Syllabus Interdisciplinary Research Workshop for Law School Students Spring 2018 Goals
This workshop offers a systematic approach to finding information in today’s inter-disciplinary digital environment, focusing on the complex relationship between research and technology. It is an introduction to the multiple facets of legal research, which often requires familiarity with research beyond finding statutes, cases, and administrative rules and regulations. We will touch upon factual investigation, literature research, and of course, ways to manage all this information, whether you work alone on a project or as a team member.
Both the teaching and the practice of legal research are undergoing massive changes because of the explosion of technological developments. As a result, legal research is a completely different endeavor than it was just a couple of years ago, and it quite often depends on inter-disciplinary research. “What are the stats?” “What is the quantitative method you used to reach this results?” are just mere examples of the complexities of today’s research.
Objectives
Among the objectives for this workshop, which will be developed through class lectures and discussions, research exercises, and source evaluations, are:
- to learn the bibliographic and research characteristics of the specialized legal research tools and sources
- to develop effective research techniques and strategies
- to identify and compare available media options when performing interdisciplinary research
- to make appropriate media choices for different research situations
- to understand research within the context of the wider world of research
Description:
Each workshop session is designed to teach the student a specific research task and familiarize them with specific research strategies. At the end of each session the student should feel confident in using the approach taught. In order to achieve this goal, the tasks of each workshop will be detailed on this blog, so the students can attempt to research the hypothetical in advance of the workshop. To achieve “flipping the classroom”, the Prezi presentation will present the research plan, while the attached PowerPoint will walk you through the databases involved. During the workshop, the students will be introduced to the day’s hypo, given 5 minutes to analyze it on their own, then, a brief presentation of the resources will follow and an in-depth discussion of the best way of finding the answer to the question presented. The focus of each class is to achieve correct results using the most efficient research method, given the access students have to Columbia University databases.
We will meet in JGH – Room 646, which is located on the 6th floor in Jerome Green Hall -the Law School building – Thursdays from 12:10 – 1:10 PM.
- Students need to bring their own laptop to perform the research.
- This workshop will last 7 weeks (7one-hour sessions).
- It starts on January 18 and it will end on March 1.