Goin’ Back to CALI

CALI, short for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction, has been providing online interactive lessons and tutorials on a variety of legal subjects since 1983.  But this summer, while students and faculty have been away, CALI has been giving itself a significant makeover.

When students and faculty return for the fall semester, they might notice that the CALI Lesson viewer has changed.  The new viewer has a cleaner look and is noticeably less – retro – shall we say.  Updates to CALI also include smartphone/tablet compatibility, so students can run the lessons just about anywhere.   Here’s how the new lesson viewer looks:

Additionally, for faculty, CALI has added some new features to help with integrating CALI lessons into courses. For one, CALI lessons are now coordinated with specific casebooks, including many of the leading casebooks in 1L subjects such as Contracts, Torts, Property and Civil Procedure.  See if your casebook is included here.

Additional features for faculty include a full preview of each CALI lesson on a single webpage and a new LessonsLink feature that lets you create a unique URL that tracks your students’ usage of assigned lessons. To read more about the faculty updates in CALI, click here.

If students would like to learn more about CALI, you can read more at CALI’s website – or you can visit the Reference Desk in the library for more information.  At pre-orientation, each new student was given an online login for CALI as well as a DVD that contains all of the CALI lessons so you can run them on your laptop even if you don’t have an internet connection.  Don’t worry if you can’t find your CALI password or DVD.  Come by the Reference Desk – we have plenty more.

~Lyn Batty~

More Reference Team Fun…

Fall 2011 will witness the launch of a new Library Research Instruction component to CSL’s Lawyering Process (“LP”) program. The Reference department has risen to the new challenges facing CSL in accommodating a large entering class. The Reference department has opted to forego traditional face to face instruction formats for new innovative electronic based learning formats that build on CSL’s emphasis on practice ready skills.

To achieve this purpose, the Reference team is currently creating a series of online demonstrations of legal research concepts and further enhancing the Library’s TWEN page with these online research tutorials. Expect to see plenty LP students in the library this fall as they mill about in the collection looking for the correct resources to complete the Research Exercise that has been chosen for them by members of the Reference team in conjunction with the LP faculty. Rather than remain isolated in the classroom, LP students will find themselves embroiled in adventure in the stacks.

Wish them good luck and feel free to lend them a helping hand by pointing them to the nearest Reference Librarian!

~Leanna Fitzgerald~