Attached is the brief information sheet that I have prepared to give an overview of the program. The biggest breakthrough was realising that rather than placing students out in workplaces, we could create our own work environments and bring the outside partners in. It is amazing how many people are keen to get involved with uni students, but lack the resources to take them in as volunteers or placement students. If we flip the relationship we can take advantage of university resources and create a better place for everyone to work together.
Of course the internet helps. We have discovered a marvellous free project management system called Wiggio. I'll post more on its virtues later, but it has saved us a lot of time and money and is a simple and versatile tool for getting everyone working together. It's fab.
I will post updates on how it all progresses. The biggest challenge is organisation. Too many extra-curicular projects are limited to a handful of students because they are just too hard to grow to any size. I'm hoping that if we get the foundations right, we can deliver to a substantial number of students across the year levels, so that students will develop their own peer support and mentoring relationships.
Oh course it is much easier to teach in subjects of 12 weeks lectures and tutorials. By the end of the year that comfort zone will probably begin to look a whole lot more appealing...
What is Connected Law?
The Connected Law projects at Victoria Law School provide a service which brings together teams of students with partners in the community and the legal profession to work on law and justice research projects. Connected Law links students into the information community and provides real research project experience.
Feedback from the community and the profession suggests that many organisations would welcome the opportunity to work with students but do not have the resources to supervise volunteers and interns on-site. Connected Law uses the learning spaces and resources located at the Victoria Law School premises in the CBD legal district, supervised by academic staff. Students, community partners and staff remain connected through our specially designed project management and team networking software.
Some examples of projects include:
l An annotated compilation of legal research materials (authorities and articles) on a specific issue, accessing the resources of the VU library.
l Helping to prepare a submission to a commission of inquiry or law reform commission
l Creation of community information fact sheets on socio-legal issues
l Policy implementation and evaluation, such as compliance with new regulatory changes
Benefits for Community Partners
Connected Law research is completely free, save for resources that partners may want to contribute, such as sending a staff member to have face-to-face meetings with student teams, or to give a progress update advice on a project.
Regular partners also have the chance to work several times with specific students over the course of their degree program, building a long term relationship which may carry on into the graduate's professional life. Our students have a broad range of skills, many of the Victoria Law School students are combined degree students or graduate entry students who have previous degrees. We can also connect projects with other practical study programs of the university, for example drawing on IT or professional writing skills where these are useful for a project.
Types of partners:
l Community legal centres
l Government departments and public authorities
l Public organisations and NGOs
l Law firms and corporations
l Academic researchers
Benefits for students
Students gain experience of real world research, policy and knowledge creation. Project work is a valuable element for graduate professional portfolios. Students may also wish to gain credit for Victoria University's practical, Learning in the Workplace and Community program. Student teams will involve participants across the year levels allowing peer mentoring and skill sharing.
How are these projects managed?
Community partners define projects appropriate for a group of 10-15 students and submit a request using the Connected Law project management system. We endeavour to assign a group of students with an appropriate mix of skills and experience.
Timelines of projects will generally conform to the semester model of the university (approximately 12 weeks), which includes a summer semester. These timelines are flexibly managed by the Connected Law software, planning around peak student exam and assignment time. Partners can expect a time commitment of around 100 hours from students, which roughly corresponds to one day per week for the duration of a semester.
Where students are using this project work for course credit, all assessment will be handled by the university without requiring a commitment from partners. Students will of course welcome feedback and advice from members of partner organisations as mentors.
For more information contact Dr Scott Beattie, Victoria Law School Teaching and Learning Coordinator, scott.beattie@vu.edu.au
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