Two BYU law professors are capitalizing on technology to change the way students study law.

After "wrestling" for five years with trying to improve the way students apply negotiating, interviewing and counseling theory, professors Gerald Williams and Larry Farmer created their digital-recording answer.

"It's one thing to know theoretically how to approach a difficult situation," Williams said. "It is another thing entirely to have the skills that would let you do it in the heat of the moment."

Using the idea of the deliberate practice method, a training method used for athletes and musicians, Williams and Farmer combined Web cameras and new software so students could digitally record their exercises.

The digital video is then available for evaluation by the students, professors, even what Farmer calls "virtual reviewers," or adjunct faculty from Texas, Calif. and around Utah.

"The implementation of the deliberate practice method requires a substantial amount of technological support," Farmer said. "Every stage in the process requires technology."

Since laptops are a requirement at the J. Reuben Clark Law School, Williams and Farmer realized they could use that already-available technology, Williams said. Using a grant from the Center for Institutional Design at BYU, they purchased 44 Web cameras and began developing new software.

The software, called Performance Analysis Tool, allows reviewers to pause the video at any moment to add written comments or critiques under specific headings like body language.

Jason Knapp, 24, from Salem, Ore., a recent law school graduate, began using the Web cameras in Williams' negotiating classes.

"I can't imagine a football team not watching their performance," he said. "It's taken decades longer for law schools to catch on that you learn better when you can watch yourself. ... It seems so obvious looking back, but no one ever thought of it before."

The Web cameras and Performance Analysis Tool software are so innovative that faculty from other law schools have visited the campus, and both Farmer and Williams have presented the concept at conferences and workshops.

"It's an area of instruction that's very challenging," Farmer said. "Any improvements or advancements are typically well-received. There's been a lot of enthusiasm."

Before Farmer and Williams introduced the Web camera concept, students were required to complete 20-45 minute exercises, then analyze and review them solely from memory. Often, performance feedback was incomplete because students could only analyze what they remembered, Williams said.

"For our use, to have digital video and be able to use it [in critiquing], has moved what can be done educationally into another domain," he said.

The results of the past year's application have been positive.

"Students immediately become more serious about what they are doing," he said. "I saw a significant increment in preparation, more serious and focused effort during the exercises and much better evaluations afterward.

chodge@byu.net

Copyright Brigham Young University 23 Jun 2006