Those priorities, the Task Force concluded, could best be met for 1L doctrinal courses using an in-person, co-located model. Each class would divide and meet in two separate rooms, one where the professor taught in person and the other where the lecture was livestreamed. With the class meeting twice each week, the professor could switch rooms to give all the students an in-person learning experience.

As a Task Force member preparing to teach Civil Procedure in the fall, Professor Bob Ruescher took a lead in developing the co-located model. “Dean Simons understood that we had to bring our 1Ls into the building—to the fullest extent safely possible—so they could build a sense of identity as a class,” he says. “The co-located model did that. Even though they were in two different rooms, the students could interact with each other, respond to each other’s comments, and meet with the professor after class for follow-up questions. Most importantly, assembling together in classrooms helped them get to know each other better and bond.”

Looking back on a successful semester that saw his Task Force efforts realized, Professor Ruescher shares: “The best thing about my colocated class was the 1Ls themselves. They were upbeat and worked so hard, and they were totally onboard with the measures the Law School put in place to keep us all safe. They were an inspiration, and a lesson on how to adapt and thrive in difficult times.”

When he taught Contracts in the fall, Professor Christopher J. Borgen benefited from his colleague’s work on the co-located model and from the Task Force’s recommendations. “Their guides and checklists were invaluable,” he says, noting that co-location involves many technical details and procedures. “They turned a massive undertaking into manageable steps for me and my teaching fellows to follow. Like most things, practice led to facility, so by the end of the semester what seemed daunting at first had become second nature.”

The Task Force recommendations also helped Professor Borgen foster student connections at a time when they were especially needed. “Students play an important role in teaching each other, and I wanted to facilitate those interactions as much as possible,” he explains. In addition to holding online office hours and encouraging students to form virtual study groups, Professor Borgen assigned them ungraded problem sets and suggested they collaborate by reading, revising, and discussing each other’s answers. “It’s important for students to see themselves as part of a learning community, and working through the problems together, after having tried to do so on their own, was meant, in part, to foster that sense of shared enterprise,” he says.

Student engagement was also a major concern for Professor Anna Roberts when she taught Torts online in the fall. But she found the Task Force’s recommendations to be a “tour de force” of practical advice. “I particularly appreciated their sample syllabus language on issues like attendance, participation, and technology,” she says. “That guidance was very welcome in an environment where many of us were suddenly short on time because of childcare issues. If we liked the sample language, that was one fewer thing to have to spend time on. The same went for their wonderful, step-by-step guide to launching and conducting an online class.”

Knowing that fully remote 1Ls missed the camaraderie that builds among classmates in person, Professor Roberts put a creative spin on Task Force tips. “Before our first class, I introduced myself in a short video message, and I asked the students to introduce themselves virtually by sharing three things they like, enjoy doing, or are inspired by,” she says. With that input, she divided the class into teams based on common interests and devoted the entire first class to team activities.

Professor Roberts kept the teams together as the semester went on, and she and her teaching assistants met with them online periodically. “I wanted to make sure that no one was isolated, intellectually or emotionally,” she shares. “I always logged on 15 minutes before class and encouraged students to chat with each other and with me about how they were feeling and what was on their mind. I also regularly assigned small group work.”

While relying on the Task Force recommendations, Professor Roberts also turned to its co-chairs for help from time to time. “Courtney and Rachel consistently welcomed and resolved my questions, she says, admitting, “I’m detailed and persistent in my questioning—I was my teachers’ nightmare—and yet they were so patient and kind in response to every inquiry.” It’s a support role that the two co-chairs continue to play today.

“The switch to online teaching last year forced many of us to rethink how we engage with our students and with the material,” Dean Selby shares. Some of the new ideas that grew out of the Task Force collaboration work even better than methods we used in the past. Trying new things together has given us a chance to enhance our teaching in ways I didn’t anticipate, and I know that my teaching has improved, and will continue to improve, from this experience.”

Deans Selby and Smith will report on the Task Force’s work in a forthcoming book chapter. In the meantime, Dean Smith is excited to see that work bear fruit. “The Task Force recommendations are part of a living document,” she says. “So many different minds are thinking together about all the ways we can use online tools and platforms to reinvent classroom teaching and learning at St. John’s Law. It’s great to be part of such an innovative faculty collaboration, and I can’t wait to see where it takes us next.”