Interactivity in Legal Web Courses through Direct Response Systems

A typical difficulty in lectures held over the Web is a lack of interactivity. Although ICT usually provides two-way communication, it is still reduced in modality compared to presence courses. This is problematic in the area of legal teaching, especially in practices where the typical didactic setting is discussing cases. Enhancing the reverse communication direction, from learners to the teacher, is possible through direct response systems, which are known from classroom settings. Transferred to the Web these can be modeled as brief surveys. Through formalized feedback they provide teachers with a summary of the learner's understanding, and learners with some self-assessment. Such a didactic tool has been successfully employed in the practice part of a legal course. This paper reports results of the accompanying study, identifies different learner groups and the influence of this approach on their learning, and proposes improvements.