Law Schools

Should You Take Law School Classes Online?

How do you know if it's right for you?

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Online learning has been around for awhile now. Heck, I even took a few online classes back in college in the early 2000s. But like most things in the law, online classes were slower to appear in law schools. There are currently no fully online JD programs that are accredited by the ABA. Further, if a student earns a JD at a non-accredited online law school, the only jurisdiction in which they are currently eligible to sit for the bar exam is California.

Today, however, many law schools offer at least some of their classes online, even though most jurisdictions limit the number of online credits a law student can take, usually around 12. If you’re a law student thinking about taking a traditional law school class or an online class, here are some questions to ask yourself to help you decide.

Do you need flexibility?

One of the most appealing things about online classes to most law students is the flexibility they afford. For many online courses, you don’t have to be present online at any specific time which leaves a lot of freedom to create your own schedule. Further, avoiding the commute to campus for all your classes can be a real time saver, particularly if you have kids or a part-time job. Additionally, an online class can also give flexibility to a student who is participating in an internship in another state but has time to also take a class or two.

What is the format of the class?

An important piece of information to know about the online course you’re considering is whether it is synchronous (meaning that there are live online classes that you must report to at a specific time) or asynchronous (meaning that there are no specific times you must be present online). A synchronous class would still allow for location flexibility but not time flexibility. So, if your class meets at the same time you have to pick your kids up from school – that wouldn’t work.

Another formatting question to ask is how the course will be delivered. Will there be video lectures? Reading Assignments? Discussion boards? Other media? Knowing this information will help you determine if the course is suited for your learning style. For example, if you know you learn best from actually listening to a person teach, I wouldn’t recommend taking a course that doesn’t have any lecturing component.

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Are you a self-starter?

In my experience, online classes are best suited for individuals who are self-starters, highly disciplined, and motivated to succeed. Because many online course are asynchronous, the onus is entirely on the students to decide when and how to complete their assignments. This means you must have great time management and organization skills. Usually, the assignments in an online course, particularly one that doesn’t have any live or video components, will take you longer to complete than assignments in a traditional law school setting. So, you are in for a world of hurt if you procrastinate on them until the hour before they are due.

The best way to approach time management in an online course is to look at all your assignments on the day they are released and estimate how much time it will take you to finish each one. I always recommend adding some time to your initial estimate because we tend to think we will do things faster than we actually can. Next, plan when you will complete each assignment. I recommend that you plan to be done with your assignments at least one day before they are actually due. This allows you time to review them, or have a little bit of a buffer in case life happens and you get behind.

Are you decent with technology?

Every law school uses a different platform to host their online courses, and some are easier to navigate than others. Every online course I have participated in (either as a student or a professor) has given at least some training on how to use the platform. However, it is important that you are somewhat comfortable using technology in general before you sign up for an online class. If the entire experience of online learning is new to you, you don’t want to complicate the situation further by not being able to figure out basic things, such as how to submit an assignment or how to respond on a discussion board. Plus, your professor in an online course will likely not be able to accept “I don’t know how to use this” as an excuse for late or missing assignments.

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I’ve had an overwhelmingly positive experience in the legal online learning community. In law school, I enjoyed the online courses that I took and appreciated how they fit into my schedule. Teaching online as a law professor, I like finding creative ways to connect with and serve my students. Overall, I think online courses in law school are an excellent addition to the traditional in-person classes. If you are interested in taking an online law school course, I encourage to you to do your research and then go for it!

Kerriann Stout is a millennial law school professor and founder of Vinco (a bar exam coaching company) who is generationally trapped between her students and colleagues. Kerriann has helped hundreds of students survive law school and the bar exam with less stress and more confidence. She lives, works, and writes in the northeast. You can reach her by email at info@vincoprep.com.

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