Online Law Schools Have Yet to Pass the Bar

It has been common knowledge in Higher Ed for some time that the big worry if online schools are permitted it will cut into the profits of the traditional programs - this feigned concern over the "quality of education" is pretext for protecting the economic interests of these schools, and the law firms hiring the graduates from these programs.

As for the quality of the programs I can only speak to my personal involvement - I have completed both face-to-face instruction as well as online education in several areas of study. The Concord program is _very good_ - however I wouldn't recommend it unless you go into it understanding the limitations on your career due to ABA rules. The only people I've ever heard knock the Concord program were people who believed they could go back and practice law in another state outside of CA and quickly realized that for the most part (with a few case-specific exceptions) is not really possible.

Another common complaint I hear from judges, attorneys, and law professors who have no experience outside of traditional in-class instruction is on-line education "lacks interaction" and lacks "the interactivity that you would have in the classroom." This is total nonsense. In my own experience with on-line law school the challenge is to limit the amount of time you spend interacting with classmates. You an blow a lot of time on study sessions and working groups - it is fun and you meet a lot of people - but this really has to controlled and sometimes you just have to say you are sorry and you need those 2 hours to work civil procedure (or whatever) on your own. I found the traditional classroom much more isolating and I didn't get involved with any of the other students when attending in-person classes. During my undergraduate education I lived on campus and had a lot of interaction (sometimes to the determent of my grades) but this was in the dorms, not the classroom.

Zack Rice of IA 3:49PM May 19, 2013