Let’s Use Video to Reinvent Law Firm Education

Do you know what a MOOC is?  If not, you probably will soon, as they are quickly gaining popularity in the world of education.  A MOOC is a massive open online course, in which universities are putting content online for anyone with an Internet connection to attend for free.  One of the early pioneers of the online course concept was Salman Khan, who left his job as a hedge fund analyst to create Khan Academy.  He has posted more than 4000 video tutorials, watched around the world.  Here is a great talk that he gave at TED about his academy.

How is this relevant to law firms?  In an environment in which clients are complaining that Associates are unprepared to practice, videos offer an untapped opportunity to offer ubiquitous, on-demand access to short vignettes on how to perform common legal tasks.  When an Associate needs to know how to draft a particular motion, for example, he/she can jump online and see a quick video on how your law firm does it.

Subjects can be offered by the attorneys who know them best.  As Khan points out, “If Newton had done a YouTube video on calculus, I wouldn’t have to.”  Furthermore, as opposed to classroom training, the student can pause a lesson, repeat what’s valuable, and skip what’s not.

Firms are increasingly considering Learning Management Systems for more than just CLE tracking.  This is an important first step, as an LMS enables you to make videos searchable, add them to learning plans, recommend them to peers, and track their usage and popularity.  Here we have the nexus between training and knowledge management, which is a good thing, because they are both about better equipping attorneys to serve their clients.