"e-CLE": Tennessee Attorneys Have Tried It and They Like It

by David N. Shearon, Esq.
Executive Director

Tennessee Commission on Continuing Legal Education and Specialization

After three years of "testing" distance-learning for CLE (or e-CLE as one Tennessee attorney dubbed it), the Tennessee Commission on CLE and Specialization must now make a recommendation to our Supreme Court for a permanent program.

In preparation for that recommendation, I took advantage of the capabilities of our new computer system to conduct an e-mail survey (an e-survey?). I e-mailed 450 attorneys who had taken a distance-learning course since the program was approved in late 1996. In 24 hours, I had 201 responses, including 15 pages of single-spaced comments! Here’s what I learned from those responses.

" Overwhelming" is too weak a word to describe the response of these attorneys to the question of whether we should keep distance learning credits: 200 to1 in favor of keeping the credits. 95% said the educational value of their e-CLE experiences were "the same" or "better" than traditional CLE programs they had attended.

An analysis of the 102 comments received showed that

• 41 suggested that e-CLE allowed them to learn more,
• 27 specifically mentioned the importance of interactivity in the e-CLE experience,
• 40 pointed out the convenience of this type of learning experience,
• 11 mentioned economy, and
• 19 contained generalized positive statements.

These elements are, of course, related. Convenience can allow attorneys to take CLE in an area more substantively related to her practice. It can mean engaging in CLE at a time when they are less distracted by the need to be at the office. Economy can mean participating in an e-CLE with national experts that the attorney would not have been able to hear in person. Here are some comments that highlight these points: 

• "The programs I participated in last year were of a very high quality. They were more educational than the typical CLE program because they required "audience participation." Other benefits include convenience and cost (hard cost and time away from the office)."
• "On-line courses give me much greater flexibility and have more content than the courses where speakers tell a few jokes, then a few war stories, and then get off track because of a question."
• "The online program in which I participated (I took a CLE course which provided lots of explanations and examples) was great in several respects. I could choose a time convenient for me; I could pause the program in the event an emergency had to be addressed; and I received feedback on whether I had learned what the program was trying to teach me. I have recommended to other attorneys that they take advantage of the online offerings and will continue to do so."
• "Being able to satisfy CLE requirements at night, during weekends and during other non-business hours is very beneficial to me since it is often the only time that I have available for CLE. Also, I would prefer to participate in a distance learning seminar on a topic that I am interested in rather than attend an in-person seminar on a topic in which I have no interest."

As I read these responses, my knowledge of what some of the sponsors of these programs had done kicked in. It became clear that those sponsors who had thought carefully about the nature of the medium (telephone, internet, etc.) and worked hard to create programs that leveraged the strengths and minimized the weaknesses of that medium elicited the highest praise from participants. Especially important were factors such as interactivity and learner control. One telephone sponsor has gained positive reviews by calling on participants to respond to questions during the seminar. One of our leaders in on-line courses has gained similar positives by focusing on text-based programs that work well at 28.8 and involve the lawyer both through a "programmed-learning" type of branching path through the material, by on-line testing, and by providing significant amounts of on-line resources and materials.

We should keep e-CLE in Tennessee, encourage sponsors to focus on the type of medium-specific programming that elicits the highest attorney praise, and increase the maximum hours per year for this type of programming to six.