Shawn Boyne, School of Law
Principal Investigator: Shawn Boyne, professor, co-chair Global Leadership Forum, School of Law
Project Title: Mixing Law & Technological Concepts: Developing an Online Cybercrime Course
Funding Level: $5,000
Abstract:
In the current job market, demand for experts in criminal law has remained strong. The law school places dozens of students in a criminal justice positions annually. However, the skills need to succeed in the fastest growing sector of market are changing. Increasingly, familiarity with computing technologies, cyber-security, and computer forensics, are prerequisites to employment. By developing an online course in Comparative Cybercrime, the law school seeks to address this gap and provide both day and evening students with an interdisciplinary, online course that will combine key knowledge of legal concepts as well as hands on training in technological developments. For the past two years, the law school has offered a seminar course in cybercrime. Due to instructor and guest speaker limitations, the course has not been offered to part-time students. Teaching a course that captures changing developments in the law and technological skill presents a pedagogical challenge. Because law students possess different levels of experience with technology, a traditional lecture format serves only the median students. To effectively students who possess different levels of familiarity with more complex technological concepts to combine lectures, self-paced online computer exercises, as well as practical lawyering exercises. Finally, while it is often difficult to bring outside lecturers into the classroom, by using an online format, a guest lecture may be prerecorded and supplemented with an online chat sessions. This tiered learning structure allows students to engage in an active learning process that tests their comprehension level on an ongoing basis.
