Affordable Content in Legal Education

Abstract

Law schools can assist their students by adopting more affordable content in courses while continuing to meet pedagogical goals. The first section of this article summarizes the affordable content movement underway at colleges and universities across the country. The next section discusses recent research on the impact of material format—print versus digital—on student performance and learning, which is a particularly relevant issue given that many options for affordable content rely on digital resources. Because law school learning outcomes depend heavily on critical legal reading skills, the third section explores the distinctive nature of law school reading and the complex critical reading skills required for success in legal education. Next is a discussion on affordable content options for law schools, followed by a section addressing ways in which law librarians can promote and support the implementation of these options. The article concludes by providing recommendations for future research and by encouraging law school administrators, faculty members, and librarians to explore and adopt affordable content options when possible.

Keywords: Affordable Course Content, Legal Education, Open Access Casebooks, Digital Casebooks, Legal Reading, Law Libraries