Moving From Teaching to Learning: The Use of the Online Quiz in an Academic Legal Research Skills Programme

Abstract

This presentation provides an overview of the development and use of an online quiz as part of the University of Canterbury’s Legal Research Skills teaching programme.

Each year around 500 students enrol in the 100 level Legal Systems paper at the University of Canterbury’s School of Law and the Library teaches them some very basic legal research skills as part of the tutorial programme. After attending a librarian-taught legal research skills class, the students are tested on their knowledge by completing quiz that is handed in and marked by the Information Librarians. This year for the first time, we have replaced this paper-based quiz with one that is completed online through our electronic teaching platform, Moodle. We were hoping that the online quiz would have better learning outcomes for the students and that it would lessen our workload by removing the hours spent marking. These rather conservative aims were fulfilled and in addition some unexpected benefits resulted.

The presentation will cover: the background and history of UC’s legal research skills programme; why we moved to an online quiz what learning outcomes we are seeking; the limitations of the software and implications for quiz design; a demonstration of the quiz; how it was received and used by the students; and, future plans for this kind of learning.