The National Institute for Trial Advocacy

The National Institute for Trial Advocacy uses Mediasite for flipped instruction, lecture capture. The National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) is a provider of learning-by-doing, hands-on education for the legal profession. Its team of expert professors, judges and practicing lawyers train and mentor lawyers to be competent and ethical advocates of justice through 300 courses annually for continuing legal education credits and accreditation. However due to time, budget or location restraints, some attorneys who want to attend are not always able to.

So last year NITA created an online program called “Deposition Skills: Online.” Instructors record their lectures via Mediasite in NITA’s studio71, and remote participants access a catalog of on-demand presentations to watch, in addition to participating in live classes via webcams. NITA also holds private classes for individual firms and uses Mediasite for flipped instruction, a model where faculty pre-record lectures for attorneys to watch before class so that class time can be dedicated to dynamic discussions about what they learned. In the first year NITA received over 6,000 views of its on-demand video content, and the online program is well received by participants and the continuing legal education industry. 

At a glance

• NITA is a provider of hands-on education for the legal profession with a team of expert professors, judges and practicing lawyers who train and mentor lawyers to be competent and ethical advocates of justice. 

• In 2011 NITA created an online program, “Deposition Skills: Online,” for lawyers unable to attend its courses due to time, budget or location restraints. 

• Instructors record lectures via Mediasite, and remote participants access a catalog of on-demand presentations to watch and participate in live classes via webcams. 

• NITA also uses Mediasite for flipped instruction during its private classes with individual firms. Faculty pre-record lectures prior to class for attorneys to watch so class is dedicated to dynamic discussions. 

• In the first year, NITA received over 6,000 views of its on-demand video content, and the online program continues to grow. 

Challenge

Pressure is mounting for attorneys to keep up with more and more information, and organizations like NITA are recognizing how important it is to create online content that can be reviewed on-demand. 

NITA holds about 300 one-day or multi-day courses annually for continuing legal education credits and accreditation. Its team of expert professors, judges and practicing lawyers train and mentor lawyers to be competent and ethical advocates of justice. 

However, due to time, location or budget restraints, lawyers who want to attend these courses sometimes aren’t able to, and miss out on the learning opportunities. To ensure that all lawyers could participate in classes, NITA sought to create an online learning component to its already successful and popular educational series.  

Solution

NITA turned to Mediasite by Sonic Foundry to create an online program called “Deposition Skills: Online” for attorneys unable to attend the courses in-person. The instructors record their lectures via Mediasite in NITA’s studio71, and remote participants access classes via a catalog of on-demand lectures. . They also take part in live classes via webcams. 

In addition to these courses, NITA has also incorporated Mediasite into its other series of private classes for individual firms. It uses Mediasite for flipped instruction, a model where faculty pre-record lectures for attorneys to watch before class. That way, class time can be dedicated to hands-on learning, workshops and dynamic discussions and interactions about what they learned. 

“Mediasite is easy to use and anyone can do this. You don’t have to be a film school graduate to be able to operate the platform,” said Wendy Velez, NITA’s Associate Executive Director of Operations. “We can track analytics and see who watched what, which is important for the state accreditation boards.”

Results

The “Deposition Skills Online” program is well received by both the participants and the continuing legal education industry. The Association for Continuing Legal Education named it the best in the programming category for 2012. Plus, in NITA’s first year of online programming, its on-demand Mediasite content has received more than 6,000 views. 

Velez said NITA encourages its faculty to use the on-demand Mediasite presentations for the online courses in their in-person classrooms, too, as supplemental material. 

“Our volunteer educators are giving lectures all around the U.S., and our goal is to increase our distance learning capabilities to include even more online programming on different topics,” Velez said. “Mediasite for me means innovation. It gives us the freedom to try new things and reach more attorneys nationwide. Our online program via Mediasite will only get bigger from here, and we’re looking forward to experimenting with more online courses and webcast series in 2013.”

About National Institute for Trial Advocacy

www.nita.org

The National Institute for Trial Advocacy is the nation’s leading provider of legal advocacy skills training. This nonprofit is based in Boulder, Colo. and pioneered the legal skills learning-by-doing methodology over 40 years ago. It’s since remained the ultimate standard in continuing legal education.