About the Principles of Legal Research website

The development of the modules

The Principles of Legal Research online modules were first developed in the Summer of 2009 as a joint project between the librarians at the Brian Dickson Law Library and the Faculty of Common Law (English) at the University of Ottawa. For a number of years, librarians at the Law Library have been actively involved in the development and delivery of mandatory legal research courses that all students in their first year of law school (both Common Law and Civil Law) must take. However, in recent years, this task has become increasingly challenging, as student enrolment has increased but faculty numbers have stayed static.

The Library and the Faculty thus approached the University of Ottawa's Centre for University Teaching (CUT) to request a grant to help fund the development of a unique mix of blended learning and learning community strategies in legal research. In Summer 2009, this grant was approved, and the Principles of Legal Research online modules were conceived as one part of this hybrid learning model.

A full-time student was hired to develop and write the content for 4 modules: Search Strategies, Keywords and Boolean Logic; Secondary Sources; Case Citations; and Ontario Legislation. These modules were housed in the University's course management system, Blackboard. Over the course of the 2009-10 academic year and throughout Summer 2010, a couple of students were hired on a part-time basis to continue work on the modules, with 9 modules in total eventually being developed.

The goals of the modules are as follows:

  1. Free up class time for legal research strategies;
  2. Increase student-instructor interaction;
  3. Increase feedback and self-assessment;
  4. Accelerate theory-to-practice transfer of knowledge;
  5. Support first-year seminar professors; and,
  6. Reinforce students' capacity to self-teach new areas and sub-topics required in legal profession.

In a field such as legal research, which tends to be taught separately from substantive law courses, we have found that theory and course content are more effectively taught through Web-based practice activities, leaving maximum time for active learning activities during the limited classroom time. Students can return to modules when desired, or even learn about a particular aspect of legal research before it has been taught in the course, allowing them flexibility and a certain level of control over their studies.

Principles of Legal Research online modules timeline

January 2009
Librarians at the Brian Dickson Law Library enter into discussions with the Curriculum Committee of the Faculty of Common Law (English) regarding the unsustainability of the rapidly-expanding legal research program.
April 2009
Grant application submitted to Centre for University Teaching.
May 2009
Grant approved for one year of funding.
June-August 2009
First-year law student hired to work full-time on the development of 4 written modules on the following aspects of the legal research process: Search Strategies, Keywords and Boolean Logic; Secondary Sources; Case Citations; and Ontario Legislation. These modules are housed in the University's course management system, Blackboard.
September-December 2009
Legal research courses in English and French Common Law are taught according to a hybrid model wherein students are taught some of the materials by the librarians in class time, and must learn about the other materials in their own time, using the modules.
March-August 2010
Two students hired on a part-time basis to continue development of modules. Ultimately, 9 modules are created.
September 2010-April 2011
Legal research courses in English and French Common Law are taught, using the online modules in part, on an extended basis over the entire academic school year (rather than for one semester, as in previous years).
February 2011-present
The Law Library works with the University of Ottawa's E-Learning Centre to move the modules out of Blackboard and into a more accessible, open access version.